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Persona: Liam Brown – a group traveler who’s frustrated by outdated tools and decision overload.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:

  1. Realizes travel research is time-consuming and unclear

  2. Discovers Hidden Gems as an easier group planning solution

  3. Explores local experiences and filters them based on group input

  4. Schedules a tour with full transparency on pricing and itinerary

  5. 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.