Smart, Seamless, and Personalized Travel Planning

Overview

Planning a trip should be an exciting experience, not a stressful one. With Tripling, I aimed to create an intuitive and engaging travel planning app that streamlines the entire process—from flights and accommodations to activities and itineraries. Through user research such as surveys and interviews, I identified that many travelers struggle with managing trip details across multiple platforms. This insight drove the design of an app that simplifies the planning process and offers personalized recommendations for a seamless experience.

The design process focused on simplicity and clarity, ensuring users could easily organize their trip details in one place. Using wireframes and prototypes in Figma, I created an interface with features like curated recommendations, visual timelines, and dynamic itineraries. These elements were designed to reduce decision fatigue and make the planning process efficient while providing a visually appealing and organized experience. The final app empowers users to plan with ease and enjoy a smooth transition from planning to travel.

Research and Discovery

To understand user pain points, I conducted user interviews with 20 frequent travelers, which revealed several key insights. Many users struggled with managing multiple booking platforms and keeping track of their trip details, leading to confusion and frustration. Additionally, there was a strong demand for personalized recommendations, as travelers often found generic options overwhelming and misaligned with their preferences. Decision fatigue was also prevalent, with users feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of choices for flights, accommodations, and activities. These insights guided the development of Tripling, focusing on creating a centralized platform that simplifies trip planning through personalized suggestions, easy navigation, and efficient organization of all travel details in one place.

Problem Statement

"Users face challenges with fragmented trip planning, lacking personalized recommendations, nearby attraction suggestions, and seamless coordination with fellow travelers."

Ideation and Design Process

I began by creating rough sketches to quickly visualize the app’s layout and user flow. These early designs helped me explore different ideas for essential screens like the home page, itinerary, and recommendation sections, ensuring a simple, intuitive structure. The sketches allowed me to prioritize key features and set the foundation for refining the app’s design in later stages.

User Flow

Then I created the user flow from screen to screen through variety of user interactions with the app. Every click, tap and input went through a series of user acceptance testing and iterations involving changes to the flow for attain an experience that helped ensure intuitive use of the app, keeping in mind the goal to attain steepness of the learning curve.

Core Features

Based on user research and feedback, I identified and prioritized the following core features for Tripling: personalized trip recommendations, a centralized itinerary manager, easy flight and accommodation booking, visual timelines, and real-time updates. These features aim to simplify the trip planning process, enhance user engagement, and ensure a seamless, intuitive experience throughout the app.

Usability Testing Insights

To identify the app's usability issues, I facilitated usability testing with 5 participants, aged 20 to 35. This diverse group provided valuable feedback on the app's navigation, accessibility, and overall user experience. Their input helped pinpoint areas for improvement, such as navigation clarity, feature discoverability, and the intuitiveness of key functionalities, allowing me to refine the design and enhance the app’s overall usability.