A travel platform built to cut through online noise, using a quick personalized questionnaire to match travelers with authentic local recommendations.
Highlights
My Role: UI/UX Design • Advanced Figma Variables • User Research
The Core Challenge: Building an advanced prototype filtering system by linking user quiz choices to Figma variables, writing conditional If/Then logic that controls when specific travel guide cards appear or hide.
Tools & Methods: Figma (Variables, Variants, If/Then Logic), 1-on-1 User Interviews, and Open-Ended Surveys.
The Problem & Core Goals
Planning trips is overwhelming due to scattered information, too many options, and lack of personalization.
Goal
- Streamline research: Make travel planning faster and easier by bringing recommendations into one central platform.
- Personalize recommendations: Help travelers discover tailored advice rather than generic top-10 lists.
- Promote real community tips: Enable travelers to share authentic, first-hand advice with others.
Project Origin: Study Abroad Lessons
The idea came from my study abroad trip to Japan. Realizing how overwhelming and scattered trip planning was, I created a guide presentation to help classmates prepare for their trips. That experience inspired me to build a digital platform that make travel planning faster, easier, and less overwhelming for travelers!
The Link to this presentation is here if curious:
Presentation of Study Abroad Trip
Research Methods
Short 1v1 Interviews
Conducted quick 10-minute conversations with everyday travelers to map out the trickiest pain points of trip planning.
Community Surveys & Stories
Reached out to active Discord communities to gather open-ended, real-world stories from frequent travelers to new travelers.
Synthesizing Feedback
Grouped interview responses into core themes, uncovering the exact filtering categories users needed most in the questionnaire.
From analyzing interview and survey feedback, 8 recurring travel priorities stood out. I turned these into filtering categories for the platform:
Style & Company: Solo • Group
Exploring: Points of Interest (POI) • Language
Essentials: Food • Safety • Transit • Budget
Structuring the filters around these 8 specific themes ensured users got recommendations tailored to their exact travel style and needs.
Prototyping Logic & System Architecture
I self-taught Figma from the ground up, moving from basic layout components to basic layout components to advanced prototyping logic. To build a truly dynamic questionnaire, I engineered complex If/Then conditional statements, variables, and booleans into a single component interaction system.
The Final Interactive Solution
Since regular travel advice can get generic, I added a quick questionnaire at the start to filter the user’s needs. Then, they see unique tips and recommendations shared by locals or people who’ve actually been there. I also kept the drawings warm and handmade to match the concept of a friendly community made by real people.
Reflection
The Challenge – Mastering Figma Prototyping Logic:
As a first-time Figma user, building this interactive system was a steep learning curve. I spent hours mastering layout principles (auto-layout, margins, padding) alongside advanced prototype “coding” logic.
Pivot Point – The Filtering Challenge & Variant Naming:
The hardest part was building the dynamic filtering system. When I realized travel cards needed multiple tags (like the restaurant Jibaritos y Más needing both ‘budget’ and ‘food’ tags), I had to restructure my entire component variant naming convention to show_[Place/Tip Name] so my If/Then conditional logic could toggle them correctly. Next time, I’ll map out all component tags and visibility rules before writing my variables!”
Future Iterations – Community Content Workflows:
Given more time, I would build out the community submission page to show how local users can submit and publish their own travel recommendations.