Places
Places
From dream to destination, all in one place
From dream to destination, all in one place
Problem
Travelers often face multiple challenges when planning and managing their trips. From researching destinations and booking attractions to tracking budgets and organizing expenses, the process can be overwhelming and fragmented across different platforms. Many existing travel solutions either focus solely on booking or inspiration, leaving users without a comprehensive tool to manage the entire journey.
Solutions
To address these challenges, I designed Places, a travel application that simplifies the entire trip lifecycle. The platform helps users schedule trips conveniently and efficiently by:
Providing personalized destination suggestions and useful travel information
Offering itinerary planning tools to manage time and attractions effectively
Integrating budget and expense management to ensure travelers stay financially organized
Enabling a seamless experience that combines inspiration, planning, and management in one app
Location
Africa
Industry
Healthcare
Project type
Innovate within an institution
Services I provided
User experience
Admin Dashboard
Website Design
Target Audience
General population, especially those who don’t want to download new apps and are more comfortable with WhatsApp.
Overview
Problem
Travelers often face multiple challenges when planning and managing their trips. From researching destinations and booking attractions to tracking budgets and organizing expenses, the process can be overwhelming and fragmented across different platforms. Many existing travel solutions either focus solely on booking or inspiration, leaving users without a comprehensive tool to manage the entire journey.
Solution
To address these challenges, I designed Places, a travel application that simplifies the entire trip lifecycle. The platform helps users schedule trips conveniently and efficiently by:
Providing personalized destination suggestions and useful travel information
Offering itinerary planning tools to manage time and attractions effectively
Integrating budget and expense management to ensure travelers stay financially organized
Enabling a seamless experience that combines inspiration, planning, and management in one app
My Approach
Style Guide
To ensure consistency across the Places application, I developed a style guide that established the foundation for the brand’s visual identity. The color palette was inspired by themes of exploration and clarity—using calm, airy tones to evoke trust and focus, combined with vibrant accents to highlight important actions and bring a sense of excitement to the interface. Typography was chosen for both readability and personality: a clean, modern sans-serif for body text that supports legibility across screens, paired with a slightly bolder typeface for headings to create hierarchy and emphasis.
The design system also included a set of reusable components such as buttons, input fields, cards, and navigation elements. Each component was designed with scalability in mind, making it easy to adapt to different screens without losing consistency. Iconography was kept minimal yet expressive, ensuring that travelers could quickly understand actions without overwhelming the interface.
Overall, the style guide helped align the product’s visuals with its mission: to make travel planning seamless, efficient, and inspiring. It served not only as a design reference but also as a tool for collaboration with developers, ensuring that the final product remained faithful to the intended brand experience.
Style Guide
To ensure consistency across the Places application, I developed a style guide that established the foundation for the brand’s visual identity. The color palette was inspired by themes of exploration and clarity—using calm, airy tones to evoke trust and focus, combined with vibrant accents to highlight important actions and bring a sense of excitement to the interface.
Typography was chosen for both readability and personality: a clean, modern sans-serif for body text that supports legibility across screens, paired with a slightly bolder typeface for headings to create hierarchy and emphasis.
UX Strategy & User Flows
UX Strategy & User Flows
The user flow for Places was designed to guide travelers through a seamless journey, from the moment they open the app to the point where they manage their trip in real time. The experience begins with onboarding, where users are introduced to the app’s core features and can quickly set up their profile. From there, they are encouraged to either explore suggested destinations or create a new trip.
When creating a trip, the flow leads users through a structured process: entering travel dates, selecting a destination, and adding planned activities or attractions. Once the itinerary is generated, the app allows users to make adjustments easily, ensuring flexibility while maintaining organization. Integrated budgeting features then prompt users to set a spending limit and log expenses during the trip, giving them a clear overview of their financial activity.
Throughout the journey, users can return to their dashboard to view upcoming trips, check itineraries, or monitor expenses. Notifications and reminders are woven into the flow to help them stay on track with time, attractions, and budget. This streamlined process eliminates the need for switching between multiple apps, enabling travelers to both plan and manage their journeys in one place.
UX Strategy & User Flows
The user flow for Places was designed to guide travelers through a seamless journey, from the moment they open the app to the point where they manage their trip in real time. The experience begins with onboarding, where users are introduced to the app’s core features and can quickly set up their profile. From there, they are encouraged to either explore suggested destinations or create a new trip.
When creating a trip, the flow leads users through a structured process: entering travel dates, selecting a destination, and adding planned activities or attractions. Once the itinerary is generated, the app allows users to make adjustments easily, ensuring flexibility while maintaining organization. Integrated budgeting features then prompt users to set a spending limit and log expenses during the trip, giving them a clear overview of their financial activity.
Throughout the journey, users can return to their dashboard to view upcoming trips, check itineraries, or monitor expenses. Notifications and reminders are woven into the flow to help them stay on track with time, attractions, and budget. This streamlined process eliminates the need for switching between multiple apps, enabling travelers to both plan and manage their journeys in one place.
UX Strategy & User Flows
The user flow for Places was designed to guide travelers through a seamless journey, from the moment they open the app to the point where they manage their trip in real time. The experience begins with onboarding, where users are introduced to the app’s core features and can quickly set up their profile. From there, they are encouraged to either explore suggested destinations or create a new trip.
When creating a trip, the flow leads users through a structured process: entering travel dates, selecting a destination, and adding planned activities or attractions. Once the itinerary is generated, the app allows users to make adjustments easily, ensuring flexibility while maintaining organization. Integrated budgeting features then prompt users to set a spending limit and log expenses during the trip, giving them a clear overview of their financial activity.
Throughout the journey, users can return to their dashboard to view upcoming trips, check itineraries, or monitor expenses. Notifications and reminders are woven into the flow to help them stay on track with time, attractions, and budget. This streamlined process eliminates the need for switching between multiple apps, enabling travelers to both plan and manage their journeys in one place.
Designs
After Validating the low-fidelity wireframes, I transitioned into creating high-fidelity design screens that brought the vision of Places to life. The final designs were guided by the style guide, ensuring consistency in colors, typography, and components across every touchpoint.
The home screen was designed to inspire exploration, featuring suggested destinations with vibrant imagery and quick access to upcoming trips. The trip creation flow used a clean step-by-step structure, making it simple for users to add destinations, set dates, and build itineraries without feeling overwhelmed.
The itinerary screen presented daily plans in a card-based layout, allowing users to easily view attractions, times, and notes for each day. A collapsible format was used to keep the interface uncluttered while still offering detailed information when expanded.
The budget and expense tracker was designed to give travelers financial clarity. A visual progress bar displayed how much of the budget had been used, while categorized expense cards helped users understand where their money was going.
Finally, the dashboard brought everything together—offering an overview of trips, itineraries, and expenses at a glance. Micro-interactions were included throughout the app to enhance usability, providing subtle feedback when users added a new expense, edited an itinerary, or marked an attraction as complete.
The overall look and feel balanced functionality with inspiration: clean enough to support efficient planning, yet engaging enough to spark excitement about the journey ahead.
Designs
Designs
After validating the low-fidelity wireframes, I transitioned into creating high-fidelity design screens that brought the vision of Places to life. The final designs were guided by the style guide, ensuring consistency in colors, typography, and components across every touchpoint.
The home screen was designed to inspire exploration, featuring suggested destinations with vibrant imagery and quick access to upcoming trips. The trip creation flow used a clean step-by-step structure, making it simple for users to add destinations, set dates, and build itineraries without feeling overwhelmed.
The itinerary screen presented daily plans in a card-based layout, allowing users to easily view attractions, times, and notes for each day. A collapsible format was used to keep the interface uncluttered while still offering detailed information when expanded.
The budget and expense tracker was designed to give travelers financial clarity. A visual progress bar displayed how much of the budget had been used, while categorized expense cards helped users understand where their money was going.
Finally, the dashboard brought everything together—offering an overview of trips, itineraries, and expenses at a glance. Micro-interactions were included throughout the app to enhance usability, providing subtle feedback when users added a new expense, edited an itinerary, or marked an attraction as complete.
The overall look and feel balanced functionality with inspiration: clean enough to support efficient planning, yet engaging enough to spark excitement about the journey ahead.
Learnings
Designing Places was a valuable experience that highlighted the importance of creating balance between practical utility and user inspiration. Through research, I learned that travelers often feel overwhelmed not only by the complexity of planning but also by the fragmentation of tools available to them. This insight shaped my approach, ensuring the app combined organization with discovery in one seamless flow.
Another key learning was the value of early validation. By testing sketches and low-fidelity wireframes with potential users, I was able to identify friction points in navigation and task completion before moving into high-fidelity designs. This saved time and resulted in a product that aligned more closely with user expectations.
I also discovered that financial management plays a larger role in travel experiences than initially anticipated. Travelers emphasized the need to track expenses in real time, which made budgeting features just as essential as itinerary planning. Incorporating this feedback elevated the app from being just a planning tool to becoming a true travel companion.
Finally, I learned that subtle design choices—such as micro-interactions, clean layouts, and an inspiring visual language—greatly affect how users emotionally connect with a product. These details contributed to making Places feel intuitive, reliable, and enjoyable to use.
Learnings
What I learnt
Learnings
Designing Places was a valuable experience that highlighted the importance of creating balance between practical utility and user inspiration. Through research, I learned that travelers often feel overwhelmed not only by the complexity of planning but also by the fragmentation of tools available to them. This insight shaped my approach, ensuring the app combined organization with discovery in one seamless flow.
Another key learning was the value of early validation. By testing sketches and low-fidelity wireframes with potential users, I was able to identify friction points in navigation and task completion before moving into high-fidelity designs. This saved time and resulted in a product that aligned more closely with user expectations.
I also discovered that financial management plays a larger role in travel experiences than initially anticipated. Travelers emphasized the need to track expenses in real time, which made budgeting features just as essential as itinerary planning. Incorporating this feedback elevated the app from being just a planning tool to becoming a true travel companion.
Finally, I learned that subtle design choices—such as micro-interactions, clean layouts, and an inspiring visual language—greatly affect how users emotionally connect with a product. These details contributed to making Places feel intuitive, reliable, and enjoyable to use.
