In-trip activity planning and purchasing is increasingly being seen as an important target opportunity for Expedia's Things to Do line of business. More and more travelers are shopping for activities during their trip, often on mobile devices, and purchasing spontaneously. Lots of research has been done on pre-trip planning and shopping, however, we wanted to better understand how people are looking for things to do while they are on their trip.

Unfortunately, most travelers wouldn't welcome a researcher tagging along on the family vacation, so we had to find another way to learn about their activity planning and shopping behavior. Therefore, a diary study seemed to be the best research method. I decided to try a relatively new tool for remote qualitative research, dScout.

I began by talking with key internal stakeholders: product managers and designers, to identify key questions. Next, I created a set of research questions that I would set out to answer through this study, as well as a participant screener. Then I came up with a research plan including a set of three dScout missions which would help answer the identified questions. The next step was setting up the missions in dScout, selecting participants, and scheduling the pre-trip remote interview.

The study consisted of a pre and post-trip remote interview, along with three in-trip dScout misssions for the participants to complete:

1. Document the process of deciding to go on an activity and the planning, logistics, booking and redemption related to that activity
2. Document an instance where they used a map of any kind. We asked what they were looking for, what map they used, and how they used it, and asked them to post screenshots of their process.
3. Create an inventory of all apps and websites they used throughout their trip, and how they used them.

Once I selected the participants using dScout's screening tool, I began the pre-trip interviews and inviting participants to the missions.

Through this study, we were able to gain a better insight into how travelers plan and book activities while they are on their trip, bolstering our previous understanding of pre-trip planning. We learned that as far as activities go, most travelers create a short-list of activities before they travel, but prefer to wait until the day before or day-of to book, making their decision based on factors such as weather, family disposition, and what they feel like doing that day.

The information we learned helped us fill out the in-trip portion of our activity traveler journey map, a tool we use to help show user flows and pain points throughout the travel process.

Through this project, I became familiar with a new tool for remote research, dScout. I also gained more experience with running a diary study, and designing dScout "missions". I built on my past experiences of running a diary study for John Deere.