Timeline
Discipline
Problem Statement
Travelers face significant challenges in planning and organising their trips efficiently, due to the complex nature of managing multiple aspects of travel and lack of reliable resources, making planning a chore rather than an exciting part of the journey.
Research
Understanding the Brand & Goals
To transform travel planning from a chaotic task into a personalized, seamless, and enjoyable experience through intelligent assistance.
Core Goals:
Make trip planning feel like a conversation, not a chore
Provide real-time, flexible, and budget-friendly travel recommendations
Centralized trip planning: chat, itinerary, cost, preferences, all in one place
Target Users
Young Travelers (18–35): Want easy, budget-conscious planning
Groups: Need better coordination and shared planning
Anxious/First-Time Travelers: Want guidance and reassurance
Competitive Analysis
Google Travel: Great data, no personality
TripIt: Organized, not interactive
MakeMyTrip: Feature-rich, but cluttered
GuideGeek: AI-based, lacks emotional intelligence
Kayak: Good comparisons, no planning support
Key Findings
Planning feels chaotic with too many tabs
Budget is often ignored
Group planning is hard to manage
Bots lack emotional tone and miss key inputs
Fear of missing out leads to extra searching
Style guide
Adding trip members to the chat streamlines coordination by eliminating the extra steps like need to update, ask, and wait for their preferences and opinions.
This feature uses aware intelligence, to provide accurate & personalised recommendations based on your current location.
Taking into account essential factors such as personal interests, travel history, and individual concerns to deliver a highly tailored and enhanced user experience.
Curate an all-in-one itinerary with estimated daily costs eateries recommended for you, and options for feedback and itinerary adjustments.
Reflection
Key Takeaways
Users want more than just suggestions, they want real help tailored to them
Budget is a critical factor often missed by current tools
Emotional tone and trust matter, planning should feel exciting, not stressful
Group coordination needs to be built within the planning tool
A single platform that combines search, chat, and itinerary building is highly valued
What would I do differently?
Spend more time understanding group dynamics in planning
Test visual tone and chatbot personality earlier to better match user emotions
Integrate a smart budget calculator sooner
Include more real-world trip simulations during testing to find hidden friction points
Involve more diverse traveler types (e.g., solo travelers, older users) in research