Travel Made Simple:
The Hidden Gems Experience
UX/UI Group Project – 3 Weeks
Designing a smarter way to plan group travel and discover local experiences.
Project Overview
Hidden Gems is a conceptual app that helps group travelers find authentic, local experiences while staying within budget. The goal was to create a collaborative platform that connects users with local tour guides and reduces reliance on crowded tourist traps.
Client: Theoretical app concept developed during UX/UI bootcamp
Role: Interaction Designer, Research & Testing Contributor
Tools: Figma, Trello
Team: 3 Designers
My Focus: Prototyping, interaction design, user testing, wireframing, and research synthesis
The Challenge
We started with the question: "Why don’t more people use tour guides when traveling?" Our user research revealed common frustrations:
Difficulty coordinating group preferences and budgets
Over-reliance on Yelp and Google, which felt impersonal and overwhelming
Lack of transparency in pricing or expectations when hiring guides
Our solution needed to simplify group planning, promote trustworthy local experts, and empower users to feel confident and inspired.
My Role & Responsibilities
I played a central role in bringing the Hidden Gems prototype to life:
Led the interaction design and built all primary prototyping flows in Figma
Contributed to user interviews, survey distribution, and data analysis
Helped shape the persona, journey map, and user flows based on research findings
Participated in wireframe sketching and interpretation of A/B testing results
User Persona & Journey
Persona: Liam Brown – a group traveler who’s frustrated by outdated tools and decision overload. He needs a simpler, more intuitive way to collaborate on trip planning with friends.
Journey Map Summary:
Realizes travel research is time-consuming and unclear
Discovers Hidden Gems as an easier group planning solution
Explores local experiences and filters them based on group input
Schedules a tour with full transparency on pricing and itinerary
Feels confident and excited about the group trip experience
Design Strategy
Key priorities in the design phase included:
Collaborative Filters: Options to sort tours based on group feedback
Budget Transparency: Clear pricing from the start to reduce decision fatigue
Mobile-Friendly Design: Optimized navigation and layout for on-the-go access
The goal was to make planning feel easy and inspiring—not like more work.
The Process
Our team followed a lean UX approach over three weeks:
Discover
Conducted interviews and surveys via WhatsApp and Google Forms
Synthesized 30+ responses to identify needs and frustrations
Define
Built a persona and journey map to focus the experience on group dynamics
Prioritized features like local guides, clear pricing, and simplified flows
Design
Created mid-fidelity wireframes and mapped primary user flows
I led the prototyping and built the full interactive flow in Figma
Test
Gathered peer feedback and interpreted A/B test preferences
Incorporated revisions to improve clarity, layout, and button hierarchy
The Solution
Hidden Gems offers:
Easy group collaboration when planning trips
Direct access to local guides with trustworthy reviews and pricing
A cleaner, calmer interface for discovery and booking
Though conceptual, the product serves as a blueprint for travel platforms focused on real users and real frustrations.
Outcome & Reflection
What Worked: Focus on group collaboration and clear pricing hit key user needs
What I Learned: How to lead interaction design from ideation to prototype with user-centered insights
Next Steps: Apply stronger branding, polish visuals, and test further with real users
This project showed how thoughtful UX can reduce planning stress and increase confidence—especially when travel involves multiple voices.
