Mobile App Design & Development
Refreshed & Modern App Design
Bespoke Notification System
Promoting Optional Extras
Brief
Zoocha has worked with Topdeck Travel as a digital partner since 2018. This longstanding relationship recently extended to include the design and development of the new Topdeck Travel app through the new mobile app development arm of the Zoocha Group, Mobitronica.
The new app aims to provide Topdeck customers with an engaging in-trip experience, offering key information related to their trip and building excitement for the next step of their adventure. It also allows customers to settle their balance pre-departure, purchase additional experiences on the road & complete trip feedback surveys.
The scope of the project was to deliver an app in time for the 2024 peak travel season, which meant that we needed to mobilise rapidly and focus on an MVP delivery.
Discovery & Design
Discovery focused on defining the app experience through collaborative workshops and competitive analysis. The outputs of these activities generated the app map and overall content structure, which formed the foundation for the initial app lo-fi prototype.
Moving into the design phase, we needed to ensure that users felt a cohesive experience using the app and the Drupal website, but also ensure that the app reflected the unique Topdeck brand and felt distinct.
Atomic design principles guided our approach, allowing us to create a flexible design system that would work beyond MVP delivery. From the initial design concepts through to the final high fidelity prototype, close collaboration with both the Topdeck project team and the app development team was crucial for successful delivery.
Development
In terms of development, highlights include:
- Built using Flutter (our open-source framework of choice)
- Complex notification system, based on the departure date of the trips booked - for example, notifying customers when new information is available within the app
- Preventing customers from accessing the full app when payments were outstanding for an upcoming trip
- Integration with the Drupal website APIs to allow content such as trip itineraries to be kept up to date in real time
- Integration with several third party APIs such as Hero and Qualtrics
- Implementation of Azure Single Sign On across the Drupal website and mobile app to allow users to have a much smoother experience navigating between the two
- Customers able to update their personal information within the app
Central to the success of this project has been the longstanding partnership between Topdeck and Zoocha, allowing us to be open, agile and pragmatic at each stage of delivery in order to achieve the end goal.
The launch of the Topdeck app has also been met with industry acclaim through publication in travel media https://karryon.com.au/industry-news/other-technology/new-topdeck-app/, detailing the highlights and functionality of the user experience.
Testimonial
Topdeck TravelZoocha and Mobitronica showed an impressive grasp of our business requirements, our priorities, and the very tight delivery timescales. The project was run with impressive precision, and milestones were delivered on time and inline with expectations.
This wasn't always easy as the plan included the implementation of a new Azure-based SSo, but the team worked incredibly hard to make sure that the timelines were met and that challenges were overcome.
The result is a new forward-looking app which perfectly delivers what customers need pre and post departure, but with scope for future development and enhancement. We are now planning the future delivery of three further travel apps, again working with Mobitronica.