6 Degrees is a recommendation service for travellers to discover the places and experiences that people in their network treasure the most.

The service was realised as a smartphone app.

Overview

The app relies on the premise that everyone is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world. By that rule, a user’s social network becomes a huge gateway to access all travel recommendations, making for a larger menu to feast on. 6 Degrees was largely inspired by a key insight — that is, unexpected and random travelling experiences enrich people’s lives and provide rich material for storytelling. Moreover, people are interested in taking travel advice from friends of friends when they know how they are connected.

Onboarding and Content Creation

The content for the service is created in an innovative way by having users curate the best experiences, adventures and gems their hometowns have to offer before they can start using the service themselves. This not only creates a low-barrier for entry but also allows all users to be active contributors and content-makers by telling their unique stories.

Recommendations

When travelling, users get to see a number of recommendations that their Facebook friends or friends of friends have curated. Rather than getting the recommendation first, the app provides two random “locals” to choose from at a given time. The connection between locals and the user can be to varying degrees, yet it is always possible to see the linking friend in between.

 

Ratings

The app is continuously enriched by having people rate different aspects of their experiences once they complete a journey. As journeys progress, the service creates artefacts by visualising one’s experience through social network connections.

 

 

Process

The process of development included a week-long user research and ideation – interviews followed by synthesising findings, creating personas, making journey maps and storyboards, culminating in a video prototype.

 

Credits

I did this project with Chelsey Wickmark, Gunes Kantaroglu and Håvard Lundberg.