TripAdvisor Redesign: A Seamless Journey Inspired by the Wind
OVERVIEW - Once Upon a Time
The goal was to TripAdvisor to make travel planning easier and less stressful. The app helps users organize trips, book accommodations, reserve restaurants, and plan activities, all in one place. I want to create a design that helps travelers feel confident and saves time, even when plans change unexpectedly.
Role
UX Research UI Design Design System
Timeline
4 Months
PROBLEM -The Challenge & The Magic
Planning trips can be stressful because there’s limited time, unfamiliar locations, and many responsibilities to manage. Users often struggle with reviews, budgets, or simply deciding where to go next. Google Maps gives directions, but it doesn’t help users plan their full trip efficiently or deal with unexpected disruptions.
SOLUTION
TripAdvisor should create an experience that’s intuitive, flexible, and fun reducing stress while supporting exploration. Focusing on features like adaptive planning tools, a packing checklist, and the “Alternative Route” popup, which suggests backup routes in case of delays, traffic, or other interruptions.
Tools
Miro Figma
Team
Christina Samantha Ashley Shaneeka
TASKFLOW
Discover
Define
Ideate
Design & Development
Deliver
MY ROLE - The Guide
I designed the multi-destination route feature focusing on adding routes and looking at alternative routes for better time management and stress. Instead of using just google maps with only trains route it can be substituted with restaurants, hotels, places to go during the trips. I aim to reduce the clicks in or stops in travel and making planning intuitive. Unlike regular maps, it's user focus trip planning. The pop up makes it more convenient for decision making add stops in context. It doesn't disappear but is able to keep adding stops basically a quick window for overall stops. Pop-up design allowed users to view default and alternative routes, and add stops in a single step.
From business aspect it Increase in engagement and bookings because users can add more easily in the app. Solving pain points in an elegant yet simple way, creating meaningful human experience.
Conducted user interviews with 5 participants using 20 structured questions to uncover travel pain point.
Post it ideation and brainstorming sessions
Developed a primary user persona base on research and insights to align the prioritized feature and design direction
Iterated in the pop-up design so it eases adding more routes. (decision space)
Cross cultural and global collaboration and adapting behaviors in different timezones.
DISCOVER - Observing the World
Competitor analysis
Desk Research
What Do Travelers Need?
Reduce the stress of traveling in a time-sensitive environment
Make travel planning easy and intuitive for all users
Eliminate risk of outside interruptions ruining overall travel plans
Provide adaptive yet personalized solutions to potential travel issues
Provide flexible planning tools that use real-time, accurate data
Enable users to make the most informed travel decisions they possibly can
User Interviews
User Insights
Through interviews, I found that users care a lot about:
Reliable reviews and photos
Time management during trips with cars
Budget-friendly options
Discovering new experiences, especially food
Keeping travel documents and plans organized
Affinity Map
After gathering the data from interviews and survey, My group and I categorize the infromation into overlapping groups that users to understand user’s needs and wants.
DEFINE + IDEATE - Mapping the Journey
User Personas
Developed personas, representing Tripadvisor’s target audience, mostly people who have a job and travels for fun or for business and are in there 20s to 40s.
Empathy Map
A tool for collaboration so teams can obtain insights and deeper connections with their users.
Journey Map
I mapped users’ travel experiences from pre-vacation planning to post-trip reflections. Key pain points included deciding destinations, emotions, and handling unexpected disruption.
POv / Problem Statement / HMW
We utilized HMW strategy on each persona to ease the discussion of the app features.， With various how might we’s we finalize the best ones to solve user concerns.
Site Mapping
After many process of brainstorming sessions, we defined 4 main features to turn TripAdvisor into a all time traveling app to use.
DESIGN & DEVELOP - Crafting the Adventure
MVP / Features
After creating the map, we created a flow chart for the whole system, to make the structure more clear and organized in a way that provides the task on the interface.
DELIVER - Sharing the Experience
The Final Design
After creating high fidelity wireframes, we tested them out to a wide range of users from 20s to 50s and wrote notes on their feedbacks
Spending Predict
Design System - Building Consistency
We created a cohesive system across the app with:
Rounded typography for calm, approachable
Color palette that’s refreshing and gentle with blue
Layout grids for organized flow
Buttons, icons, and cards designed to be intuitive and consistent
My Takeaway from This Journey.
This project taught me how to manage a design process remotely while I was in China and how to ask the right questions to truly understand users’ needs. I learned how to create an stress-free, organized travel experience that helps users plan trips confidently, save time and enjoy every moment. Even within a small feature, I discovered how thoughtful design can make a big impact, turning something simple into something elegant, intuitive and genuinely useful. Working with my team reminded me how the best ideas often come from our everyday lives and how rewarding it feels to solve real user pain points creatively. I even met my teammate’s cat during one of our collaboration. This project will always stay with me because it made design feel personal, meaningful, and full of possibility.
