Redesigning the Incredible India Mobile App
karishma prasad
From cluttered to captivating: A UX/UI case study of redesigning the Incredible India mobile app
In this case study, I will share insights into the design decisions I made when redesigning the Incredible India mobile app.
10 min read
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Apr 22, 2025
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Disclaimer: -
This is a personal project. I was not commissioned by anyone to redesign this app.
What is Incredible India?
Incredible India is the government’s official tourism campaign to promote the country’s culture, heritage, and travel destinations. It showcases famous places, festivals, and experiences to attract tourists.
It also had an Incredible India app designed as a travel guide.
The Core Problems in the Existing App:-
1. Overwhelming Navigation
Too many options crammed on one screen (e.g., “Get Inspired,” “Start Your Journey”) can confuse users instead of guiding them.
Lack of clear information architecture makes it hard to know where to start.
2. Inconsistent Visual Hierarchy
· Buttons, sections, and content blocks don’t follow a visual priority.
· Important elements like state-wide exploration or emergency info are not highlighted or accessible.
3. Disconnected from Indian Culture
The UI lacks elements representing India’s diversity, tradition, and vibrancy.
Feels more like a generic travel blog than a national tourism platform.
4. Cluttered State & Attraction Pages
The pages for individual states and attractions feel outdated and visually noisy.
The lack of breathing space and poor layout make it hard for users to enjoy or understand the content.
5. Missing Key Features
Essential features like Emergency SOS, Notifications, or quick state access are missing.
These are crucial for travelers, especially international visitors.
6. Unclear Onboarding for First-Time Visitors
The app doesn’t guide new users intuitively — especially those unfamiliar with India — about where to go or what to explore first.
7. Outdated Visual Design
The aesthetics feel outdated and not in sync with modern design trends or user expectations.
There’s little emotion, storytelling, or excitement in the visuals or layout.
8. Lack of language accessibility
· The original app only supports English, which can alienate a large segment of Indian users who are more comfortable in their regional languages.
· For a platform aiming to promote tourism within India as well, this becomes a major barrier. The absence of multilingual support fails to reflect the linguistic diversity of the country.
Home/Explore Page:-
The purpose of the Home/Explore page
· Acts as the entry point to guide users toward discovering content, destinations, or services based on their interests.
· Provides quick access to essential features and navigation for a smooth and engaging user journey.
As a content-heavy page, the home/explore page needs to be structurally organized with the right emphasis on different pieces of information.
Problem 1: Lack of visual hierarchy and overwhelming layout:-
The original home screen, while visually clean, felt overwhelming due to too many choices placed together like “Get Inspired” and “Start Your Journey.”
It lacked a clear starting point for users, especially first-time visitors to India. There was also no direct visual or interactive access to individual states or destinations, making the user rely heavily on search or endless scrolling.
Solution: -
I redesigned the homepage to provide a more guided and intuitive experience by:
Adding direct access to Indian states right on the home screen to reduce friction.
Simplify the navigation and layout to help users focus better.
Infusing more cultural visuals to make the design feel truly representative of Incredible India.
The redesign simplifies navigation, creates a clear visual hierarchy, and better reflects India’s rich culture so that users feel more guided and connected right from the start.
Problem 2: “Get inspired” Section Felt Endless and Repetitive
The existing “Inspire Me” section was a never-ending scroll lacking interactivity and a clear purpose, and sections like Rural and Adventure showed the same image in every other section.
Solution:
Replaced it with structured, theme-based destination categories like Adventure, Spiritual, Heritage, and Nature, making exploring more organized and engaging.
The curated themes and categories, helping users discover places easily and feel inspired quickly.
Problem 3: Missing Key Functionalities
Important features like Notifications or Emergency support (SOS) were missing, reducing the app’s practical utility during travel.
Solution:
Added a notification icon and a dedicated Emergency SOS button side by side on the homepage for quick access — to enhance user safety and keep them informed at all times.
Imagine a solo traveler in an unfamiliar city feeling unsafe — having the SOS button right on the homepage means help is just one tap away. And the notification icon? It ensures they never miss important updates, like weather alerts or itinerary changes and other important thimgs.
State Page:-
The purpose of the State Page is to provide users with a detailed yet easy-to-navigate guide about each Indian state, helping tourist explore local attractions, culture, cuisine, and experiences — all in one place. It acts as a dedicated space for each state to highlight what makes it unique and worth visiting.
Problems in the Original Design: -
Too much content stacked vertically, which overwhelms users.
Important details like attractions are buried under long texts.
Lack of visual hierarchy, making it hard to navigate.
No clear categorization — users can’t quickly find what they’re looking for.
Listing airports at the top doesn’t help much, especially for international users looking to explore first. it’s look out of place.
Solution: -
· Organized content in a structured layout with proper spacing and a smooth visual flow.
· Section headings, icons, and images are prioritized well so users can scan and find things quickly.
· Added icons and quick filters like Local Cuisine, Art & Culture, and Things to Do for personalized exploration.
· Moved non-essential travel logistics to secondary screens, letting users explore first.
· Used scrollable cards and carousels to reduce page height and avoid endless scrolling.
· The State name, tagline, and a cultural image banner reflect the local feel and identity.
· Added intuitive back button and quick links to explore other states easily from the bottom.
Highlighted popular attraction and must visit place, reducing cognitive load and using hick’s law and limiting option.
Attraction Detail Page: -
To provide in-depth information about a specific tourist attraction, including history, highlights, and visuals.
To help users understand why the place is worth visiting and what makes it special.
Problems in the Original Design: -
· The original page combines information without clear sections, making it difficult for users to scan or navigate.
· Users cannot assess how others rated the attraction or understand the overall sentiment due to the absence of visible ratings or a feedback summary.
· The absence of user reviews makes the page feel impersonal and does not assist new users in making informed decisions.
· Important actions like booking or getting directions aren’t added.
· The original layout for nearby places lacks visual appeal and discoverability.
· There is no option for Q&A to ask common queries, leading to confusion.
Let me explain this with an example :
Jane, a tourist enthusiast in Kolkata, wants to visit the Victoria Memorial. She opens the Incredible India app and searches for it — but what she finds only disappoints her. The long, unstructured text feels overwhelming. There are no reviews to understand others’ experiences, no Q&A to ask like if pets are allowed or is she roamed around the park, and no direction option to help her reach the place. Frustrated, Jane ends up switching between different apps just to get the basic information she needs — what should’ve been a smooth, exciting plan becomes tiring and confusing.
Solution: -
· Introduced tabbed navigation (“Overview” and “Rate & Review”) to separate content types and improve clarity.
· Added an overall star rating and rating breakdown chart to provide instant feedback and build trust.
· Included user-generated reviews with names, ratings, and comments for authenticity and reliability.
· Highlighted primary CTAs such as “Book Ticket,” “See Direction,” and “Share” for quick access.
· Used a grid-based image layout to showcase nearby attractions more engagingly and neatly, emphasizing distance.
· Added a Q&A module to display and answer common visitor concerns.
The redesign not only enhance the overall UI but also solve UX of the app which builds trust and helps users plan visits more efficiently and avoid inconvenience.
Search page: -
To enhance the discoverability and usability of the search experience for users, making it more dynamic, engaging, and helpful through visual and functional upgrades.
Problems in the Original Design: -
Although the previous design was functional, it lacked visual appeal and engagement.
The page looked empty without any search input, offering no direction or content to explore.
It didn’t show personalized results based on the user’s location.
Solution: -
Redesigned the page with visual category cards (e.g., Restaurant, Hotels, Parks) for better guidance.
Added location-based suggestions to show relevant categories.
Made the search bar more prominent and inviting for all types of queries.
Get curated recommendations based on your live location for a more relevant and seamless travel experience.
Plan page: -
To provide users with a centralized space where they can easily plan, organize, and manage their travel journeys — from selecting transportation to saving itineraries and collaborating with friends — all in one streamlined and intuitive interface.
Problems in the Original Design: -
The original design had two separate sections: “Start Your Journey” in explore page and “My Travel List”, which felt disconnected and cluttered.
The screen was overloaded with options, making it visually heavy and less intuitive.
Lack of a clear call-to-action (CTA) led to confusion on where to begin.
Solution: -
Combined both features into a single “Plan” tab to streamline the user experience.
Used a clean layout with organized categories and a strong CTA button to guide users.
Simplified content without removing core features like trip collaboration and plan your trip.
Everything you need to plan, now in one place
Map page: -
The purpose of the map is to Help users explore nearby attractions and important locations and Provide navigation assistance by allowing users to choose a starting point and destination.
Problems in the Original Design: -
Although rich in options like popular cities and attractions, the UI is cluttered and confusing.
No clear flow to guide the user from their current location to a destination.
Lack of transport options directly tied to the map makes navigation harder.
Solution: -
Introduced a clean “From” and “To” navigation input — making it easy for users to plan their route.
Added travel modes like train, bus, cab, or walk — similar to Google Maps — for personalized navigation.
The map now functions as a practical tool, not just a display of places.
See the map, but don’t miss the details. switch, filter, and explore your way.
Account page: -
Problems in the Original Design: -
Important options were split between two separate screens — one under the hamburger menu (My View) and another under the More tab.
This made navigation confusing and required extra steps to find basic features.
No user profile or engaging elements to make users feel involved.
No support for diverse users in terms of language.
Previous settings lack depth or engagement tools.
Solution: -
Merged both screens into one unified “Account” tab.
Now all-important settings, preferences, and user information are easily accessible in a single place, improving usability and reducing user frustration.
Added profile info + rewards system (Posted / Received / Ticket booking reward) to increase user interaction and retention.
Included one language from every state, making it inclusive and accessible.
Added clear, useful options like Favorites, Notifications, Help, improving utility and task completion.
One tab. Everything you need.
No more switching screens to manage your account.
UI Screens:-
Reflection and Key Takeaways
This project was a golden opportunity for me to dive deeper into Information Architecture and work on my Visual Design skills simultaneously.
Learning :
In-depth analysis of the design decisions is really important to make sure that you’re fulfilling user requirements through empathy.
Each data point holds a different rank in hierarchy and needs to be identified and conveyed accordingly.
I understood the common UI and UX model that exist.
Small changes in design can make a huge impact on the whole user experience.
Challenges :
India is vast and diverse, and it was difficult to showcase all the rich content without overwhelming the user. I had to make sure the app felt informative yet easy to use.
While working on design solutions for a problem, I came across some micro challenges, which made the whole project even more interesting. I learned how to resolve those challenges without compromising on the primary design solution.
Hit me up if you want to discuss further. :)
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Posted May 12, 2025
Redesigned the Incredible India app to enhance UX/UI and user engagement.
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