Focus Group
We began our needs assessment by conducting a focus group with participants who match our target demographic - net savvy travelers who own PDAs and are comfortable using technology for travel research and purchases. The group discussed issues related to their current use of travel guides and ways in which print guides are inadequate for their planning needs. We also explored issues related to metadata needs in refining content. At the end of the exercise, we asked focus group participants to vote on the feature list they had created to get an idea of their priorities.

Interviews
We conducted interviews with three frequent travelers to get detailed information about their travel needs, especially in how those needs differ according to the style of travel they are using.

Cardsorting Exercise
We performed a card sorting exercise in order to confirm or deny our assumtions about term location in our interaction flow.

Competitive Analysis
We performed a competitive analysis of competing travel information sites and companies attempting to offer a personalized guide service. Among our competitors are Hungry Minds.com (Frommer's), Vindigo, Lonely Planet City Sync and BookTailor.com.

Audience Analysis
We performed a market analysis to determine the size of the PDA market, the size of the travel publishing industry and the likelihood of demand existing for customized, electronic travel guides. We also wanted to get more information about our potential users as a demographic group.