Quick Overview
Project Details
Role:
UX Researcher
UX/UI Designer
End-to-end design ownership.
Scope:
End-to-end UX (Research → Wireframing → UI Design)
Tools:
Figma, Google Form
Industry:
Travel & Tourism
Target Users:
Travel Enthusiasts (Mainly 23 - 38 age)
Travel Planners/Agencies
Travel Bloggers
Goal:
To simplify trip planning through AI-powered, mood-based destination discovery and itinerary suggestions.
Team:
Ashutosh Jha (Mentored from Kaarwan)
Problem
As per reports 58% of travelers feel overwhelmed by too many choices, and 71% feel anxious even after booking. Trip planning — something that should spark excitement — has become a stressful, time consuming & source of decision fatigue, with users juggling multiple apps.
Solution
Explore is a mobile travel planning app that replaces tab-switching chaos with a single platform to plan travel itinerary efficiently and easily. It suggests personalized itinerary, and allows planning together with tripmates and share travel updates with loved ones.
Impact
Usability testing across 10 participants achieved an 87% task completion rate for the core trip-planning flow. Planning time reduced noticeably between iterations, & 9 out of 10 participants felt it to be easier and were confident planning for a destination compared to their usual process.
60%
Scrolling through endless reels
Juggling multiple apps
Jump between review sites, travel blogs
Booking costly travel agents
Studying the existing market - Competitive Analysis
I tried understanding the existing ways of planning a trip. To plan an itinerary, the best thing to do would be -
Benchmarking
Decide all the places/activities as per your interest and time frame.
Categorize them day-wise depending on their location and distance.
Check availability and make necessary reservations.
The audit revealed a consistent pattern:
Booking vs Suggestions
The more an app focused on bookings, the less it helped with discovery.
Rarely a Community
Community features were rare.
No personalization
None of them were personalized or adapted to the user's mood, travel style, or context.
Juggling screens
No app connected all four into one coherent journey.
Asking the right Questions - Qualitative Analysis
I curated a set of questions to understand the pain points and requirements of my target audience by conducting direct interviews. Four core questions guided the conversations:
Analyzing the Survey report - Quantitative Analysis
I have surveyed around 50 people* and tried to cover a varied range of age groups. As per travel statistics, people in the age group 23-38 travel the most, hence they occupy the larger part of the survey. Depending on the response of the interview I formed the survey questions.
*NOTE: With a sample size of 50 (due to constraints of a solo project), these findings are early guiding insights rather than statistically conclusive. A larger, more diverse sample would be needed to validate these patterns at scale. However, since the findings aligned closely with the qualitative interview responses and the existing research datas, it suggests that the patterns are still genuine.
User personas based on research findings
Based on research findings, I developed two personas representing the primary user segments — a family traveller and a solo adventure seeker. These personas guided every design decision throughout the project.
About
Always busy with his work. Once every year, he takes time out for his family to go on a week-long trip. His daughter prefers zoos, museum, etc. and son likes adventure places. However, Nate just wishes for a relaxing trip.
Personality
Pain Points
Filtering out places that interest the whole family.
Too much time spent researching, he’s already a busy person.
Managing group expenses and travel documents.
Needs
Easy & quick filters to find places for mixed interests.
Budget tracking and group planning feature.
Document checklist and online booking in one place.
About
Loves to travel, trek, & explore new places. She is a designer in a MNC. Almost once every three months she goes for a workation. She is energetic and adventurous. She enjoys experiencing local culture, food, tradition, etc.
Personality
Pain Points
Has to visit many websites to research a single trip.
Hard to find authentic local information for remote areas.
Safety concerns when travelling alone.
Needs
All trip data in one platform.
Easy interface to plan itineraries on short notice.
Safety info. & emergency contacts at a click while traveling.
Empathy Mapping
To go beyond surface-level pain points, I built an empathy map for Kaira, to understand a real travel scenario of how a poorly planned itinerary can effect one.
Journey Mapping
I tried to map the journey of Kaira starting from planning of a trip till the completion of the trip.
Key Research Insights for design direction
Fragmented information
Users research across multiple sources for a single trip causing confusion hence a unified platform is the core need.
Time blindness
39% find time estimation for places difficult. This is often overlooked but can be a critical feature.
Safety gap
Solo travelers, especially women, have safety concerns that apps largely ignore. Related information can be added.
Group travel complexity
50% struggle to plan for groups with different interests hence collaboration is an essential feature.
Authenticity
Users want local, authentic recommendations, generic suggestions break trust.
data Flooding
Smart filters and personalization are essential to help users find places as per their preference and to reduce data dump.
Structuring the App around how users think - Site Map
Keeping in mind the user survey and their journey map, I have mapped out the full information architecture after a few iterations based on the feedback I got. First of all I identified the 3 distinct user types for the Explore app.
Discovers destinations, reads guides, and builds a personalized itinerary.
Authors who publishes guides for the community.
The current design scope focuses entirely on the Planner journey. The Creator & the admin flow, can be prioritized in Phase 2**.
Information architecture of the Planner
*NOTE: Although currently the main focus is on the Planner type user, here is some thought about the ‘Guide Author’ and ‘admin’ flow. Initially guides can be seeded through partnered travel bloggers, tourism experts, etc mirroring the cold-start approach. Later Planners or users can apply to become a creator. To maintain content quality and user trust admin can verify their authenticity to allow them access. This can further be monetized through affiliated bookings, premium guides, or creator subscriptions.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
First attempt at the basic flow of the screen.
Given solo project constraints, the prototype focuses the core planner journey.
Additionally Designed:
Destination Details and Guide Details, to demonstrate the full loop from discovery to planning.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Here’s the second attempt on correcting the user flow with slight changes based on the feedback I received on the low fidelity wireframes.
Visual Design System
I went for a bright warm color palette that implies adventure, energy, excitement. Where as the font nunito matches the theme of fun, friendly, and approachable. Nunito with moder, geometric poppins makes the perfect pair.
Testing and Iterations
After testing, observing, and receiving feedback the screens went through number of iterations to get to the final screen.
Home Screen
Destination details
Guide details
Trip Page
Start Planning Form
Trip Planning pages
Enjoy The complete Experience
User Challenges resolved through Design.
Unified planning
All trip information now in one platform, eliminating the app juggle identified in research.
Confident decisions
Mood-based filters, trip vibe selection, and personalized suggestions reduce choices solving decision fatigue.
Plans that actually get finished
Completion indicators and trip countdowns keep users oriented and motivated to return and finish planning.
Group coordination made easy
Trip invites, shared itinerary editing, and crew management built directly into the planning flow.
Verified authors & Guides
Verified author badges, reviews, and real travel guides replace generic recommendations that 68% of users distrusted.
Better time estimations
Time estimates, route optimization, and day-by-day planning prevent the anxiety of poorly timed itineraries.
Latest Trip Countdowns
Personalized Suggestion
Reflections
What I would Do Differently
diverse research participants
A wider range of ages, & travel behaviors would produce more robust, generalizable findings.
Test the group planning flow
It was the second most cited pain point, but testing focused on solo task completion as it was done in figma prototype.
Constraints & Gaps
Safety features not designed
Can be scoped for phase 2 with SOS tab, real-time location and solo traveler mode.
Scope deliberately focuses on the 'Planner' journey. Verified creator, affiliated bookings, premium guides, or creator subscription model scoped for Phase 2.
