Way Finder - Simplifying the Chaos of Group Travel

Role: Lead Product Designer

Scope: UX/UI Design · App Strategy · Product Thinking

Tools: Figma

Way Finder is a collaborative travel app that streamlines group trip planning through shared Trip Boards, an AI travel assistant named Ally, and a group expense feature called Tripcard. Users can invite friends, manage budgets, and get personalized travel suggestions. Public boards also allow travelers to connect and co-plan with like-minded users, making trip planning more social, seamless, and intelligent.

Group trips should be fun—not frustrating. But too often, they spiral into chaos. I set out to untangle the mess and make planning feel like part of the adventure.

Group planning felt messy due to scattered info and poor coordination.

Managing shared expenses caused confusion and friction.

Lack of real-time guidance led to indecision and conflicts.

As the Lead Designer, I owned the full product design journey for Way Finder—from research to high-fidelity execution:

Conducted competitive analysis to identify market gaps and shape a focused research direction.

Led user interviews across varied traveler profiles to uncover key pain points in group travel planning.

Defined macro user flows for core tasks like trip creation, collaboration, and expense management.

Mapped the user journey with emotional touchpoints (Do, Think, Feel, Say) to surface deeper insights.

Formulated How Might We questions and transformed them into user stories, covering both happy and edge cases.

Prioritized features through a story mapping framework in FigJam, aligning with user needs and business goals.

Designed and iterated wireframes, evolving them into clean, collaborative UI screens.

Shaped the product’s interaction model with features like AI-powered trip suggestions (Ally), shared wallets (Tripcard), and public boards for social discovery.

Designed a mobile-first travel app that made group planning seamless, social, and smart. Positioned Way Finder as a next-gen tool for co-planning, budgeting, and discovery.

With more time, I’d add an AI Budget Calculator to help users estimate trip costs and save accordingly.