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Project documentation

App idea

Planning a trip involves considerable preparation and organization, from choosing the destination and accommodations to arranging transportation and creating an itinerary. But the struggle intensifies when you're coordinating a group adventure. Suddenly, you're not just considering your own preferences and needs, but those of multiple individuals with varying schedules, interests, and expectations.

Our app aims to facilitate the organization of trips and enhance collaboration within a travel group to make the planning process easier and faster. The app, therefore, includes valuable features such as:

  • Easily solving tedious planning tasks centrally with shared checklists and surveys.
  • Aggregating planned activities for a comprehensive overview by creating a travel plan with the activities to be visited.
  • Improving the communication with a group chat.
  • Simplifying the tracking of travel costs and allocation of expenses among group members.
  • Saving memories in a shared gallery directly linked to the trip.

Even if you don't have any fellow travelers for an adventure trip, the app offers you the possibility to join or create publicly organized trips to connect with other travelers.

Analysis of the competitors

This comparison showcases several of the most popular travel planning apps. By highlighting their features, it demonstrates a clear market opportunity for our app, which offers a unique and valuable set of functionalities.

Features Expedia Wanderlog TripIt Going Solo Our App
Downloads (Android) 50+ Million 1+ Million 5+ Million 10+ Thousand -
Discover Activities ✅
Show activities filtered by city. Grouped by bestsellers, culture, and entertainment.		 ✅
Activities with user reviews		 ❌ ❌ ✅
My Trips ✅
❗But only if booked through Expedia.		 ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Group Trips ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
In-App Bookings ✅ ❌
Shows available accommodations, but forwards to an external booking platform.		 ❌ ❌ ❌
Checklists ❌ ✅
Has pre-built backpack lists.		 ❌ ❌ ✅
Expense Plannung ❌ ✅
Assign expenses to planned activities.		 ❌ ❌ ✅
Itineraries ✅
Assign activities to a specific day.		 ❌ ✅
See trip progress.		 ❌ ✅
Surveys ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅
Map ✅
Shows nearby accommodations.		 ✅
Shows nearby activities and allows users to add these to the trip plan.		 ❌ ❌ ✅
Group Chat ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅
Profile Customization ❌ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
Shared Gallery ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅
❗Only through chat.		 ✅
Public Trips ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅
Private and public trips.		 ✅

Self reflection

Creating the TraveLink App has been an interesting journey. Through the process, we gained a much better understanding of design principles. We learned the real challenge of balancing aesthetics with functionality. We aimed to make thoughtful decisions for all design aspects, such as color schemes and user flow. Often, we encountered situations where we had multiple solutions. In those cases, we trusted our instincts and are very happy with how the design turned out.

Of course, we faced challenges, but by discussing these problems within our group, we often found great solutions. One example was the debate over whether there should be a central login screen when the app starts, requiring the user to create an account, or if we should only require a login for features needing personal information. In a meeting, we concluded that we would add a central login screen at the beginning, but with the option for the user to click on a "try anonymous" button. This is common in many well-tested apps and was the perfect compromise for us. This project really strengthened our creativity and attention to detail. Ultimately, designing this app has been more than an academic exercise.

enjoy :)