Go-IKN!: Tourism Gateway for the New Capital City

Go-IKN is an innovative creation that supports the growth and sustainability of the tourism sector in the new capital city, East Kalimantan. It offers Tourist Attractions, Accommodation, Itinerary Planning, and Community Guides.

Role

PM & UX Designer

Platform

Mobile App

Team

3

01

Overview

My friends and I share a love for traveling and hold an excitement round the capital city relocation to Kalimantan. We discovered that Kalimantan is still relatively unexplored in terms of tourism. GO-IKN is designed to be the primary guide for travelers who want to explore the unique charm of Ibu Kota Negara (IKN) Nusantara.

GO-IKN is an innovative creation that supports the growth and sustainability of the tourism sector in the new capital city, East Kalimantan. With advanced and integrated features, GO-IKN is ready to be the primary guide for travelers who want to explore the unique charm of Ibu Kota Negara (IKN) Nusantara.

This app offers four main features: Tourist Attractions, Accommodation Options, Itinerary Planning, Guides & Community, all designed to enhance and simplify your travel experience.

02

Empathize

Research Methodology

"My team and I conducted research involving 5 individuals with different backgrounds, including travelers and native residents of East Kalimantan."

Research Objective

User Research Insights

"Kalimantan's natural wealth has a strong appeal for tourists... this attraction not only draws domestic tourists but also international visitors."

– East Kalimantan Tourism Department

"The increase in visits is very noticeable... Business owners also acknowledge a surge in demand and occupancy."

– Hetifah

"I have never come across an app or website related to Kalimantan tourism; I usually get information from friends or by reading on social media."

– Josephine (User)

User Personas

Indra Maulana
"The beach atmosphere when camping is amazing, with college friends. Forgetting the hubbub of the city and enjoying a moment close to friends."

Indra Maulana (20)

20 years old | Student at Mulawarman University | Samarinda

Highly organized, creates structured travel plans.

Goals & Needs
  • Ensure a smooth travel journey.
  • Facilitate transactions, especially for tickets.
  • Keep it simple and compact, without needing multiple apps.
Pain Points
  • "I often waste time on the road due to confusion."
  • "I have bad experienced the cancellation of lodging by the hotel."
Indra Yusharis
"I am very familiar with IKN Nusantara because I currently live in Balikpapan and see firsthand the development of the IKN Nusantara region."

Indra Yusharis

32 years old | HRD | Balikpapan

Actively observes IKN development.

Goals & Needs
  • To digitize tourism when IKN is the focus.
  • To make it easier to get tourist information.
  • To have a simple and user-friendly tourism app.
Pain Points
  • "The price of admission is often unclear, unless someone else has been there."
  • "Many tourist attractions are not connected to the app."

User Journey Map

STAGES
AWARENESS
CONSIDER
DECISION
TEST
LOYALTY
ACTIONS
Indra heard about the tourism app through friends and social media.
Indra considers applications that support the needs of traveling (ex: accommodation, tourist-related information).
Indra downloaded and explored the features in the app for his travel needs including accommodation.
Indra feels that this app fulfills travel planning for accommodation needs.
Indra consistently utilizes the accommodation feature in the application to travel at IKN because he always gets discount promos.
THOUGHTS
"Does this app suit my needs?"
"Does this app provide clear tourist information about IKN and its surroundings compared to similar apps?"
"Are there features that suit my needs when traveling in IKN and its surroundings?"
"How can I feel satisfied after planning my trip using the accommodation feature?"
"Can this app benefit and reward me and my friends?"
EMOTIONS
😃

"Interest"

😕

"Hesitate"

😌

"Hope"

🤨

"Confuse"

😍

"Happy"

PAIN POINTS
      • Have not found an application that is specialized for tourism in East Kalimantan and around IKN.
      • Only found applications with limited services.
Have trust issues related to information inequality in the application.
      • Difficulty in organizing travel plans.
      • Not getting complete information regarding existing features.
      • There is still a lack of integrated accommodation in IKN and its surroundings.
      • Concerns regarding expectations on the app and the reality.
      • Complicated payment.
Worried that the rewards given by the app are not as expected or not big enough.
OPPORTUNITIES
The application can provide clear and relevant information about tourist destinations around IKN and its surroundings, especially related to nature tourism.
      • Ensure that every information in the application can be accounted for and verified.
      • Offering community features to share information about travel.
      • Additional features that are more complete to get relevant information.
      • Requires integration such as a trip plan that can organize tour planning.
      • Collaboration with the tourism industry in IKN and surrounding areas.
      • Simplify tourism payments with more clarity.
Apps that offer a lot of promos have their own attraction for users to come back to use the app again.
03

Define

Analyze & Synthesize

I conduct to categorizing the information into demographics and engagement, we can clearly see how different users interact with travel applications and what their common behaviors are, which will inform the design and functionality of the travel app we are developing.

Demographics
Engagement
Name
Age
Gender
Job
Residence
Habits
App
User 1
Maria
Yosephin
22 y.o
Wanita
Student
Paser
Prepare budget and tools
Traveloka
User 2
Danang
Wijanto
20 y.o
Pria
Student
Samarinda
Prepare budget and tools
Traveloka, tiket.com,
booking.com
User 3
Harlita
Fatihah
32 y.o
Wanita
Employee
London
Prepare place and tools
Traveloka, Airbnb
User 4
Indra
Maulana
20 y.o
Pria
Student
Samarinda
Prepare budget and tools
Agoda
User 5
Indra
Yusharis
45 y.o
Pria
Employee
Balikpapan
Prepare time and tools
Traveloka

Then, we group them based on user problem preferences. There’re 3 categories : user preferences for tourism, user preferences for app feature, and user requirements transaction preferences.

USER PREFERENCE FOR APP FEATURES
Features of the Travel App in Use
Positive

Features on the application that are sufficient and helpful to achieve travel goals except tourism place feature

    • Accommodation Feature
    • Transportation and Tourism Feature
    • Accommodation Feature
    • Transportation, tourism Feature
    • Features tour tickets, transportation, accommodation, routes
Negative

Features in the application that have problems, hinder, and are considered less important

    • Read route does not match the app
    • Incomplete payment method
    • Accommodation cancellation from the app
    • When booking lodging, chaos occurs because the relevant parties are no longer involved with the app, causing users to pay twice.
Interface App
Positive

Features on the application that are sufficient and helpful to achieve travel goals

    • already fulfilled
    • Less complicated, easy to remember sequence, simpler, easier to use
Negative

Features in the application that have problems, hinder, and are considered less important

    • In the UI section, because the application users come from different ages. If the young people may be easy to understand but for the elderly it is a bit difficult so they have to make a display that can be digested by all people.
    • What's annoying is that during the payment process he is very piled up all the functions and buttons make confusion...
    • Sometimes there are too many buttons and they are not clear enough so you have to check repeatedly.
    • Display Ads are very annoying
Language Style
    • Although formal language style is fine as long as it is clear
    • It's okay not too formal
    • Already okay, easy to understand
    • It is appropriate as long as the writing is clear and easy to understand.
    • The language is formal but still casual, so you don't get bored with the content that is not very formal
Suggestions for Features Not Yet in the App
Tourist Services
    • There is a lot of natural tourism potential in Kalimantan but the processing must be improved such as tickets and directions.
    • Live report feature so that when there is a problem it can be handled immediately
    • It is necessary to create categories in tours such as education to museums. and there is a feature that can see the surroundings, like the prices offered along with the facilities, maybe it can also include promos.
Artificial Intelligent (AI)
    • Direction in navigation to the location can be maximized and integrated into the application in the form of voice to direct
    • AI that provides location-based recommendation features such as recommending good tourism around us
    • From AI, maybe from keywords, what kind of vacation we want, AI can know what we want and recommend to travel.
    • AI that provides travel recommendations according to budget, based on price range and available promos
    • If in tourism maybe the best activities to do or recommendations for the best food or tours around
Organizer
    • Organizer features such as creating a log plan or log diary so no need for additional apps (travel plans)
Community
    • To share with fellow travelers and get references from the results of sharing with other travelers
etc
    • Price range and promos presented because it helps visitors to adjust the budget. and see the possibility of promos that minimize the spending budget for visitors.
    • Wish the app had more varied payment methods
    • Redeem points for something
USER PREFERENCES FOR TOURISM
Travel Preferences
Nature tourism
    • Prefer nature tourism because it is more refreshing with friends / family or alone
    • If without children, prefer to travel to nature
    • Nature tourism, because I live in a city close to the beach
    • Prefer nature trips with friends
    • Nature tourism is an option for friends
etc.
    • Prefer kids friendly travel for family & children
    • Personally, I prefer modern things like movie theaters.
Travel Specialization
Interested
    • Interested but the management needs to be improved.
    • Interested
    • Very interested, and have also visited there
    • Interested in visiting IKN, in terms of job opportunities
    • Very interested especially since this is a very popular place
Less Interested
Habits When Traveling
Preparation
    • Prepare supplies, lodging and transportation
    • If far away, prepare transportation and consumption
    • Customize tourist attractions, certainly prepare supplies
    • Always organized from the start, already have a plan from start to finish
    • No special preparation, just conditioned, adjusting the place visited
On a Trip
    • Exploring tourist attractions more deeply
    • Follow the plan that has been made
    • Because there is more travel with children now, we pay more attention to our children when we travel, and we often take pictures.
USER REQUIREMENTS TRANSACTION PREFERENCES
Tour Guide Preferences
Online
    • Conditional, Using google maps
    • Usually use google maps
    • Conditional, using internet-based information
Offline
    • Conditionally, Using benchmarks on the streets
    • Never used a tour guide when traveling in Bali, but it's better to find information on your own if you use a tour guide then you have to follow the tour guide's schedule (tourist attractions, time) so it's not free
    • Using the signage on the road to the tourist attractions
Budget spending factors
    • Transportations, meals, and accommodations
    • Admission and Transportation
    • Entrance tickets, transportation, and meals
    • Depending on the place you want to go, it's usually bigger at the accommodation.
    • Meals and accommodations (if in nature (camping) then no need for accommodation)
Price
    • Depending on the day and place visited if alone around 600-1 million
    • Transportation costs a lot depending on the distance of the tourist location, as well as the number of people who participate (purchase of entrance tickets)
    • Depends on the distance of the tour
    • Depending on the place you want to go, it's usually bigger at the inn, maybe 10-30jt.
    • If for a few days at least 1 million, if rich camping nyiapin money 500rb but used only 200 thousand
Metode transaksi
    • Cash, Debit, m-banking and e-wallet (Gopay)
    • Cash
    • M-banking (BNI)
    • Transfer bank, or direct kartu debit
    • Cash and e-wallet
04

Ideate

Brainstorming solutions and structuring the application's flow and architecture.

Impact-Effort Matrix

High Impact, Low Effort

  • Tourist spot categorization feature
  • Simplify the payment interface so as not to confuse users in making payments
  • Create complete information in the tour and ticket booking features
  • Create a large selection of payment methods in the payment feature
  • Added organizer feature for travel logs
  • Notification and reminder features for each activity in the itinerary such as departure time, arrival time, and time to start the tour at a particular location.

Low Impact, Low Effort

  • Call Center feature

High Impact, High Effort

  • Track visitor density at tourist sites
  • Better rating, review, and recommendation features based on previous bookings
  • Popular tourist attractions recommendation feature
  • Added community features for sharing
  • Live chat feature among users
  • Addition of lodging accommodation features
  • Features to be able to chat/call with the guide and then schedule a meeting between the user and the guide.
  • The tour guide feature makes it easier for users to avoid confusion and get directions on new tourist attractions for their tour.

Low Impact, High Effort

  • -

Wireflow

GO-IKN
Home
Headline+Notifikasi
Pencarian
Daftar Layanan App
Prediksi cuaca
Rekomendasi Wisata Populer
Rekomendasi Hotel
Pesanan
Dalam Proses
E-tiket
Riwayat
Peta Wisata
Pencarian
Peta Wisata IKN
Informasi Wisata
Rekomendasi Akomodasi /Wisata Terdekat
Komunitas
Pencarian Komunitas
Grup Komunitas Terkait
Bergabung komunitas
Chat Grup/personal
Profil
Foto Profile
Edit Profile
Reward
05

UI Design

Developing the MVP features with final visual designs and interactions.

MVP Features

Registration

This is a high-fidelity design for the registration flow of the "GO-IKN" application. The design showcases the step-by-step process a user would go through to create an account. Users are prompted to enter their name, email, and password, then directed to a verification screen to enter a 6-digit code. Once verified, users are greeted with a success screen.

Registration Wireflow
Tourism (Home)

The user is greeted with a personalized message and options to search for destinations, guides, or travel plans. After selecting a destination, they are directed to a detailed page providing visitor count, operating hours, and user reviews. The payment page is straightforward, showing booking details. This aims to simplify the process of choosing a tourist spot.

Tourism/Home Wireflow
Tour Guide

Selection of tour guides: Users can choose from various tour guides and view their profiles and reviews before making a booking. Tour package details: Users can view details about various tour packages, including destinations and prices, and book tours directly through the app.

Tour Guide Wireflow
Community

Users start from the community home screen, where they can search and view the communities they are a part of. Before fully joining, the user is prompted to agree to the community's rules. Upon successfully joining, users can view posts, interact with other members, participate in discussions, share photos, and upload files.

Community Wireflow
Itinerary

The user begins on the travel plan overview screen to add a new travel plan by entering details like the trip name, destination, and dates. After adding the plan, they can enter the plan to add notes and details such as equipment, itinerary, and budget. The user can then create specific tasks within the travel plan, specifying the title, time, and location, and set reminders.

Itinerary Wireflow

While developing the high-fidelity user interface for the Go-IKN app, our team simultaneously focused on creating a comprehensive brand identity and design system. This was essential to ensure visual consistency and a unified user experience throughout the application.

Design System

Color

#000000
#237A59
#D4AF37

Typography

DM Sans
A a
06

Usability Testing & Iteration

Conducted Maze tests on 5 users, then modified UI layouts based on feedback.

Qualitative Feedback

Features Problems
Tourism -
Tour Guide In the guide list, there are only photos, names, and ratings. It would be helpful to add information or a brief description so that users don't have to keep going back and forth to find a suitable guide for their trip.
Organizer
  • After creating a new travel plan, it doesn't immediately go into the notes, making the process feel less efficient for users.
  • The button for notes is not highlighted enough.
  • The reminder section is not eye-catching.
Community The cards in the community recommendations section are quite thick, and the shadows are distracting.
Map -
etc There is inconsistent language usage, with a mix of Indonesian and English still present.

Quantitative Analysis

96

High Performance: Registration & Tourist Info

Users easily understood the login flow and how to search for destination details. The high score indicates the UI in this section is highly mature and intuitive.

Pain Points

Ticket Booking

Score: 68

Metrics: Longest duration (111.8s) and highest misclick rate (77.5%).

Users were likely confused during the ticket selection or payment process.

Guide Booking

Score: 61

Metrics: Lowest overall score. 20% Mission Unfinished.

This flow is quite complex or lacks clear instructions for the user.

Community

69.7% Misclick

Metrics: High misclick rate despite basic success.

Placement of the "Join" button or "Chat" feature might not be prominent enough.

Recommendations

Simplify Booking Form

Reduce steps or clarify navigation buttons during checkout for tickets and guides.

Visual Audit on Buttons

Evaluate if clickable elements are visually distinct to effectively reduce misclicks.

Quick Tutorial

Provide coach marks when users first try complex features like "Travel Notes".

Iteration 1: Simplify Itinerary Flow
Simplify Itinerary Flow Iteration

Streamlined the process of adding travel plans to notes to reduce friction and improve user efficiency.

Iteration 2: Visual Prominence
Before Iteration
Before Iteration - Reminder

The reminder section lacked emphasis, blending in with the rest of the interface.

After Iteration
After Iteration - Reminder

Added spacing and borders to the reminder section to make it more eye-catching and clear for the user.

07

Figma Prototype

08

Conclusion & Key Learnings

Building Go-IKN was a unique opportunity to design a dedicated travel and itinerary platform for Indonesia's future capital. By focusing on smart budgeting and structured scheduling, I transformed complex travel information into an engaging, user-friendly mobile experience.

Data Structuring

Organizing an entire trip's budgeting and itinerary taught me the importance of robust Information Architecture to save users time and cognitive load.

Clarity Through UI

Usability testing confirmed that visual hierarchy matters. Highlighting key actions—like saving reminders—creates a much smoother daily utility tool.

Engaging Aesthetics

Using vibrant, energetic colors like orange against clean, modern cards helps make planning exciting while maintaining a highly professional feel.