Co-creating meaningful experiences with WeTravel : a design game for travel planning
Salonen, Katariina (2017)
Salonen, Katariina
Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017121922009
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017121922009
Tiivistelmä
This Master’s thesis discusses how design games can facilitate customers’ co-creation of value, goal and expectation management, and help them build shared visions of the future. The objective of this thesis was to create a meaningful travel planning experience that focuses on the why and how of leisure tourism. The development project was implemented with a Finnish mobile app development company Uneni mobile, whose goal was to create an application that serves their target group.
This thesis consists of a theory section and an empirical section. The theoretical section discusses leisure tourism, value emergence, goal and expectation management, facilitation, design games, co-creation and customer engagement. The empirical part focuses on deciphering what customers find valuable when travelling with other people, and what kind of goals and expectations they have of leisure tourism to help build meaningful content for the design game.
The study was based on qualitative research methods. Data were collected by conducting five semi-structured in-depth interviews about people’s experiences of travel planning and travelling with friends. The interviews were conducted in September 2017. The data from the interviews were analysed abductively, using categories built by concept driven coding. Based on the insights from the literature review and interviews, a prototype of a travel planning design game was made. The prototype was tested in September 2017 and received positive feedback.
The results from the interviews showed that people do build their own service experiences when it comes to leisure tourism, by using multiple service providers. People’s expectations and goals regarding the trip were influenced by the people they were taking the trip with and the purpose of the trip, more than their own individual goals or expectations. The value from the travel experience comes mostly from expecting and planning the trip, and during travel the value is co-created with the other travellers. However, other people were mostly influential in people’s value destruction but the negative effects were downsized by the cost of a good travel experience: making compromises and understanding each other.
The design game, WeTravel, was built based on literature review, insights from the interviews and feedback received from the prototyping session. The game includes three steps, where people get to build their own holiday persona, define their holiday goals and manage causes for conflict through scenarios. WeTravel works as a tool for facilitating customer value co-creation, as well as a tool for gaining deeper understanding on customer’s lives in their own context.
This thesis consists of a theory section and an empirical section. The theoretical section discusses leisure tourism, value emergence, goal and expectation management, facilitation, design games, co-creation and customer engagement. The empirical part focuses on deciphering what customers find valuable when travelling with other people, and what kind of goals and expectations they have of leisure tourism to help build meaningful content for the design game.
The study was based on qualitative research methods. Data were collected by conducting five semi-structured in-depth interviews about people’s experiences of travel planning and travelling with friends. The interviews were conducted in September 2017. The data from the interviews were analysed abductively, using categories built by concept driven coding. Based on the insights from the literature review and interviews, a prototype of a travel planning design game was made. The prototype was tested in September 2017 and received positive feedback.
The results from the interviews showed that people do build their own service experiences when it comes to leisure tourism, by using multiple service providers. People’s expectations and goals regarding the trip were influenced by the people they were taking the trip with and the purpose of the trip, more than their own individual goals or expectations. The value from the travel experience comes mostly from expecting and planning the trip, and during travel the value is co-created with the other travellers. However, other people were mostly influential in people’s value destruction but the negative effects were downsized by the cost of a good travel experience: making compromises and understanding each other.
The design game, WeTravel, was built based on literature review, insights from the interviews and feedback received from the prototyping session. The game includes three steps, where people get to build their own holiday persona, define their holiday goals and manage causes for conflict through scenarios. WeTravel works as a tool for facilitating customer value co-creation, as well as a tool for gaining deeper understanding on customer’s lives in their own context.