Planit
A travel planning app designed to provide real-time updates while seamlessly integrating social networking features.
Time
Oct 2023 – Dec 2023
Role
UX Researcher
Product Designer
Team
2 Designers
1 Project manager
3 Software Engineers
Tools
Figma
Figjam
Photoshop
Illustrator
Discipline
UX/UI Design
UX Research
Interaction Design
Design Systems
ready to discover this planet with planit? 🌎🤭
Introducing planit, the ultimate travel planning app designed to make your travel experience seamless and stress-free. In a world where trip planning can feel overwhelming due to endless information, we provide you with a solution that consolidates everything you need in one place. Whether you’re planning a vacation or organizing a business trip, planit offers real-time updates to ensure you stay informed on the go.
With features tailored for both leisure travelers and working professionals, our app helps you discover destinations, manage itineraries, and stay connected. Say goodbye to information overload and let planit be your reliable travel companion.
Overwhelming Information & Planning Needs: The vast amount of information online, from travel blogs to scattered reviews, makes it overwhelming for travelers to plan their trips efficiently.
Rise of Remote Work and Digital Nomads: More people are adopting remote work, allowing for greater flexibility in travel.
Adapting to Real-Time Situations: In today’s world, unforeseen events like weather changes, political instability, or health alerts can disrupt travel plans.
Information Overload & Dynamic Travel Challenges
In today’s world, planning a trip requires searching through a variety of sources like blogs, YouTube videos, and books just to find relevant destinations. This process leaves users navigating through scattered and often inconsistent information, making it difficult to plan efficiently. The overwhelming amount of content across different platforms creates confusion, leading travelers to spend more time organizing than enjoying their trips.
Additionally, most travel planning apps are tailored specifically to leisure travelers, overlooking the needs of workers and digital nomads. With the rise of remote work, professionals are looking for destinations that cater to both work and leisure, requiring access to information about coworking spaces, internet connectivity, and work-friendly environments. This gap in existing solutions highlights the need for an app that serves both travelers and workers, providing comprehensive resources for a balanced and flexible travel experience.
Lack of a centralization
The core problem is the overwhelming diversity of information sources for gathering travel details, necessitating users to manually compile notes on paper or in separate applications, while simultaneously consulting Google Maps. This fragmentation leads to a disorganized experience. Furthermore, existing travel apps tend to focus predominantly on tourist attractions, neglecting the wide array of travel experiences available. The variety of travel types—such as dining, shopping, and business trips—demonstrates the need for a more comprehensive approach to travel planning.
How can we enhance the planning a trip?
Design a comprehensive travel planning app that consolidates diverse information sources into a unified platform, allowing users to seamlessly gather and organize travel details in one place. The app must provide a holistic approach by catering not only to tourist attractions but also to various travel types, such as dining, shopping, and business trips. This solution should eliminate the need for manual compilation of notes and the use of separate applications, ensuring an organized and efficient travel planning experience.
Lack integration and diverse travel support
Most travel planning apps, such as Kayak and Tripadvisor, focus on booking and purchasing features like flights, hotels, and car rentals, while apps like TripIt and Roadtrippers excel at itinerary organization and route planning. However, these platforms primarily address logistical needs, leaving gaps in integrating diverse information sources and providing support for business travelers or remote workers. This creates an opportunity to develop a more user-centered app that offers seamless integration, personalized planning, and support for a broader range of travel types beyond traditional vacations.
How can we develop a platform that consolidates travel information from various sources, allows users to organize and save content, enhances collaboration through social sharing, and caters to diverse travel styles such as business trips, food tourism, and local experiences?
Quantitative Research
Survey Highlights (20 People)
After analyzing pre-existing apps, I conducted my own research. I started off with a survey to get quantitative data.
A significant solution for simplifying trip planning could be a tool that lets users research and compile all necessary trip details in one place. Since the research and compilation stages are typically the longest and most energy-consuming parts of planning, a unified tool would streamline this process. Users could gather information on accommodations, activities, and transport, then organize it directly into an itinerary. This approach would save time and reduce planning fatigue, ultimately allowing users to focus on enjoying their journey with ease and confidence.
Mobile App
Personalized Onboarding: Tailored Suggestions Just for You
Personalized onboarding enhances the user experience by tailoring the process to individual preferences and needs. It streamlines setup, offers relevant suggestions, and helps users feel understood, increasing engagement and satisfaction. This approach saves time and builds a stronger connection between the user and the product.
Centralized hub for quick access to personalized suggestions.
A centralized hub for quick access to personalized suggestions helps travel beginners easily organize and compare saved locations. It simplifies trip planning by offering tailored options in one place, making decisions faster and more convenient.
Seamlessly Plan Your Trip—No More Juggling Notes or Lists
By planning everything in one place, including even restaurants, you remove the need for excessive note-taking and manage all your trip details efficiently. This saves time and streamlines the process, allowing you to focus more on enjoying your travels rather than organizing scattered information. With everything at your fingertips, you can easily track locations and activities, making your trip-planning experience smoother and less stressful.
Collaborate seamlessly on trip planning with friends.
Sharing the planning process with friends enhances collaboration and makes organizing a trip more enjoyable. It allows everyone to contribute ideas, streamline decisions, and stay updated on progress in real-time. This feature fosters stronger social connections, ensures all voices are heard, and helps avoid miscommunication. By working together, users can create well-rounded itineraries that cater to everyone’s preferences, making the journey more inclusive and memorable. Additionally, it simplifies coordination and builds excitement as the group anticipates their shared adventure.
Discover Real-Time Local Events for Spontaneous Explorers
Discovering real-time local events helps spontaneous travelers stay engaged and make the most of their trips. It provides a quick and dynamic way to explore new places, ensuring you never miss out on exciting activities. Whether it’s a festival, a concert, or a street market, this feature enhances the travel experience by offering something fresh to enjoy, right when you need it. It also eliminates the stress of planning, letting users dive into the moment with ease and excitement.
Share Your Plans and Memories to Inspire Others
Sharing your travel plans and experiences not only allows you to connect with others who share similar interests but also helps build a community of like-minded individuals. This social connection opens up opportunities for collaboration and guidance, which is valuable for both spontaneous travelers and those planning their journeys. Additionally, it can serve as a new platform for travel businesses or guides to engage with potential clients, creating a mutually beneficial space for both individuals and businesses to interact.
Stay Consistent, No Matter the Device
This ensures seamless trip planning by allowing users to switch between their laptop, tablet, or mobile phone without losing progress. This flexibility is especially beneficial when multitasking—researching destinations on a desktop and updating plans on a phone while on the go. By syncing across devices, users can enjoy a unified planning experience, maintain accuracy, and make last-minute adjustments effortlessly, resulting in better organization and less stress throughout the travel planning process.
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Behind the Scenes: Early Concepts
The initial concept of Planit was designed as a 100% all-in-one platform, enabling travelers to plan their trips seamlessly, from discovering ideal destinations to making reservations. However, I realized the limitations of this approach as integrating features like booking accommodations required relying on APIs from other platforms such as Airbnb or Expedia. This insight highlighted the need to focus Planit on its strengths, like helping users discover and organize travel plans, while collaborating with existing services for broader functionality.
What I gained from this project
From this project, I could have learned the importance of testing prototypes across multiple devices to ensure seamless user experiences in diverse contexts. Additionally, I realized the challenges of conducting user testing for collaborative features like inviting friends. For future projects, I aim to explore better tools and methodologies for effective testing of complex, interactive features to gain actionable feedback and refine designs accordingly.