Trip Tip
Trip Tip
TIMELINE
8 WEEKS
ROLE:
PRODUCT DESIGN, USER RESEARCH
TEAM:
SOLO PROJECT
Trip Tip
TL;DR
TripTip is a personal project born from a simple insight: people trust travel recommendations from friends more than generic online reviews. I designed an MVP that let users request and organize trip tips from their networks, focusing on clarity, structure, and ease of use. Early versions were overdesigned, so I pared the product down to its core value, asking for and giving recommendations, and redesigned the experience around that.
This project reinforced the importance of prototyping with restraint, testing assumptions early, and designing for behavior, not just features.
TL;DR
TripTip is a personal project born from a simple insight: people trust travel recommendations from friends more than generic online reviews. I designed an MVP that let users request and organize trip tips from their networks, focusing on clarity, structure, and ease of use. Early versions were overdesigned, so I pared the product down to its core value, asking for and giving recommendations, and redesigned the experience around that.
This project reinforced the importance of prototyping with restraint, testing assumptions early, and designing for behavior, not just features.
Problem
The online review system is flawed. Despite the abundance of ratings, it’s still hard to know what and who you can trust. The 5-star model aims for objectivity but overlooks critical context: who is reviewing and why. Only about 1.5% of users leave reviews, making the data both sparse and skewed. Taste is personal, and a generic rating can’t reflect that nuance.
As someone who loves to travel, I feel this problem on a personal level. Often I would go to my friends to ask for travel advice. The issue then becomes a matter of organization, as these tips come in different formats (excel files, csv, Google docs) via different platforms (iMessage, Whatsapp, Instagram DMs). And as I conducted my research, I observed that many others share this same issue.
TripTip offers an alternative: ditching anonymous reviews in favor of trusted recommendations from your own network.
Problem
The online review system is flawed. Despite the abundance of ratings, it’s still hard to know what and who you can trust. The 5-star model aims for objectivity but overlooks critical context: who is reviewing and why. Only about 1.5% of users leave reviews, making the data both sparse and skewed. Taste is personal, and a generic rating can’t reflect that nuance.
As someone who loves to travel, I feel this problem on a personal level. Often I would go to my friends to ask for travel advice. The issue then becomes a matter of organization, as these tips come in different formats (excel files, csv, Google docs) via different platforms (iMessage, Whatsapp, Instagram DMs). And as I conducted my research, I observed that many others share this same issue.
TripTip offers an alternative: ditching anonymous reviews in favor of trusted recommendations from your own network.
Conducting Research
I conducted several weeks of guerrilla-style research to test a key hypothesis: that people are generous with travel tips and recommendations when it comes to helping friends, as long as they are prompted and have an easy way to share. I also aimed to understand the methods and channels they use to share this information.
To explore this, I posted travel recommendation requests across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, simulating real-world trip planning scenarios. I also initiated in-person conversations to observe patterns in how people give advice more organically.
And here's a synthesis of my findings during that weeks-long research:
People trust friend recommendations with high confidence
According to Nielsen, recommendations from friends remain the most credible form of advertising among consumers. Social platforms like Facebook and Instagram make this even easier.
People trust friend recommendations with high confidence
According to Nielsen, recommendations from friends remain the most credible form of advertising among consumers. Social platforms like Facebook and Instagram make this even easier.
Most people are willing to give travel recommendations in good faith
...So long as they are prompted to do so.
Most people are willing to give travel recommendations in good faith
...So long as they are prompted to do so.
People who are traveling often ask many different friends at the same time for tips/recommendations
And this can result in looking for them in different places, making it hard to track down.
People who are traveling often ask many different friends at the same time for tips/recommendations
And this can result in looking for them in different places, making it hard to track down.
Conducting Research
I conducted several weeks of guerrilla-style research to test a key hypothesis: that people are generous with travel tips and recommendations when it comes to helping friends, so long as they are prompted and have an easy way to share. I also aimed to understand the methods and channels they use to share this information.
To explore this, I posted travel recommendation requests across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, simulating real-world trip planning scenarios. I also initiated in-person conversations to observe patterns in how people give advice more organically.
And here's a synthesis of my findings during that weeks-long research:
People trust friend recommendations with high confidence
According to Nielsen, recommendations from friends remain the most credible form of advertising among consumers. Social platforms like Facebook and Instagram make this even easier.
Most people are willing to give travel recommendations in good faith
...So long as they are prompted to do so.
People who are traveling often ask many different friends at the same time for tips/recommendations
And this can result in looking for them in different places, making it hard to track down.
Drawing Inspiration
For inspiration, I looked at travel apps like Google Maps, (where people share their lists), Trip Advisor, Airbnb Experiences, and Notion, taking features and making modifications to them so they fit my vision for TripTip better.
Below are a few screenshots from Google Maps, my preferred travel recommendation tool so far. I really liked how easy it is to build and share lists. However, it lacked certain things that make it difficult to use once you're actually traveling. You can click the red dots to read some of my critiques of the app.
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Drawing Inspiration
To shape the foundation of TripTip, I drew inspiration from tools I already loved: Google Maps, TripAdvisor, Airbnb Experiences, and Notion. I studied how they approached recommendations, list-making, and sharing, borrowing features and thoughtfully adapting them to better align with the experience I envisioned.
Google Maps, in particular, stood out. It's been my go-to travel companion for a while now, mostly because of how simple it makes building and sharing custom lists. But through use, I noticed its limitations, especially in the moments when you're actually on the move. That gap between planning and real-time usability became a key design opportunity for me.
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Personas, Early Sketches, and Exploration
Personas, Early Sketches, and Exploration
From the beginning, I set out to design two complementary experiences: one for the person seeking recommendations, and another for the one giving them. My design decisions were grounded by two core personas: a traveler exploring a new place, and someone rooted in the local scene, like a hostel worker or Airbnb host, who’s often asked for tips.
At the heart of the project were two guiding questions that became my north stars as I shaped the product experience:
How might we seamlessly transform these scattered recommendations into a usable itinerary?
How can we gather all this advice, often coming from different people, platforms, and moments, into one centralized, accessible space?
Below is a glimpse into that messy but rewarding process: sketches, explorations, and the thinking that shaped each design decision.
From the beginning, I set out to design two complementary experiences: one for the person seeking recommendations, and another for the one giving them. My design decisions were grounded by two core personas: a traveler exploring a new place, and someone rooted in the local scene, like a hostel worker or Airbnb host, who’s often asked for tips.
At the heart of the project were two guiding questions that became my north stars as I shaped the product experience:
How might we seamlessly transform these scattered recommendations into a usable itinerary?
How can we gather all this advice, often coming from different people, platforms, and moments, into one centralized, accessible space?
Below is a glimpse into that messy but rewarding process: sketches, explorations, and the thinking that shaped each design decision.
I wanted to create 2 experiences for two different kinds of users: One is for the person asking for recommendations, and the other is for the person giving them. My design decisions were grounded by two personas: someone traveling somewhere new, and someone who might work at a hostel/run an Airbnb and frequently is asked for local recommendations/tips.
My north stars for this project were: How can we turn these recommendations straight into an itinerary? And how can we centralize all these recommendations so they go to the same place, even if they're given by different people?
Below is a glimpse into that messy but rewarding process: sketches, explorations, and the thinking that shaped each design decision.
I went big during prototyping, adding features like pricing, comments, and photo uploads. But user testing made it clear they didn’t quite fit, and that I had overdesigned the app. So I distilled it and focused on what experiences mattered most: helping people ask for and share travel tips.
I went big during prototyping, adding features like pricing, comments, and photo uploads. But user testing made it clear they didn’t quite fit, and that I had overdesigned the app. So I distilled it and focused on what experiences mattered most: helping people ask for and share travel tips.
Getting to an MVP
Getting to an MVP
The path to the MVP was not linear. I went through countless iterations: adding features, stripping them away, then reintroducing them in new forms, constantly refining until the experience felt focused, intentional, and ready to stand on its own.
Trips are structured into two groups: Trips and Guidebooks, to separate the two different contexts when collecting and sharing tips.
Click here to see
How does TripTip work in a nutshell?
Click here to see
How does TripTip work in a nutshell?
Click here to see
How does TripTip work in a nutshell?
Trips are structured into two groups: Trips and Guidebooks, to separate the two different contexts when collecting and sharing tips.
Friends giving tips don't need to sign up to share anything! I wanted this part of the experience to be as frictionless as possible. I also wanted to show the value of the app, even before someone signs up.
Tips are categorized to make it easier for the receiver later.
Friends giving tips don't need to sign up to share anything! I wanted this part of the app to be as frictionless as possible. I wanted to show the value of the app even before someone signs up.
Tips are categorized to make it easier for the receiver later.
If they sign up after sending their recommendations, those will automatically be saved into a Guidebook so they can re-share it with the next traveler friend!
trip-tip.app
Users have 2 ways to view tips: as images to inspire or as a checklist, to act as an itinerary once they are in their destination.
Users have 2 ways to view tips: as images to inspire or as a checklist, to act as an itinerary once they are in their destination.
Tips can be viewed on the map and filtered by category for easy viewing. I used Google Map's Places API here and didn't have much control over the tooltip UI 😅
Tips can be viewed on the map and filtered by category for easy viewing. I used Google Map's Places API here and didn't have much control over the tooltip UI 😅
Friends giving tips don't need to sign up to share anything! I wanted this part of the experience to be as frictionless as possible. I also wanted to show the value of the app even before someone signs up.
Tips are categorized to make it easier for the receiver later.
If they sign up after sending their recommendations, those will automatically be saved into a Guidebook so they can re-share it with the next traveler friend!
trip-tip.app
Learnings + Next Steps
Learnings + Next Steps
This was the first time I built and released something entirely on my own. In the past, I hesitated to share work too early, often caught in the trap of perfectionism. But with this project, I had to let that go. Moving quickly: testing, validating, breaking things, killing features, became the priority. As the saying goes, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” That mindset became my mantra.
Though the project was mostly “vibe-coded,” it unexpectedly expanded my understanding of code from a high-level perspective. Things broke constantly. I wrestled with AI hallucinations, bugs, and dead ends. Got a new feature idea? Good luck adding it to this house of cards! But those struggles demanded patience and, oddly enough, sparked a real interest in React and TypeScript. There was a kind of irony in that: taking what many would consider to be a shortcut led me to want to understand the systems more deeply.
Looking ahead, I’m exploring ways to make the viewing experience more delightful, like adding photos using Google’s Places API, adding weather information for the dates someone will be traveling to a place, and a temporal component for the recommendations, so people know what things are best to do when! The main hurdle is cost, but I’m experimenting with ways to make it sustainable.
For now, I’ve quietly shared the app with a few friends, creating and circulating Guidebooks for the places I’ve traveled. It’s a small but meaningful start in getting it into the world.
This was the first time I built and released something entirely on my own. In the past, I hesitated to share work too early, often caught in the trap of perfectionism. But with this project, I had to let that go. Moving quickly: testing, validating, breaking things, killing features, became the priority. As the saying goes, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” That mindset became my mantra.
Though the project was mostly “vibe-coded,” it unexpectedly expanded my understanding of code from a high-level perspective. Things broke constantly. I wrestled with AI hallucinations, bugs, and dead ends. Got a new feature idea? Good luck adding it to this house of cards! But those struggles demanded patience and, oddly enough, sparked a real interest in React and TypeScript. There was a kind of irony in that: taking what many consider to be a shortcut led me to want to understand the systems more deeply. They do say that the best way to learn is to do, and by doing, I realized how much more I needed to learn. I'm proud of what I was able to launch through this very humbling exercise.
Looking ahead, I’m exploring ways to make the viewing experience more delightful, like adding photos using Google’s Places API, adding weather information for the dates someone will be traveling to a place, and a temporal component for the recommendations, so people know what things are best to do when! The main hurdle is cost, but I’m experimenting with ways to make it sustainable.
For now, I’ve quietly shared the app with a few friends, creating and circulating Guidebooks for the places I’ve traveled. It’s a small but meaningful start in getting it into the world.
This was the first time I built and released something entirely on my own. In the past, I hesitated to share work too early, often caught in the trap of perfectionism. But with this project, I had to let that go. Moving quickly: testing, validating, breaking things, killing features, became the priority. As the saying goes, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” That mindset became my mantra.
Though the project was mostly “vibe-coded,” it unexpectedly expanded my understanding of code from a high-level perspective. Things broke constantly. I wrestled with AI hallucinations, bugs, and dead ends. Each new feature brought its own kind of chaos. But those struggles demanded patience and, oddly enough, sparked a real interest in React and TypeScript. There was a kind of irony in that: following instinct and improvisation led me to want to understand the systems more deeply.
Looking ahead, I’m exploring ways to make the viewing experience more delightful, like adding photos using Google’s Places API, adding weather information for the dates someone will be traveling to a place, and a temporal component for the recommendations, so people know what things are best to do when! The main hurdle is cost, but I’m experimenting with ways to make it sustainable.
For now, I’ve quietly shared the app with a few friends, creating and circulating Guidebooks for the places I’ve traveled. It’s a small but meaningful start in getting it into the world.
GRAFITI
Building and growing a data visualization search tool to 30K MAU
30,000
MAU
-31%
BOUNCE RATE
+50%
REPEAT USERS
DONUT FOR FIGJAM
Designing a creative warmup widget to improve collaboration (0-1)
43,000
TOTAL DOWNLOADS
DONUT
Redesigning an onboarding flow, helping increase trial-to-paid conversion by 10%
+10%
TRIAL TO PAID
CONVERSION
+33%
PRODUCT
INSTALLS
+10%
RETENTION
RATES