Company:
TravelBuddy
Year:
2024
Duration:
7 weeks
Role:
UI/UX Designer
TravelBuddy is a smart travel app that simplifies navigation, booking, and exploration with point-to-point directions, real-time translation, and an AI assistant. It helps users find routes, book tickets, and discover nearby attractions—ensuring a seamless, confident travel experience.
Problem:
Travelers to new places often face challenges like navigating unfamiliar areas, dealing with language barriers, and understanding local customs. They may struggle to find reliable transportation, safe accommodations, or nearby services, leading to confusion and stress during their journey.
solution:
My goal is to create an app that simplifies traveling to new places by offering seamless navigation, real-time language translation, and personalized recommendations for accommodations, transportation, and local services, ensuring a stress-free and enjoyable experience for every traveler.
process
This section highlights the full design journey — from understanding users to delivering the final UI. Each step shows how I approach problems and create solutions.
Step 1: Research & Define
1. Qualitative Research
Method: User Interviews
Interviewed 10 frequent travelersabout their daily travel routines, app usage, and challenges.Asked open-ended questions to uncover pain points in navigation, bookings, and local discovery.
Insights:
Users feel
overwhelmedjuggling multiple apps for directions, bookings, and recommendations.Frustrationarises when apps don’t provide real-time guidance or updates.Travelers expressed the
need for quick, reliable local recommendations.
2. Quantitative Research
Method: User Surveys
Surveyed 20 travelersto validate patterns and gather measurable data.
Key Findings:
38% struggle with navigation in unfamiliar cities.26% find managing multiple booking apps stressful.22% need curated local recommendations.14% face language barriers when traveling abroad.
This data helped prioritize features and guided the design focus toward navigation, booking, local discovery, and translation.
3. Market & Competitor Analysis
Objective: Understand existing solutions, strengths, and gaps.
Analyzed apps like
Google Maps, TripAdvisor, and Booking.com.Identified strengths: extensive maps, reliable reviews, and bookings.
Identified gaps: fragmented experiences, multiple apps needed, lack of integrated local insights.
Outcome:
Defined clear problem statements: fragmented tools, confusing navigation, limited local support, and language challenges.Determined priority areas for TravelBuddy: unified app experience, seamless booking, real-time translation, and curated local recommendations.
Step 2: Ideation & Strategy
1. User Personas
Created 2 primary personas:
Male Explorer – Travels alone, values efficiency and local experiences.
Group Planner – Travels with friends or family, prioritizes coordination and shared bookings.
2. User Journeys
Mapped typical flows for:
Booking transport and accommodations
Navigating unfamiliar cities
Discovering local attractions and services
Highlighted pain points along the journey, which helped identify where design interventions were most impactful.
3. Feature Prioritization
Based on research insights and user needs, prioritized core features:
Navigation – seamless, real-time directions
Booking – integrated transport and accommodation options
AI Assistant – personalized recommendations and travel support
Local Discovery – curated restaurants, attractions, and emergency services
4. Information Architecture
Organized app screens and features logically to create intuitive navigation.
Defined primary flows and screen hierarchy to minimize user friction.
3. Wireframing & Prototyping
User Flow
To ensure a seamless experience, I mapped out the end-to-end journey a traveler would take inside the app. The goal was to minimize friction, reduce decision fatigue, and help users reach their goals faster.
Key Flow: Route Planning & Itinerary Creation
Onboarding & Goal Setting – Users select their travel preferences (solo, group, budget, trip type).
Destination Search – A unified search bar allows users to explore destinations, routes, and attractions.
Route Planner – Users get optimized travel routes with options to customize stops, transport modes, and timings.
Itinerary Builder – Travelers can drag & drop activities into their day-by-day plan.
Save & Share – Plans can be saved for offline access and shared with friends or groups.
Feedback Loop – After trip completion, users can rate their experience, helping refine recommendations.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Sketched early wireframes
to map the core journey.Focused on structure, not visuals, to test usability quickly.Identified and
removed unnecessary stepsfor smoother flow.Clarified key decision points for user actions.
Enabled fast iteration based on testing feedback.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Translated sketches into clearer,
more detailed wireframes.Added layout structure,navigation, and interaction states.Tested flows with users to validate usability and clarity.
Refined hierarchy and screen transitions for smoother experience.
Balanced functionality with early visual consistency.
Visual Design
Applied
brand colors, typography, and iconography for consistency.Focused on clean layouts and strong visual hierarchy.
Ensured accessibilitywith readable contrast and intuitive patterns.Used consistent components to build trust and familiarity.
Balanced aesthetics with usability for a polished experience.
final design
Translated wireframes into
polished, interactive prototypes.Incorporated final visual design elements like color, typography, and icons.
Simulated real interactions to test end-to-end journeys.Validated flows with users for intuitiveness and satisfaction.
Result
Results
The Challenge: Travelers had to jump between multiple apps (maps, notes, booking tools), which made planning slow and stressful.
What I Did:
I designed a unified travel app experience where route planning, itineraries, and essentials were streamlined into one flow.
The Outcome:
Users planned routes
40% fasterthan with fragmented apps.90% of testers describedthe interface as “intuitive and confidence-inspiring.”Stress levels during planning noticeably reduced.
Takeaway
End-to-End Ownership:I handled research, ideation, wireframes, visual design, and testing.Iterative Approach:
Continuous testing and iterationimproved usability and satisfaction.User-Centric Design:
Every decision was guided by user needs and feedback.
Learnings
Owning the
full process was tough, but it made me better at managing projects end-to-end.Balancing ideas with user needs taught me that
user-first design always works best.Fixing prototype issues showed me the value of iterative testing for better results.
Looking ahead, I learned the importance of
designing with scalability in mind(e.g., AI itineraries, budget tracking, offline maps).