Project Overview
For my HCI capstone project at DePaul University, I worked with two teammates to create Itineroo, a mobile and desktop application that helps groups plan trips more collaboratively and seamlessly. My role spanned user research, UX/UI design, prototyping, and usability testing.
Group travel planning is messier than it should be. Itineroo was our solution to that, a single platform that keeps everyone aligned before, during, and after a trip.
Role
UX Researcher, UX Designer, Presenter
Timeline
10 Weeks (Spring 2025)
Tools
Figma, Useberry, Google Slides, Tableu
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 current travel planning apps, TripIt and Wanderlog. While both apps were generally well-liked (65% and 82% positive sentiment, respectively), the most negatively-reviewed categories pointed directly to our opportunity: broken collaboration features, poor financial tooling, and paywall frustration.
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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.
IOS App Store Competitive Reviews of TripIt and Wanderlog
Sentiment Analysis of 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.
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.
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:
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Uneven Contributions — One or two people typically ended up owning the entire planning process, leading to frustration and burnout.
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Adaptable Itineraries — Travelers preferred loose structure over rigid schedules, planning around daily themes while leaving room for spontaneity.
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Loose Budgeting — Most participants tracked expenses mentally and deferred smaller costs to deal with later, creating post-trip financial awkwardness.
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No Defined Roles — Without clear responsibilities, communication gaps formed and planning stalled, especially when group members were slow to respond.
These 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.
Figjam of interview categorization and tagging process
Most common tags
03. Design Process
User Personas
We developed two personas from our interviews:
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Amanda - a detail-oriented trip organizer who wants group input without the chaos.
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Kevin - a budget-conscious participant who wants financial visibility without the awkwardness of asking friends to split costs.
Amanda (Primary Persona)
Kevin (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.
Early Sketches
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
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
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
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
Usability Testing
We conducted two rounds of usability testing with 36 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.
Usability Testing Timeline
Click heatmap data for budget editing V1
Click heatmap data for budget editing V2
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 to 100%, and average clicks per task dropped by 1.87, confirming that our changes were moving in the right direction. Throughout this process, we let measurable feedback drive decisions rather than assumptions.
Tableau Data Visualizations
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, users found the tasks medium difficult
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Participants struggled more with budget editing and creating a new poll
High-level KPIs revealed:
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Task completion time increased, but ease of use score increased, and the average number of clicks decreased
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All 20 participants completed
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.