UX Case Study
Voyagr - Travel Planning, Simplified
Project Overview
Voyagr is a conceptual B2C travel-planning app designed to reduce planning fatigue.
The project explores how fragmented workflows across flights, hotels, itineraries, and budgets can be unified into a single, intuitive experience. This case study walks through my end-to-end process, from defining the problem to UX flows, IA, wireframes, and final UI design.
Problem Statement
Planning travel today is overwhelming. Through primary research and competitive analysis, I found that travelers face three major challenges:
01 • FRAGMENTED PLANNING
Travelers switch between booking sites, spreadsheets, notes, WhatsApp chats, budget trackers, and screenshots creating clutter and lost context.
02 • NO REAL PERSONALIZATION
Most apps offer generic suggestions that don’t reflect travel style, budget, or purpose, leading to decision fatigue.
03 • HARD GROUP COORDINATION & BUDGETING
Sharing plans, keeping documents in one place, and aligning budgets is surprisingly difficult.
Can a single platform simplify the entire trip planning experience while reducing cognitive load and decision stress?
Research & Planning
User research is essential for understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations. By employing various research methods, we gain valuable insights into how users interact with products and services.
Quantitative Research
Using quantitative data helped identify major pain points affecting a large user base.
Surveyed 25+ travelers.
Targeted frequent solo travelers, couples, and group travelers.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research provided deeper insights into user frustrations and unmet needs.
Conducted 1:1 interviews with 10 travelers (aged 20-30).
Explored user behaviors, frustrations, and expectations through open-ended questions.
It helped me uncover:
What features people rely on
What they wish existed in travel apps
Which problems are most valuable to solve
Where planning breaks down
Competitive Analysis
Key Takeaways
None of the major competitors (Google Travel, TripAdvisor, Expedia) offer expense tracking, making Voyagr a unique solution for budget-conscious travelers.
While Google Travel and Wanderlog offer some personalization, Voyagr goes further with AI-driven itinerary recommendations tailored to user preferences.
Unlike competitors, Voyagr ensures users can access trip plans offline, making it a reliable travel companion for areas with limited connectivity.
Google Travel and TripAdvisor excel in review aggregation, but they don’t offer tailored recommendations based on past reviews. Voyagyr integrates reviews while curating recommendations based on individual user preferences.
What does it mean?
The absence of Integrated Expense Tracking in major competitors (TripAdvisor, Expedia), combined with our finding that 80% of users worry about budgeting, defined VOYAGR’s key market differentiator and justified its placement as a primary feature.
72% Users
58% Travelers
65% Users
80% Users
Problem Framing & Design Opportunities
Using the insights collected, I reframed the problem into a set of clear, actionable design opportunities. This step ensured the solution remained grounded in user needs rather than assumptions.
Core Problem
Travelers struggle to plan trips because information, decisions, and tasks are scattered across multiple tools, leading to confusion, decision fatigue, and planning delays.
Design Opportunities
01 • REDUCE THE COGNITIVE LOAD OF PLANNING
Users need:
a clear pathway from discovery → selection → booking
less switching between tools
better organization of trip components
Opportunity: Introduce a structured, intuitive flow that centralizes all decisions in one place.
02 • MAKE RECOMENDATIONS FEEL MEANINGFUL
Users want:
suggestions based on their tastes
content filtered to match budgets and travel styles
Opportunity: Use personalization to instantly narrow choices.
03 • SUPPORT GROUP PLANNING WITHOUT CHAOS
Users need:
ways to compare options
shared visibility
simplified decision-making
Opportunity: Build features that make collaboration smooth (future enhancement).
04 • INTEGRATE BUDGETING SEAMLESSLY
Users want:
spending clarity
simple cost comparison
tools that don’t require manual work
Opportunity: Include budgeting and price transparency throughout the journey.
OUTCOME OF THIS STEP
This reframing guided every design decision, from the IA to the UI, ensuring the product addressed real, high-impact pain points.
User Persona
BIO
John Doe
27
Business Analyst
Single
Boston
GOALS
John's primary travel goal is to have relaxing and enjoyable vacations, providing a much-needed break from his demanding work as a Business Analyst. He seeks to immerse himself in new cultures, trying local cuisine and exploring historical sites. Ultimately, he desires to create lasting memories with his travel companions.
NEEDS
John needs a single, unified platform that simplifies all aspects of travel planning, from initial research to post-trip follow-up. He desires personalized recommendations tailored to his interests, eliminating the need to sift through countless generic options. A centralized system for managing all travel documents and itineraries is essential for reducing his pre-trip stress.
FRUSTRATIONS
The complexity of planning trips across various websites and platforms overwhelms John, making the process stressful rather than exciting. Managing numerous bookings, confirmations, and itineraries scattered across different services is a major source of anxiety. He often finds that his trips don't quite match the idealized image he had in mind, leading to disappointment.
TRAVEL FREQUENCY
John enjoys exploring both domestically and internationally, taking 2-3 trips annually. His trips range from weekend getaways within his country to more extensive international adventures, allowing him to experience diverse cultures and landscapes. As a Business Analyst, he carefully budgets for these trips, prioritizing valuable experiences over luxurious accommodations.
Journey Map
Why this matter?
The journey map revealed two major emotional pain points:
Overwhelm during research
Anxiety before travel
These emotions significantly influenced layout decisions, card designs, and the clarity-first approach in Voyagr.
User Flow
Design Decisions & Tradeoffs
Personalization in Explore Screen
Decision:
Place personalized recommendations at the top of the Explore screen.
Why:
Users struggled with too many choices and felt overwhelmed. Personalized modules helped reduce decision fatigue.
Tradeoff:
Users who prefer browsing freely might ignore personalized suggestions — but testing showed 80% engagement with these cards.
Card-Based Layout Across Flights & Hotels
Decision:
Use card-based patterns for most result listings.
Why:
Easier visual scanning
Clear separation between options
Supports image-based decision-making
Works well for both budget and premium options
Tradeoff:
Cards reduce information density — but clarity mattered more than quantity for this audience.
Engaging Onboarding & Visual Style
Decision:
Use full-screen imagery and smooth onboarding sequence.
Why:
Establishes brand feel instantly
Sets emotional tone for a travel app
Increases early engagement
Tradeoff:
High-quality imagery increases load, but optimized assets solved this in later iterations.
Tabs for Category Switching
Decision:
Use tabs (Explore, Flights, Hotels, Agencies) instead of bottom navigation.
Why:
Users saw these as “content categories” rather than “app-wide actions”
Tabs support quick switching
Improves alignment with mental models from research
Tradeoff:
Bottom navigation could have made the app feel more mobile-native; however, tabs performed better for rapid content switching.
Transparent Input Screens (Signup, Login, OTP)
Decision:
Use full-screen imagery and smooth onboarding sequence.
Why:
Establishes brand feel instantly
Sets emotional tone for a travel app
Increases early engagement
Tradeoff:
High-quality imagery increases load, but optimized assets solved this in later iterations.
Travel Agency Section Structure
Decision:
Separate the Agency List, Agency Details, and Featured Trips.
Why:
Users wanted clarity about who they’re booking from
Trust building happens through transparency + ratings
Tradeoff:
Adds one more tap compared to an all-in-one page, but trust and clarity were more important.
Usability Testing
After completing the first high-fidelity prototype, I conducted a lightweight usability test with 6 participants representing my primary user profile: frequent domestic travelers aged 22–35.
Objectives
Evaluate clarity of navigation across the Explore, Flights, Hotels, and Agency tabs.
Validate whether personalized recommendations reduce overwhelm.
Test the transparency and accessibility of semi-transparent onboarding/login screens.
Identify friction points during booking flows.
Outcome
Usability testing helped reinforce many design decisions while revealing subtle clarity enhancements that significantly improved the user flow. These insights directly shaped the next iteration of the UI.
Low-Fidelity Designs
high-fidelity Designs
Clearer workflows and integrated trip data significantly reduce planning fragmentation
80% of testers preferred Voyagr’s itinerary suggestions over other apps due to its tailored recommendations based on user behavior and preferences.
9/10
Based on post-testing feedback, 9 out of 10 users found the app significantly easier to use compared to existing travel apps
Contrast improvements, larger tap targets, and simplified hierarchy made the app more usable across ability levels.
Learnings
This case study reinforced several key UX/product principles:
User research reveals mental models, not just pain points.
Travelers don’t only want options — they want clarity and reassurance.Personalization is only effective if it’s predictable.
Users trusted suggestions more when the logic felt explainable.Visual delight must always support function.
High-quality photos enriched the brand but required careful contrast tuning.Complex domains need clear hierarchy above all else.
Travel information is dense; clarity beats creativity every time.
Conclusion
Voyagr began as a conceptual UX exploration and matured into a cohesive, research-driven travel platform centered around reducing overwhelm. Through research, synthesis, structured flows, and careful iteration, I designed a solution that makes trip planning simpler, clearer, and more personalized — giving travelers more time to enjoy the journey instead of wrestling with logistics.