Explored User Needs for GoogleFi Customers Traveling Abroad

Role: UX Researcher (INFO 214 UX Research)

Duration: January 2023 to May 2023

Skills: Competitive Analysis, Affinity Mapping, User Interviews

Google Fi provides telecommunication services for calls, SMS, Wifi, cellular networks, as well as affordable unlimited domestic and international data in over 200+ destinations.

Travelers are core to Google Fi’s business. Our team was specifically interested in understanding the types of customers in the US who use domestic cell phone plans while traveling abroad.

We created 4 personas: The Study Abroad Student, The Recurring Canadian Visitor, The Frequent Traveler, and the Occasional Traveler based on our key insights from user interviews, diary studies, and secondary research.

Fun fact: Our research team was invited to present our findings at the Google office in San Francisco, CA.

Research Questions

  1. How are domestic carrier customers addressing their travel needs and what are methods they use to stay digitally connected abroad?

  2. Define the types of common issues that users encounter with the connectivity methods they chose abroad

  3. Identify common archetypes or reasons why customers travel for long periods of time

  4. What types of service, plans, or price points are competitors offering and why users prefer them?

Screener survey

Recruiting participants for screener survey on LinkedIn

Methods Used

We conducted 3 types of research: User Interviews, Diary Studies, and Competitive Analysis. We recruited participants using a screener survey and shared it on Slack, LinkedIn, and other platforms.

Affinity Mapping

After our team conducted 6 user interviews and 2 diary studies, we began affinity mapping to identify key insights.

Key Insights

Here are the key insight that we discovered from the various research methods.

1) Travel Pattern

2) Connectivity

3) Connectivity Features

4) Ease of Use

Product Recommendations

Based on the key insights discovered, we recommended 4 product recommendations.

Reflections

This was our final project for INFO 214 UX Research with Professor Steve Fadden. This project also included secondary research, thorough competitive analysis and mapping personas to a suitable connectivity method but I decided to focus on the product recommendations that we made for our client team. I really enjoyed transforming research insights into practical product changes to help both our client and their users.