Project Overview
Planning trips with multiple people can be overwhelming, yet there are limited options to alleviate this stress.
For my HCI capstone at DePaul University, my two teammates and I designed Itineroo, a mobile and desktop app that keeps the whole group aligned before, during, and after a trip.
My responsibilities included writing the interview guide, conducting three of our ten interviews, building our personas, co‑creating both rounds of usability tests, and designing the mood check‑in and journaling screens.
Insights from user interviews, competitor reviews, and academic research shaped three core features: group voting,
shared budgets, and mood check‑ins. Across two rounds of testing with 38 participants, task completion rose from 89% to 100%.
Timeline
10 Weeks (Spring 2025)
Role
UX Researcher
UX Designer
Presenter
Tools
Figma
Useberry
Google Slides
Tableau
Research Methods
Competitive Analysis
Literature Review
User Interviews
Journey Mapping
User Personas
Prototyping
Usability Testing
01. The Problem
Group travel planning is often scattered across multiple channels, such as Google Docs, spreadsheets, and group chats. This can lead to miscommunication, uneven planning contributions, and financial friction. Existing apps on the market address parts of the problem but fall short on collaborative features, budget transparency, and full trip-lifecycle support for users.
This led us to ask: How might we design an all-in-one platform that simplifies travel planning and keeps groups on the same page?
02. Research & Insights
Competitive Review + Sentiment Analysis
We scraped and analyzed thousands of iOS App Store reviews for two popular travel planning apps, TripIt and Wanderlog. Both were generally well liked (65% and 82% positive sentiment), but their negative reviews revealed clear gaps. Across both apps, 418 complaints centered on disorganized itineraries and bookings, 413 on paywalled features, and 123 on collaboration, where group members felt they had no equal say in planning.
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No financial tooling.
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Plain UI, no exciting imagery for upcoming vacation.
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Rely on exact search, rather than suggestive search.
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Focus on pre-trip ideation, during-trip events, and after-trip reflection.
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Individualized process, but allows joint itineraries.
Figure 1.
iOS App Store review breakdown for TripIt and Wanderlog
Figure 2.
iOS App Store top categorization of negative reviews. The numbers in the bubbles indicate the number of negative reviews in that category.
Figure 3.
iOS App Store sentiment analysis breakdown for TripIt and Wanderlog
Interview Protocol
To understand how people actually plan group trips, we conducted 10 interviews with frequent travelers aged
23–32 who regularly use technology to research and book trips. Each session included 22 structured questions covering trip planning habits, group dynamics, budgeting, and post-trip reflection.
Figure 4.
Interview questions outline
We paired every interview with a journey mapping activity, asking participants to walk us through their most recent group trip across four stages: selecting a travel destination, planning the details, during the trip, and returning home. For each stage, we captured their actions, motivations, challenges, and emotions. This helped us pinpoint exactly where group coordination tends to break down and where the biggest design opportunities lived.
Figure 5.
FigJam user journey map interview template
Interview Findings
We categorized responses by theme and created 116 unique tags to identify trends. Four patterns emerged consistently across participants.
Uneven Group Member Contribution
All 10 participants were frustrated by uneven planning effort. One or two people typically ended up owning the entire planning process, leading to frustration and burnout.
Adaptable Itineraries
Participants preferred loose structure over rigid schedules, planning around daily themes while leaving room for spontaneity.
Flexible Budgeting
Most tracked costs mentally and settled up later, which led to awkward conversations after the trip.
No Defined Roles
7 out of 10 participants said there were no defined roles during initial planning. Without clear responsibilities, communication gaps formed.
Figure 6.
Example of FigJam of interview categorization and tagging process
Figure 7.
Most common tags used by interview participants
"They don’t respond for like, two days... you’re trying to book flights, and no one’s replying."
— Participant 3
Design Decisions
Our interview findings directly shaped our feature priorities: group voting to distribute decision-making, shared budget tracking to surface costs in real time, and mood check-ins and journaling to support the emotional side of travel. From these insights, we made the following design decisions:
Dropping the tablet design. We originally planned for mobile, tablet and desktop. None of our 10 interviewees planned trips on a tablet, so we cut it and focused our time on the two platforms people actually used.
Swapping photo sharing for mood tracking. Every participant already shared trip photos and was happy with how they did it. Rather than rebuild something that already worked, we pivoted to mood check‑ins and journaling, which several participants asked for.
Keeping budgeting in the middle. Interviewees were split between wanting detailed tracking and something casual. We designed editable categories and visual breakdowns but left out bank connections and expense splitting, which kept it simple while still giving groups visibility into costs.
03. Design Process
User Personas
We developed two personas from our interviews:
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Amanda (Primary) — a detail-oriented trip organizer who wants group input without the chaos.
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Kevin (Secondary) — a budget-conscious participant who wants financial visibility without the awkwardness of asking friends to split costs.
Figure 8.
Amanda Reyes (Primary Persona)
Figure 9.
Kevin Nguyen (Secondary Persona)
Preliminary Sketches
Before moving into Figma, we sketched early concepts for both mobile and desktop to explore layout possibilities and key user flows, including budgeting, group voting, and itinerary management. Sketching allowed us to quickly surface ideas, debate tradeoffs as a team, and identify information density issues early, before investing time in digital design.
Figure 10.
User flow sketches for mobile and desktop
Lo-Fi Prototypes
Using Figma, we built low-fidelity mobile prototypes focusing on Itineroo's four core features: group voting, budget tracking, activity discovery, and mood tracking. Each feature had a defined user flow to guide testing. Rather than focusing on visuals at this stage, we prioritized structure, making sure the right information was in the right place and that key tasks felt intuitive before investing in high-fidelity design.
Before Trip Screens
Quick Actions
The app’s home page
Quick access to documents, finance, activities, and voting features
“To Do” widget with any pending items - polls, budget approvals, etc.
Itinerary for each day of the trip
During Trip Screens
Discover Activities
Rate activities you have already completed
If you like the activity, find similar recommendations near you
Search for other types of activities like food/drink or entertainment
List view of suggestions with links that can bring you to more information
Group Voting
Vote in Active Polls & See other group members’ responses
Create a new poll
Specify poll options, including expiration times, voter identification preferences, and the ability to add a new poll option as a participant
View completed or expired polls
Budget Tracking
View data visualizations and list breakdowns of your trips’ budget
View budget for all your expenses or only split expenses
Make real-time edits to categories
View expanded day-by-day budget breakdowns
Submit and/or approve group budget change requests
Mood Tracking
Log your mood and record short notes throughout your trip
View group members’ moods throughout the trip
Log a daily journal entry
View visualizations for all mood and journal data throughout the trip
Lo-Fi Usability Testing
We conducted two rounds of usability testing with 38 participants total, using scenario-based tasks and click heatmaps to evaluate key flows. Testing was run remotely and asynchronously through Useberry, which allowed us to import our Figma prototypes directly and collect behavioral data at scale. We then visualized the results in Tableau to identify patterns across completion rates, click paths, and time-on-task.
Figure 11.
Usability testing timeline
Test Findings
After each round of testing, we analyzed completion rates, click paths, and open-ended feedback to guide targeted improvements. Key changes between V1 and V2 included reorganizing the voting tab structure, relocating the budget edit button to a more intuitive location, and reducing visual clutter on the home screen.
Between V1 and V2, task completion rose from 89% to 100%, and average clicks per task dropped from 7.84 to 5.97, confirming that our changes were moving in the right direction. Throughout this process, we let measurable feedback drive decisions rather than assumptions.
Usability Test V1 Results
In our first round of usability testing, our lo-fi prototype was received well conceptually, but critical clarity and navigation issues caused confusion. 46% of written responses mentioned feeling overwhelmed; labels like “Finalize Vote” vs. “Submit” caused confusion, and editing a budget category took an average of 19.69 clicks. Users also weren’t sure their actions had gone through.
Click Heatmaps
Figure 12.
Click heatmap for V1. Budget editing averaged 19.69 clicks as users searched for the edit control.
Tableau Data Visualization
Avg. difficulty score on a 7-point scale (0=difficult, 7=easy).
Figure 13.
Tableau dashboard V1.
High-level KPIs revealed:
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Longer time taken to complete tasks, with more clicks than expected
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Two participants did not finish
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Higher tech-savvy people found the test easier
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On average, participants found the tasks to be medium difficulty
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Participants struggled more with budget editing and creating a new poll
Hi-Fi Prototype
The final high-fidelity prototype brought Itineroo to life across mobile and desktop, each designed with intentional use cases in mind. The mobile app supports on-the-go tasks like checking the itinerary, viewing real-time budget updates, and submitting daily mood check-ins. The desktop version is geared toward more involved planning and reflection tasks, like uploading travel documents, reviewing detailed finance breakdowns, and writing post-trip journals. Together, they support travelers before, during, and after their trip.
To jump to the mobile or desktop screens, select from the options below.
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Mobile Screens
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Desktop Screens
Mobile Walkthroughs
Before a trip
Onboarding
Creating a profile
Creating or joining a trip
Adding travelers from contacts
Specifying system preferences & customization
Homescreen
Quick actions easily distinguishable
Multiple ways to navigate to another screen
Horizontal scrolling multi-day itinerary cards
Group Voting
Ability to collapse/expand polls to minimize visual clutter
Visually distinct chip action bar to switch between polls
Creating a new poll
Ability to opt out of voting
Visual indicator for who voted and who has not
View poll result after casting a vote
Manage Budget & Finances
View individual and group budget data visualizations
Expand day-by-day spending breakdowns per category
Make edits to spending categories & expand daily
Submit and/or approve group budget change requests
During a trip
Discover Things to Do
Renamed from "Discover Activities" to be more all-encompassing
View activity suggestions
Search map by category
List view option
Add activity from map/list directly to itinerary
Mood Tracking & Journal Logs
Log your mood and record short notes throughout your trip
View group members’ moods throughout the trip and comment on them
View overall mood trends and journal data
Option to make mood or journal logs private or visible to the group
After a trip
Post-Trip Reflection
Log a post-trip reflection on the last day of the trip
View group members’ reflections and comment on them
Vote on group member superlatives
Option to make trip reflection private or visible to the group
Desktop Screens
Iterative Changes
Allow users to navigate the desktop version with the footer.
Make the “upload document” button more obvious.
Increase size of home header content navigable to travel document upload page.
Fix incorrect click paths between screens to reduce user error and confusion.
Homepage
Document Upload
Budget & Finance Management
Design System
We developed a full design system to ensure visual consistency across mobile and desktop. Our color palette was pulled from three candidate options voted on by our class. The final result blends warm and cool tones that feel energetic without being overwhelming. We chose the typeface Outfit for its clean, modern readability across screen sizes. The kangaroo mascot, which won 77.8% of the class vote, anchors the brand identity and carries through the app in playful variations used across onboarding and loading states.
Color Palette
Typography Styles (not to scale)
Brand Imagery
Logo Variations
Additional Imagery
05. Reflection
Itineroo successfully addressed key user pain points by centralizing planning tasks, improving financial transparency, and enabling real collaborative decision-making. Usability testing confirmed strong demand for group budgeting and voting features, and showed measurable gains in user clarity and confidence across core workflows.
If we continued, we'd focus on simplifying some of the more complex interfaces, expanding hi-fi usability testing with a broader participant pool, and exploring iOS development for a functional build. Longer term, we'd love to pitch Itineroo to potential stakeholders and explore UI customization options surfaced during research.
This project reinforced something I'll carry into every project going forward: that good design decisions are only as strong as the research and iteration behind them.
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