The Challenge
Travelers often face difficulties in budget planning for their trips. Issues like tracking expenses, estimating costs accurately, and sticking to a budget can complicate the travel experience.
Smart Budgets: Simplifying Travel with Planago
Planago is a mobile app designed to help travelers manage their travel budgets. By providing budget estimates for activities, Planago enables users to plan trips more efficiently, avoid unexpected expenses, and maximize their time and money while traveling.
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Find The Design Scope
The Potential
With increasing travel demand, there is a clear need for a platform that helps people control their spending while traveling. The priority was to create a solution that allows users to manage their budgets and track their travel routes effectively.
Framing
To address this, I asked:
- What are the pain points in the budgeting process?
- What features are missing from current planning apps?
- What factors do users consider when selecting a vacation spot?
I conducted additional research on specific factors that enhance trip planning satisfaction to validate my assumptions and guide the content design in the right direction.
Final Framing
“HOW MIGHT WE streamline budget planning for travelers by clearly displaying essential information, enabling them to stay within budget, prevent surprises, and enhance their travel experience?”
Understand Users
Research Synthesis
Before designing Planago, I conducted extensive research to understand potential users better. This research focused on identifying the specific roles users need to accomplish with a travel budget app, leading to the definition of three primary user archetypes, each mapped to their respective jobs-to-be-done.
Analyzing Market Competitors
I examined three popular travel budget calculator apps—Wanderlog, TripAdvisor, and TripIt. This competitor analysis helped identify existing features and gaps, presenting opportunities for improvement.
Result
Final designs
The clean, well-organized designs of Wanderlog and Tripadvisor apps truly inspired me. Their effective use of white backgrounds and minimalist approach enhanced readability, allowing content and images to shine without distraction.
Reflection
Working on this project provided comprehensive insights into the entire UX process, from problem definition and discovery to user research, design, and prototyping. I identified a market gap and created a user-centric product addressing a real issue faced by travelers. I am excited to advance this product further with additional design and testing rounds and plan to develop a desktop version.
Next steps
Throughout this project, I generated many ideas for enhancing the app. A survey respondent highlighted the need for helpful reminders in trip planning, such as a comprehensive checklist: securing tickets, booking accommodations, preparing finances, packing essential medications, and remembering personal items. These insights will guide future iterations of Planago.