Mobile, iOS
Principal designer
2 months
Your travel story; illustrated.
Imagine a canvas that beautifully captures your entire travel journey — every place, every experience, all in one artistic map. That's what Traverse offers.
Why Traverse?
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Comprehensive Travel Documentation
No more fragmented travel logs. Traverse brings all your memories together in one cohesive, beautiful map.
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Personalization at Its Best
With a variety of illustrations and customization options, each map is a reflection of your personal travel story.
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Engaging and Shareable
Create maps that are not only functional but also engaging and easy to share with friends and family.
Traverse isn't just an app—it's a celebration of your travels, providing a unique way to document, personalize, and share your adventures with the world.
IDEA EXPLORATION
Identifying the problem
Travel enthusiasts often find it challenging to document their travel experiences in a way that is comprehensive, personalized, and engaging.
Existing tools provide fragmented solutions that fail to integrate all aspects of a travel journey into a cohesive, visually appealing format. This lack of a comprehensive tool hampers the ability to fully capture and relive travel memories, reducing the overall enjoyment and emotional connection to past experiences.
How do we elevate our storytelling experiences?
Is it possible to sum up our trip on one canvas?
Social Media
60% of millennials share photos on social media while traveling for instant communication and gratification.
Blogging/Travel Journals
17% of travelers share their journeys online through reviews, blogs, or videos, but the effort and time required often inhibit them.
Photo Albums
Digital photos can easily be forgotten as new ones are taken.
The volume of snapshots makes it easy to overlook them.
How might we empower travelers to create and share more expressive narratives of their travels?
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Chronicles of the travelling folk
I interviewed diverse travelers to understand their travel documentation habits. Analyzing the data revealed key pain points, motivations, and behaviors.
Pain Points
4 out of 5 interviewees found using multiple platforms for photos and notes fragmented their travel memories & made documentation cumbersome.
Motivations
All interviewees upload travel pictures on social media & wish to create visually appealing and shareable content to connect with others.
Behaviors
Struggle to share travel experiences engagingly, leading to less frequent or impactful sharing.
DESIGN PROCESS
Concept Development
After conducting interviews and surveys with travel enthusiasts to understand their pain points and needs, I did a market analysis of existing travel documentation tools to identify gaps and opportunities for innovation.
Identifying Core Features
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Unified Platform: An all-in-one platform to combine photos, notes, and geotags.
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Customization: Features for users to personalize their maps with custom illustrations and notes.
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Interactive Sharing: Interactive and visually appealing maps to enhance shareability.
BUILDING
Task Flow
Visualizing the process and flow of each step in the app.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Structure & Content
I mapped out the functions and features needed for creating the travel map, which guided my inspiration & solution sketches.
SKETCHES
Bringing ideas to life
SMALL CHANGES = BIG RESULTS
Usability Testing & Iterations
I conducted two rounds of usability tests with five users each. Participants performed a task in the prototype, and were observed on:
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Task completion
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Understanding of content and task flow
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Navigation within screen layouts
They were asked to map and document their kayaking experience with a provided context and scenario to avoid confusion.
The first round of testing was valuable.
While the interface was clear and engaging, 80% of users struggled with completing the task.
Revised screen
Revised screen
Revised screen
Round 2 of User Testing
Feedback was positive: screens were intuitive, and participants completed tasks easily, with only minor cosmetic changes needed.
GIVING A PERSONALITY
Brand Identity
MOODBOARD
Think of a pleasant autumn evening spent with family and friends. The sky is beaming a happy blue and you are playing catch with everyone!
Innovative | Playful/Fun | Energetic | Enjoyable | Cheerful | Happy
BRAND LOGO
The logo needed to reflect the app's vibe and MVP.
Thought Process:
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Used symbols recognized for pins and maps
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Incorporated the idea of "editing a map"
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Visualized symbols for pen/pencil to suggest editing on a map
HI-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
Tying it together
Add a place to your travel map, and Traverse auto-sources information. You can also add notes about your favorite memories!
Browse map styles to set your mood and use the app's library of illustrations, text styles, and patterns.
Adjust sizes, colors, and positions as you like!
With one click, Traverse rescales your pinned map into an expressive schematic, saved to your profile and ready to print or share on social media.
UI LIBRARY
Details matter the most
To aid developer hand-off and future updates, I cataloged all UI components, states, and design elements, organizing them by color, typography, and labels in my design tool.
KEY LEARNINGS
Self reflection
A clean interface highlights features and ensures an intuitive flow. I focused on feedback that matched my vision.
Academics & Beyond
School taught me time management, organization, collaboration, and the value of asking for help. Creating my app was challenging but rewarding, fueled by problem-solving passion.
Asset credits - Icons: Remix Icons, Material iOS library (Figma) | Stickers/Illustrations: Flaticon | Pictures: Unsplash, Pexels
Mockups: Mockuuups Studio, MockRocket-3D Mockup, Matte mockups (Figma Community)
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!
Please feel free to reach out if you would like to hear more! 👋🏻
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