TripPal: Travel Planning that is Stress-Free
Mar 2025 — Apr 2025, Sole designer
Introduction
Travel is an adventure
Imagine you’ve just arrived in a new city—bags dropped, excitement buzzing, but no clue where to start. That’s where TripPal comes in.
Born from the spontaneous spirit of adventure, TripPal is your travel sidekick, guiding you to the best local spots around you—whether it's a hidden café, scenic trail, or quiet museum.
It also helps you build and adjust your itinerary on the go, working seamlessly across mobile and desktop. Whether you're planning ahead or exploring in the moment, TripPal keeps everything in one place.
The idea for TripPal began with a deep dive into user research and a SWOT analysis of existing travel apps. I found that many tools were either too rigid, too fragmented, or lacked real-time destination discovery. Competitors often left users juggling multiple platforms just to plan one trip.
Through conversations with travelers, a clear theme emerged—they wanted travel to feel easy, organized, and memorable. That insight became the foundation of TripPal: a single, flexible tool designed to simplify planning and make every trip feel like an adventure, not a chore.
Everyone love trip planning
Identifying the audience
Personifying the traveler
One step at a time
User research revealed a consistent pain point that was causing frustration and disrupting the user experience. To better understand how to address it, I analyzed similar products to see how they approached the issue. By identifying both what they did well and where they fell short, I discovered opportunities to improve. This guided my design direction and helped me craft a solution that directly tackled the problem while delivering a smoother, more thoughtful user experience.
After interviewing avid Instagram users, I used affinity mapping to organize the feedback and uncover key patterns. Common themes like frustration with feed clutter and a desire for more control stood out. These insights helped me shape clear user personas, giving me a focused understanding of who I was designing for and what they needed most.
Using insights from my affinity map, I created a user persona that brought everything into focus—Nicole, a 25-year-old traveler who loves exploring but finds trip planning overwhelming.
She wants a simple, flexible way to discover new places and build her itinerary without the stress of switching between apps. Defining Nicole helped me translate research into a clear design direction, showing exactly who I’m building TripPal for.
After developing user personas and research insights, I mapped out the user flow to define how users would move through key tasks like searching, comparing, and booking trips. This step was essential to ensure a smooth, intuitive experience across devices and served as the foundation for my responsive web design.
Legend
Time for the magic...almost
Mobile first, desktop second
Up next, desktop
After defining the user flow, I moved on to low-fidelity wireframes—the next step in bringing the experience to life. Since this was a responsive web design project, I created both desktop and mobile versions, which was a challenging but crucial part of ensuring usability across devices.
This stage brought user research to life—I designed features directly inspired by participant insights. Users can discover nearby places based on location and explore a dedicated "feed" page showing where their friends have been—a key suggestion from one user. The highlight is the “Build Itinerary” feature, which lets users select a place and auto-generate a personalized itinerary using smart, prefilled settings.
With the user flow in place, I moved into low-fidelity wireframes to map out core features and ensure a responsive layout for both desktop and mobile.
In the high-fidelity wireframes, I refined the visual design and interactions for a responsive trip planning app. Users can view nearby places based on their location and plan trips using the “Build Itinerary” feature. After usability testing, I removed the feed page to keep the experience focused and streamlined.
Revamping into higher-fi
Testing the initial mockups with users
Usability testing for TripPal showed that users enjoyed the clean design and loved discovering nearby places and restaurant suggestions. However, there was confusion around what the filters did, how to use the heart icon, and whether multiple places could be added to one itinerary. Some expected transportation info and more control over time spent at each stop. One user even suggested auto-reservations based on group size. Based on this feedback, I removed the “Feed” page and refined the itinerary builder to be clearer and more flexible for real-world planning.
After usability testing, I identified confusion around certain icons and interactions. I also received valuable feedback suggesting the need for more upfront questions before starting the itinerary. Based on this, I revised the design to clarify icons and added an initial setup step to better guide users through building their trip.
The final outcome
Personalization is key
Final prototype
A moment to reflect
The custom itinerary builder is the highlight of the project—it gives users a sense of ease and control, allowing them to quickly plan a trip without the stress of figuring out every detail. It streamlines the process, making trip planning feel manageable and personalized.
The final prototype brings together all the research and user feedback gathered throughout the process. It incorporates a streamlined flow, clearer interactions, and the custom itinerary builder—designed to make trip planning simple, intuitive, and personalized across both desktop and mobile.
Key learnings from this project included the importance of clear icons, guided user input, and streamlined functionality—especially in features like itinerary building. Usability testing was crucial in uncovering areas of confusion and opportunities for refinement. I learned that even small adjustments can significantly improve the user experience. As a designer, I’m always open to feedback and iteration—continually improving my work is core to how I approach thoughtful, user-centered design.
Build custom itinerary
Date(s) of your trip:
To
To
From
From
When do you want to start/end your day?
Do you prefer leisure or an activity-packed day?
Are you traveling solo or with a group?
Would you prefer a guided tour or independent exploration?
Select your preferred duration of the tour
04/23/25
8:00 AM
04/23/25
8:00 AM
Leisure
Solo
Guided
0-2 hours
Back-to-back activities
Group
Independent
3-5 hours
Explore
Create itinerary
Go
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