Effortless, Personalized Travel Planning with Roaming.
OVERVIEW.
I worked as an end-to-end product designer for a startup that developed an AI-powered itinerary app, focused on delivering a highly personalized and efficient planning experience. By conducting in-depth user research, I identified key gaps and frustrations in the existing market, ensuring the app would solve real pain points for travelers.
In my role, I was responsible for driving the end-to-end design process, from ideation to execution. I conducted extensive user research to identify pain points and opportunities for innovation in the current travel planning application on the market. Using these insights, I designed the app's core features and created a seamless interface with a personalized experience. I iterated on the design through continuous testing, ensuring that each user flow was optimized for both functionality and ease of use.
Role: UI/UX Designer
Year: 2024
DISCOVERY.
You’ve finally managed to carve out two weeks of annual leave after months of grueling work. You and your friends are planning an exciting getaway. But then reality hits—before you can relax, there’s a mountain of planning to tackle: researching destinations, creating an itinerary, coordinating with your friends, and booking flights and hotels. Suddenly, instead of feeling excited, the stress piles on.
PICTURE THIS:
User flow of how people used to plan an itinerary.
Scenarios.
Inspiration: They start on Instagram, saving pictures of cafés and landmarks.
Navigation: They switch to Google Maps to pin the saved locations.
Accommodation: They jump to Booking.com to find a hotel nearby.
Reviews: They toggle to TripAdvisor to read reviews of the cafés and landmarks.
Coordination: They message their travel partner on WhatsApp to confirm the day’s plans.
Notes: They open Google Docs to draft an itinerary but need to reopen Google Maps and TripAdvisor repeatedly to input accurate addresses and opening hours.
Mental Fatigue and Disrupted Flow:
Constantly switching between apps to handle separate tasks leads to a fragmented experience and disrupts the user’s planning flow. It’s likely that users forget important details or make mistakes when having to manually look up and copy/paste information.
Collaboration and Communication Bottlenecks:
Impact: The need to coordinate with a travel partner through a messaging app is an extra step in the process, which may result in miscommunications or delays, especially when constantly needing to update them with new information.
Impact:
The key result of these issues is lower user satisfaction due to inefficiency, frustration, and errors. Time is wasted switching between apps, manually merging data, and re-checking details that could easily be streamlined.
Result:
INTERVIEW INSIGHTS.
“
I need an itinerary that matches my specific interests but doesn’t take hours of research to put together. I’m looking for recommendations that go beyond tourist traps, but most apps only offer generic suggestions.
”
It’s so frustrating having to switch between Instagram for inspiration, Google Maps for locations, and my notes app to save everything. I always lose track of what I’ve done, and it feels like I’m wasting so much time just trying to stay organized.
“
”
PROBLEM #1.
Users waste time by switching between apps, making trip planning disorganized and hard to manage.
Unified Travel Platform.
SOLUTION.
Planning a trip can be super stressful because it requires jumping between apps—like checking Google Maps, saving spots on Instagram, and organizing everything in notes. This constant switching leads to information overload, wasted time, and decision fatigue. It’s frustrating, confusing, and makes the whole process feel disjointed, taking away from the fun of planning a trip.
When users find a place they like, they can easily share it with friends through the app and add it directly to their itinerary without switching to other tools. This keeps everything organized in one place and makes planning faster and more seamless.
When users explore a destination, they can click the share icon to easily share the location either within the app or with others outside the app.
After users share a place in the app, they can immediately add it to their itinerary for easy planning.
After users share a place, they can quickly add it to their itinerary by selecting the itinerary, date, and time. This step breaks the process into digestible chunks, making planning easier.
Users can easily distinguish different categories in the itinerary by color, such as meals, flights, hotels, etc., making it quick and simple to identify each type of activity at a glance.
PROBLEM #2.
How can itinerary planning be simplified to save users time?
AI Generate Plan.
SOLUTION.
The process starts by gathering key details from the user, such as travel dates, destination(s), budget, interests (e.g., adventure, relaxation, food), preferred types of accommodation, and specific activities they enjoy (e.g., museums, outdoor exploration, cultural events).and statement.
To provide a better solution, users must answer a few essential questions before interacting with RoamBot.
They can review the details before adding the entire plan to their itinerary.
Add the entire itinerary to the upcoming trip directly, with the option for users to modify it later if needed.
RoamBot generates the entire itinerary based on the information and preferences you provide. Items in different colors indicate those that were not generated by RoamBot but were provided by you.
The generated itinerary includes a map, suggests the best routes, and allows users to select their preferred mode of transportation, which can be adjusted at any time.
PROBLEM #3.
How can users quickly discover other places nearby when exploring an area?
Users can use RoamBot on the destination page to explore or generate information about the area.
SOLUTION.
Integrating a prominent and intuitive button for AI exploration directly into the browsing experience, users can seamlessly access curated recommendations without interrupting their workflow. This approach minimizes cognitive load and decision fatigue, enabling users to explore more efficiently and intuitively while enhancing their overall experience with the platform.
Add a button for users to explore destinations while browsing, allowing them to easily discover personalized recommendations and hidden gems based on their interests.
Users can provide RoamBot with a brief statement to explore and receive personalized suggestions, helping them gather ideas and inspiration for their trip based on their preferences and interests.
When the user clicks 'Add to Itinerary,' RoamBot will automatically add the selected destination at the optimal date and time based on the trip plan. Users can adjust it later if needed.
How to simplify the user flow while effectively meeting user needs?
CHALLENGE.
The challenge lies in balancing this complexity, as asking for too many details can overwhelm users. If the flow becomes too complicated, it risks confusing users and diminishing the app's usability. The goal is to integrate all functions in a way that makes the experience smooth and seamless, allowing users to input necessary details without feeling overwhelmed or frustrated.
ITERATION.
Feedback and testing help us continuously improve the user experience. By refining the design and making small, thoughtful changes, we can identify pain points, simplify complex tasks, break the process into digestible chunks, and ensure the app effectively meets user needs.
Before: 🤔
The plus icon may confuse users, as they cannot tell whether it is for creating an itinerary manually or generating one with AI.
After: 😎
Replace the plus icon with the RoamBot icon. This will make it clear where to access RoamBot.
Before: 😫
Users must input all information into RoamBot, which adds extra steps and creates additional effort if any critical details are missed.
After: 😎
Breaking the process into clear steps allows users to provide essential information upfront, streamlining their experience with RoamBot. This approach divides the process into manageable and diagnosable chunks, reducing lengthy input and making interactions more efficient.
Before: 🥲
Allowing users to select dates can lead to inconvenience, as it requires multiple clicks and adds unnecessary steps to the process, making the user experience less efficient.
After: 😎
With the update, users can just type in the date, making the process quicker and easier. Fewer steps mean a smoother, faster experience overall.
What I Learned.
From a UX design perspective, simplicity is key to ensuring a seamless user experience. Cognitive psychology shows that users can only hold a limited amount of information in their short-term memory at any given time—usually around 7 items. If an app asks users to remember too many steps or presents an overwhelming number of options, it can cause confusion and frustration. Therefore, streamlining the user flow and minimizing the number of actions needed to complete a task is essential. By focusing on clear, intuitive paths for tasks like exploring, talking with RoamBot, and navigating the app, I was able to reduce cognitive load, ensuring the app was not only functional but also easy to use. This approach improves usability and prevents users from feeling lost or overwhelmed, leading to a more satisfying experience.
DESIGN SYSTEM.
Typography.
Color Theme.
Iconography.
Splash Screen Animation.
Roaming
〰️
Roaming 〰️
🌎
Dream it
🌎 Dream it
The app kicks off with a vibrant, playful animation that feels fresh and fun, instantly drawing users in and creating an enjoyable first impression.
Icon.
This is how the app icon appears on the phone, designed to be sleek, distinctive, and easily recognizable on home screen.
Sign In.
Explore Destination.
Users can explore travel destinations and, on the destination detail page, use the AI generation feature to discover nearby locations or additional recommendations tailored to their trip.
Wishlist.
Users can save destinations to their wishlist and easily add them directly to their itinerary with just a tap.
My trips.
Users can view both upcoming and past trips, with the option to edit and share their upcoming travel plans with friends or fellow travelers.
Roaming simplifies booking as well. Flights, hotels, and activities can all be booked directly within the app, and every confirmation is automatically added to your itinerary. That means less time juggling tabs and emails, and more time looking forward to the trip.
Chat Time.
Collaboration is seamless, too. Inside the app, users can create a group chat with their friends, where everyone can share their must-visit spots and contribute directly to the itinerary. No more endless message threads or losing track of suggestions—it’s all in one place.
Chat with RoamBot to simplify travel planning and make organizing trips easier and more efficient, all powered by AI.
Profile.
All settings, support options, and booking history can be easily accessed from the profile page.