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
12/12 respondents wanted a mix of map and story concepts
All respondents wanted a hybrid of map and story. When asked to rank, they said story and map were the most important.
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 isn’t 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
All respondents wanted the ability to edit their cover photo
All participants expressed a strong desire for control over their trip’s visual identity, with 100% of respondents wanting the ability to edit their cover photo. When asked to rank key elements of a trip, storytelling and map-based organization consistently ranked highest, with over 80% preferring a hybrid experience that combined narrative context with spatial navigation.
Finding 2
Highlights, Map, and Tips were ranked the most valuable
Highlights, Maps, and Tips were ranked as the most valuable components by participants, with ~70% citing these elements as the primary reason the concept felt useful and engaging. Users responded positively to the story-forward layout, noting that it felt more immersive and inspiring than traditional itinerary formats.
However, when asked about content creation, responses split evenly: 50% said they would actively create trips, while the other 50% identified as readers, citing writing effort as a barrier.
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
Our guide creation process is simple and intuitive.
Content creators score the creation process a 4.2 /5.0. The process is seamless and our thoughtful guard-rails ensure that creators will make impactful guides that travelers will appreciate.
Finding 2
The published view is highly rated (4.6 / 5.0).
The page is clean and aesthetically pleasing while also being full of helpful content. Users also appreciate the mix of content forms (more detailed + more tactical).
Top rated sections include (Travel notes, Day-level summary, Photos, Detailed day description, Map and Map Cards.
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
