{"id":26583,"date":"2026-07-07T16:14:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/userlutions.com\/case-studies\/insight-guides-personas\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:55:34","slug":"insight-guides-personas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/userlutions.com\/en\/case-studies\/insight-guides-personas\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Study: Insight Guides"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Personas and UX design<\/div>\n\n\n\n

How insight guides discovered that its customers wanted to have breakfast with gorillas<\/h1>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
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UX services<\/h2>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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Focus groups<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Scribbles<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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In-depth interviews<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Prototype<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Online survey<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Personas<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The challenge<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Who is the target audience for the future travel portal?<\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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Are you working on a new digital business model<\/strong> and want to learn more about your target audience’s needs<\/strong>? When Insight Guides wanted to launch an innovative travel portal, they weren’t sure how best to identify the needs of their future users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the Insight Guides brand, the Apa Publications Group\u2014with offices in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Warsaw\u2014has been publishing travel guides since 1970. As digitalization continues to advance, competitive pressure in the publishing industry is also increasing dramatically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CEO Ren\u00e9 Frey therefore wanted to create a new type of online travel platform that is completely geared to the needs of users and offers tailor-made trips in the high-price segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what do the target groups expect<\/strong> from such a portal? We set out to find this out together with Userlutions\u2014 with surprising results.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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How it works<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Deriving personas through focus groups, in-depth interviews, and quantitative surveys<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For this project, we drew on the extensive repertoire of design thinking methods:<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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In-depth interviews<\/h4>\n\n\n
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The new travel portal is aimed at affluent travelers. Through in-depth interviews, we discovered how this target group travels and what matters to them when planning a trip. <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Focus groups<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
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In several focus groups, we gathered ideas for features and the design of the travel portal.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Online survey<\/h4>\n\n\n
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Based on the in-depth interviews and focus groups, we developed hypotheses regarding the target group\u2019s travel needs. We then verified these hypotheses through a large-scale quantitative survey. <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Persona creation<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
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Based on these findings, we were able to identify three personas. They describe the specific characteristics and needs of the key user groups<\/strong> and provide decision-making guidance for the travel portal. <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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UX design<\/h4>\n\n\n
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We created mockups for the homepage and the key features, which Insight Guides could then use to continue their work.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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Insights<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Differences in the desire for luxury and unique experiences<\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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The statistical analysis of the online survey showed that the target groups move along two dimensions: Luxury aspirations and the desire for unique experiences. Three personas were created from these results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brought to life: Larry Luxury, Monique Unique, Emily Family<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n