preferred group travel
15 of 20 survey respondents
TRPN · Social travel platform
Trust comes before the trip.
TRPN is a responsive travel-discovery product that I helped design and implemented using React, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
DurationProject sprint · exact dates not documented
ProjectEnd-to-end group project
My contributionProduct design, research, interaction design, prototyping & React implementation
TeamXuan Sequeira, Juan Munoz & Stephen Jones
MethodsSurvey, interviews, competitive review, usability testing
Explore working site ↗20 survey responses · 6 interviews · 4 usability sessions
01 · Overview
A dropped traveler creates a trust problem.
When someone leaves a group trip, the remaining travelers may need a replacement to preserve the budget. A solo traveler may want the opening, but both sides need to judge safety, compatibility, expectations, and cost before committing.
Design questionHow might we help travelers safely evaluate and connect with a compatible group?
02 · Research
Interest existed. Confidence did not.
were unlikely to join strangers
ratings 1–2 on a five-point scale
wanted flexible plans
open to changing the itinerary
would follow a shared itinerary
rated at least 3 out of 5
Source: 20-response team survey documented in the TRPN project deck. Percentages are reported only where the underlying chart was available.
Interview synthesis
Six conversations converged on three needs.
Interview notes were grouped and dot-voted. Safety, community, and finance recurred most strongly; planning mattered, but participants described themselves as flexible.
Safety
Know that people are real and understand who is in a group before joining.
Community
Find compatible travelers and have a way to talk before money changes hands.
Finance
See costs early and make the reason for filling a spot understandable.
Competitive review
The market solved fragments of the experience.
ProductStrong atGap we observed
WonderlogCollaborative planningNo traveler matching or trust layer
G AdventuresOrganized group toursLittle flexibility for existing trips
MeetupInterest-based communityNot built around trip cost and itinerary
Airbnb ExperiencesActivity discoveryConnects activities, not travel companions
03 · Definition
Research changed what we were building.
Match people to open spots
A marketplace centered on price and availability.
Help people evaluate fit
Verification, shared context, conversation, and flexibility moved ahead of booking.
The group organizer
- Preserve a booked trip after someone drops
- Find a trustworthy replacement
- Share expectations before adding them
The solo traveler
- Find a trip within dates and budget
- Understand the people already going
- Connect before making a commitment
Priorities
Trust became a requirement, not a badge.
The MoSCoW exercise put verification, group communication, mutual interests, and core trip details ahead of discounts and secondary social features.
04 · Core journey
Make the decision legible.
Discover
Search by date, place, and interests.
Evaluate
Review trip details, travelers, and cost.
Connect
Message the group before joining.
Plan
Coordinate the itinerary together.
05 · Wireframes & iteration
From feature coverage to a clearer product loop.
Early wireframes tested breadth across authentication, profiles, search, messages, booking, and trip creation. The next pass tightened hierarchy and connected discovery to evaluation and conversation.
Visual direction
A travel club, not a generic booking app.
Cinematic imagery and editorial type create aspiration; high-contrast utility colors keep actions visible. The palette and components stay intentionally compact so the work—not a style guide dump—remains central.
#08090A#F3EDE4#D8F24F#4C68FF
Display / CormorantFind your
people.Interface / Archivo + Space Mono
people.Interface / Archivo + Space Mono
Verified travelerJuan M.
Columbus · 8 trips · identity checked
Responsive product experience
A mobile-first product, implemented responsively.
The live React build keeps discovery, trip evaluation, and traveler context clear across screen sizes while staying grounded in the phone experience TRPN was designed around.
06 · Final coded product
Discovery, trust, and coordination in one working system.
Every screen below was captured directly from the deployed React product—not from the presentation deck.
Working interaction
Posting a trip is implemented, not implied.
The coded three-step flow begins with destination and dates, then carries the organizer into the information needed to publish a shared stay.
07 · Testing
Four sessions validated the flow—and sharpened the backlog.
Participants completed five core tasks across account creation, trip details, joining, creating a trip, and profile exploration. The deck reports successful completion and an intuitive flow, but does not provide a numeric completion rate.
People wanted more compatibility signals.
Dietary needs, activity level, pet preferences, and past travel were repeatedly requested.
Next: add structured profile and trip filters.Commitment came too early.
Participants wanted to see who was going and talk—or meet—before paying.
Next: make conversation a step before joining.Some controls were ambiguous.
Group-splitting language and icon-only actions needed clearer labels.
Next: pair icons with direct action copy.08 · Outcome & reflection
The prototype became a working site.
The team moved from an open-ended travel idea to a connected prototype. I then helped carry the experience into a responsive React website spanning discovery, trip details, profiles, posting, and messaging.
What I learned
Trust is an information-order problem. Verification helps, but people also need context, compatibility, and a low-risk way to communicate before commitment. Implementing the experience exposed interaction and content needs that were less visible in static wireframes.
Next steps
Validate the revised pre-payment conversation flow, test compatibility filters with a broader sample, and measure task completion and confidence with a consistent scale.
Open the working React site ↗