UX Case Study: Designing A Group Trip Planner App

TripBuddy is a mobile-first group trip planner designed to help friends, families, and teams plan group travel more effectively and with less friction.

The app centralizes decision-making, simplifies coordination, and helps groups make faster, fairer choices while keeping planning organized and scalable for trips of any size.

My role: UX Designer — product strategy, research, personas, flows, interaction design, and prototyping.

Design goal: Reduce the cognitive overload of group travel by creating a shared planning workspace that supports different decision styles and helps groups agree faster.

Context:

• Group travel requires coordination across many factors: dates, destination, budgets, accommodations, and activities often handled through scattered chats and spreadsheets.

• Every group plans differently, making traditional apps inflexible.

• Endless discussions, delays, and confusion around logistics create friction before the trip even starts.

Design challenge:

How might we create a scalable, organised group travel planning system that supports different planning styles and helps groups make decisions faster?

Competitive Scan

• Standard trip planners: Great for solo travellers, but not for collaborative decisions.

• Group chats and spreadsheets: Familiar but messy; no structure, no tracking of final decisions.

• Expense-splitting or itinerary apps: Useful, but don’t cover the full decision-to-booking pipeline.

Key Insights

• Organisers need one place to gather and finalise decisions.

• Participants want low-effort engagement (quick voting, minimal input).

• Large groups need structure: roles, permissions, and automation.

• Decisions happen faster when options are limited and clearly compared.

Opportunity

• A collaborative workspace that combines constraint-based planning, lightweight voting, and smart recommendations helping groups decide faster, stay organized, and easily move from ideas to bookings.

Core Model

Freemium product:

• Free core planning with voting, itinerary, and cost-splitting.

• TripBuddy Pro (premium): Templates, automation, advanced constraints, booking integrations, receipts export, and multi-currency handling.

• Commissions: Optional booking through integrated partners (hotels, tours, insurance).

Segments

• Casual friend groups → free planning and split bills.

• Students → low-cost group templates, simple UI.

• Corporate teams → Pro features: approval flows, reports, and compliance templates.

Key Use Cases

• Weekend getaways: polls for dates & quick decisions.

• Family vacations: shared packing lists and accommodation splits.

• Student trips: budget templates & instant votes.

• Corporate offsites: travel policy templates and approvals.

Scalability Features

• Templates: reusable plans for common trip types.

• Roles: organiser, co-organiser, participant, guest.

• Sub-groups: mini teams inside larger trips.

• Constraint system: filters by budget, dates, and preferences.

• Progressive disclosure: simple views for casual users, advanced options for planners.

Planning Workspace

• Shared dashboard with trip timeline, votes, and tasks.

• Centralised chat and document hub (tickets, passports, maps).

Constraint-Based Engine

• Takes budget, date, and location preferences to suggest optimized itineraries.

• Displays trade-offs (price, duration, group satisfaction).

Decision Acceleration Tools

• Smart shortlists (3–5 options only).

• Weighted voting system and deadlines to finalize decisions.

• Clear per-person costs and deposit breakdowns.

Execution & Logistics

• Integrated or linked booking options.

• Automatic cost-splitting and reminders.

• Central document hub and offline itinerary access.

During Trip

• Real-time updates, live polls, offline maps, shared albums.

i) Curated shortlists and trade-offs will increase decision completion rates.

ii) Lightweight voting with deadlines will reduce delays.

iii) Role-based workflows will improve collaboration in large groups.

iv) Constraint-driven recommendations will reduce the number of revisions needed.

• Decision velocity: time from trip creation → destination lock.

• Planning completion rate: % of groups that finalize bookings.

• Engagement: votes cast, chats, edits per trip.

• Conversion: % of users upgrading to Pro or booking via partners.

• User satisfaction: NPS and retention for repeat trips.

TripMate addresses the friction of group travel planning by consolidating tools into one shared, intelligent workspace.

Through structured workflows, constraint-driven suggestions, and lightweight collaboration, it empowers groups to reach consensus faster, reduce confusion, and stay excited about their trip.

Next steps:

1. Prototype trip kickoff, voting, and cost-split flows.

2. Conduct usability tests with real groups.

3. Refine recommendation logic and communication UX.

4. Partner with booking providers for an integrated experience.

5. Iterate on templates for different user types (students, corporates, families).