TripPal: Travel Planning that is Stress-Free
Why explore responsive web design?
I realized this was a problem because...
Through my research and conversations with travelers, I realized people wanted travel planning to feel easy and organized. Instead, the current tools often left them stressed out. I wanted to design something that made trip planning feel like part of the adventure, not a chore.
How I identified this problem
Competitor analysis in summary
Sole designer · Mar 2025 — Apr 2025
PROBLEM
Most travel apps are either too rigid or too scattered, forcing users to juggle multiple platforms just to plan a single trip.
Travel planning doesn’t happen in one place, it starts at home and continues on the go. That’s why I decided to build TripPal as a responsive web design. Creating both mobile and desktop versions made sure users could explore nearby spots in real time or plan trips ahead of time, all in one tool.
I ran interviews to understand what avid travelers feel are their main concerns. I identified that these people are often overwhelmed by the amount of preparation needed. They often struggle to find places that are intriguing to them. Google isn’t always a reliable resource so they felt that they wish they could find places catered to their personal desires (niche coffee shops or small towns away from the hustle and bustle). Following my discussions with interview participants, a clear pattern emerged: users were frustrated by clutter, lack of personalization, and the need to juggle too many apps. These insights gave me the direction I needed.
I started with a SWOT analysis of competing travel apps. While some had useful features, most missed the mark on flexible itinerary building. For the SWOT analysis, I used Bumble BFF, TripIt, and Wanderlog. These are some of my key takeaways:
Monetization Risks
The SWOT analysis showed a heavy reliance on premium subscriptions across all three apps.
Users often default to free alternatives, making it harder to sustain growth without stronger differentiation.
AI as a Growth Driver
Across the board, AI stood out as the biggest opportunity — from smarter friendship matching to more adaptive travel planning.
Users consistently want tools that feel personal, reduce clutter, and adapt to their specific needs.
Positioning & Differentiation
Bumble BFF clearly dominates the social connection niche, while TripIt and Wanderlog overlap heavily in travel planning.
This overlap reveals an opening: the first to add stronger community features or seamless integrations could pull ahead.
Personification...of the users
Flowing with the user flow
Using my research, I created a persona named Nicole. She’s 25, loves to travel, but finds the planning part stressful. Nicole wants a simple way to discover new places and build itineraries without switching between apps. Designing with Nicole in mind kept me focused on building something flexible yet easy to use.
The user flow helped me understand what a potential user might need to be satisfied. Furthermore, designing the flow allowed me to evaluate how I might improve the user experience when planning for trips. One of the participants made a brilliant point...they would trust their own friends and/or family’s recommendations over random reviewers on Google. I implemented that into my flow as well.
Wireframe time!
After mapping out the user flow for key tasks like searching and comparing trips, I moved into low-fi wireframes. I sketched both mobile and desktop layouts, which helped me visualize how users would move through the experience. Even at this stage, I could see how responsive design was going to be essential.
Building on the preliminary designs
Taking the wireframes into high-fidelity was where the app really started to come alive. I designed the “Build Itinerary” feature, which allowed users to auto-generate a personalized trip plan. At this point, I also decided to remove the “Feed” page so the design felt more streamlined and focused.
Desktop!
Desktop!
Mobile!
Mobile!
Testing with potential users
Testing my mockups with users was eye-opening. They loved discovering nearby places and restaurant suggestions, but some features caused confusion. For example, icons weren’t always clear, and users weren’t sure how to add multiple places to one itinerary. One person even suggested adding reservations. I made changes by clarifying icons, adjusting the itinerary builder, and adding a simple setup step at the beginning to guide users.
Bringing it to life
The final prototype pulled everything together. It had a streamlined flow, clear interactions, and the personalized itinerary builder at its core. What started as sketches became a responsive app that made trip planning feel simple, intuitive, and fun...just the way it should be.
Legend
