Public Trips
Public Trips, a tool that enables creators and travelers to build and share public trips on Tripadvisor.
Role:
Lead Designer
Duration:
4 month project
Contribution:
Visual direction, Flow, UX, motion
Platform:
Web
Public Trips was a four-month, research-driven design exploration focused on enabling creators and travelers to build and share public trips on Tripadvisor. As the lead designer, I partnered closely with research and engineering throughout the project, shaping the experience from early concept through validation. The work included three rounds of UX research concept testing to explore and refine core behaviors, followed by a dedicated round of usability testing with real content creators using live scenarios.Insights from each research phase directly informed design decisions, helping align creator needs, traveler expectations, and platform goals into a cohesive, scalable experience.We found that travelers who use Trips are significantly more engaged than non-trip users—nearly 4.9× more engaged overall. This increased engagement is driven largely by growth in trip creation, which is up 35% year over year. Despite this strong signal, Trips remains underutilized: the feature is limited in scope and currently sees a relatively low save rate of just 0.2–0.3%, indicating a clear opportunity to expand the experience and unlock deeper engagement.
Discovery
The discovery phase was a four-week, intensive effort focused on clearly defining the problem space for Public Trips. During this phase, we partnered closely with Research and Engineering to identify core user problems, success goals, and unmet needs across creators and travelers. Through rapid exploration, early concept framing, and alignment workshops, we established a shared understanding of what the product needed to solve and set a clear foundation for subsequent design and research work.
Research
Research for Public Trips was conducted over four months and grounded in close collaboration with UX Research and Engineering. We ran three rounds of concept testing to evaluate early ideas, validate core workflows, and understand how creators and travelers interpreted value, visibility, and control when making trips public. Each round informed iterative design changes, helping us narrow on the strongest concepts. The project concluded with a round of usability testing with real content creators using realistic scenarios and live content, allowing us to validate assumptions, identify friction points, and assess readiness for scale.
UXR 1: Concept testing
Finding 1
10/12 respondants picked
All respondants
Finding 2
Story Focus ended up winning as the respondents top choice
Participants were really impressed by how visually engaging the story focused concept was.
When asked if they would be wanting to create something like this, half said they would but the other half said writing isnt for them and they would be the reader.
Finding 3
List format lacks personality and any itinerary structure.
Nearly all respondents valued UGC images for inspiration and guidance. Some even mentioned they valued it over professional photos.
UXR 2: Narrow in on a concept (published view)
Finding 1
10/12 respondants picked
All respondants
Finding 2
Highlights, Map, and Tips were ranked the most valuable
Participants were really impressed by how visually engaging the story focused concept was.
When asked if they would be wanting to create something like this, half said they would but the other half said writing isnt for them and they would be the reader.
Finding 3
75% of respondents valued long content format
75% of respondents indicated a preference for longer-form trip content, particularly when paired with real-world context and imagery. Nearly all participants highlighted user-generated photos as a key driver of inspiration and trust, with several explicitly stating they valued UGC more than professional photography.
UXR 3: Usability test (creation process)
Finding 1
10/12 respondants picked
All respondants
Finding 2
The published view is highly rated (4.6 / 5.0).
Participants were really impressed by how visually engaging the story focused concept was.
When asked if they would be wanting to create something like this, half said they would but the other half said writing isnt for them and they would be the reader.
Finding 3
Creators are undecided (3.8 / 5.0 ) when it comes to their likelihood to create a guide.
Causes for their hesitation include:
- Compensation: How lucrative can this guide be for them?
- Uploading: Will we create an easy way for them to transfer content from their current blogs to our guide?
- Branding: Can they brand this guide with their logo so it feels like its coming from their company - not just Tripadvisor?
Designs
The final designs delivered two distinct but connected experiences: a Creator View and a Public View. The Creator View was designed to make trip creation feel flexible and lightweight, giving creators intuitive tools to build, edit, and organize trips while maintaining control over storytelling, visuals, and structure. The Public View focused on discoverability and inspiration, presenting trips in a polished, easy-to-scan format that prioritized highlights, maps, tips, and user-generated content to help travelers quickly understand and act on the information. Together, these views supported both content creation and consumption, ensuring Trips felt valuable whether users were building itineraries or exploring them for inspiration and planning.
Add UGC photos
Add content and tag locations
Preview before publishing
Public view engaging
