RouteWise

Road trip planner from A to Z

Responsive web app / mobile application

RouteWise is an all-in-one road trip planning platform that simplifies every step of your journey in North America with key features, including:

Key Features:

  • Pre-Trip Planning: Choose your route, decide on your vehicle (own car or RV/ car rental), book places to stay, and plan activities, based on your destination, time, and budget. The platform gives real-time cost estimates based on your choices.

  • Real-Time Road Assistance: Get live updates during the trip, including weather and traffic alerts, so you can adjust plans easily.

  • Post-Trip Features: Share your travel diary, photos, and highlights with friends and the RouteWise community.

Web App Prototype
Responsive Mobile App

Note: In this step, the stakeholder asked us to focus on pre-trip planning as a package.

About RouteWise:

Project Overview

Target Users

1-All-Inclusive Trip Planners:

Users seeking a complete travel package with vehicle rental, route planning, accommodation reservations, and activities.

2-Vehicle Renters:

Individuals focused on renting a vehicle for their trip, tailoring their travel plans to match their preferred mode of transportation.

3-Accommodation Seekers:

Users looking to book places to stay for their trip, whether for one night or the entire journey, and plan around these bookings.

4-Activity Seekers:

Travelers looking to discover and book activities along their route for a more engaging journey.

I worked on this project from scratch during a bootcamp at UX-Land School, where I collaborated as both a UX researcher and a UI designer.

I conducted interviews to understand user needs and collaborated with a group to design a platform for customizing road trip plans. The goal was to make road trip planning easy and efficient for users by following the business value propositions.

Note: In this case study, I focused on the web and mobile app design for the first target users.

Stakeholder Needs

Challenges

Project Goals

Simple Booking Flow: Keeping multiple bookings (car, stays, activities) easy and fast in a single process..

Clear Cost Display: Showing costs without overwhelming users with numbers.

Personalized Choices: Offering relevant options based on users' preferences, needs, or past behavior, without adding unnecessary complexity, using filtering tools.

Easy Navigation: Ensuring smooth transitions between steps and apply modifies (e.g., car rental to booking stays).

All-in-One Booking: Let users plan route, vehicle, stays, and activities, in one place.

Simple and Flexible Pathways: Offer an easy, adaptable experience, encouraging users to keep using our platform for booking hotels, cars, and activities.

Accurate Cost Estimates: Show real-time clear costs to support budget-friendly planning.

Personalized Suggestions: Recommend routes, vehicles, and activities based on user preferences.

Flexible Customization: Allow route, vehicle, and stop adjustments as users plan.

Displaying Time and Budget for Each Route: How to present time and budget estimates for each route by considering various choices from start to finish.

Updating All Trip Details with Changes: How can we present updates to a traveler’s route in a way that automatically adjusts all related bookings and plans?

Separate Research for Booking Sections:
Each section—car/RV rental, accommodation, and activities—required separate research.

*Due to time constraints, aside from considering users' needs for each section through survey and interviews, I focused on competitive analysis for RV rental, hotel booking, and RV site reservations. The remaining sections will be addressed later.

Designe Thinking

I followed a Double Diamond approach based on Design Thinking. It was not a linear path, as I moved between stages as the project evolved.

Discover

Define

Develop

Deliver

Discover

To understand users' pain points and develop effective solutions, I employed a comprehensive research approach using the following methods:

  1. Competitive Analysis

  2. Survey

  3. Interview & Affinity Diagram

  4. Cart Sorting

Interview

For trip planning, I focused on designing a package that includes roads, vehicles, activities, and accommodations. Each area required individual consideration, which I addressed separately during the interview process.

Competitive Analysis

I evaluated 12 online platforms related to road trips planning, RV/car rentals, and hotel/accommodation reservations, by examining important features based on stockholder needs. Using these features, I designed an all-in-one road trip planning that provides essential, easy-to-use tools.

Our analysis shows that Roadtrippers was the most competitive platform. However, it does not offer direct reservations for RVs, cars, or activities.            So, for accommodations, I conducted a competitive analysis on Expedia, Booking.com, Airbnb, and TripAdvisor. For car and RV rentals, Outdoorsy and similar platforms were analyzed.

Survey

I conducted an online survey and received 13 responses from relevant communities. Based on the feedback, I identified some key points to guide my design according to business needs.

  • Vehicle Amenities: Highlighting vehicle size, reliability, and amenities—such as RV facilities (toilet drainage, water tank filling) and available electricity sources—is crucial, especially for family travel.

  • RV Travel Experience: Traveling in an RV is unique due to factors like speed, city entry restrictions, parking availability, and more. Updates and notifications can greatly assist in planning a road trip with an RV.

  • RV Rental Info: Renting an RV or large vehicle may require essential details like a driver's license and meeting specific conditions.

  • Campsite Facilities: The quality of campsite facilities is important.

  • User Reviews: User opinions are crucial when choosing stays.

  • Facility Checks: I need to check the type of facilities available at each stop in advance.

  • Updates on Sites: Keeping RV site information up-to-date is crucial to avoid surprises, like finding no water upon arrival.

  • Dining Search Issues: Finding dining or shopping options that match preferences is time-consuming.

  • Platform Expectations: I want a platform that shows the best places based on my current location or my interests to save time.

  • Reservation Needs: I need the ability to reserve popular places in advance, especially during peak times.

  • Essential Information: Clearly displaying key details like emergency contacts, medical information, and nearby car repair shops is crucial.

Accomadation

Road

Vehicle

Stops: Attractions & Activities

Audience top insight

  • Road Condition: The condition of the road, including the type of surface such as asphalt, gravel, etc., is very important.

  • Route Selection Criteria: I consider proximity to family-friendly amenities, road safety, vehicle compatibility, toll-free options, and ease of passage when selecting a route.

  • Route Preference: I prioritize travel time and my destination, but prefer scenic local routes through villages for the views.

Note: I identified user pain points and expectations and discussed them with our stakeholder. Based on their value proposition and limitations (time and budget), I began defining the design for the first phase.

Define

Affinity Diagram

Road Condition

Budgeting

Vehicle/ RV Reservation

pain points

  • Estimating Travel Costs: Difficulty in predicting travel expenses.

  • Managing Unexpected Expenses: Challenges in handling unplanned costs.

  • High Fuel and Accommodation Costs: Struggles with high fuel and accommodation costs in a road trip.

pain points

pain points

Expectations

  • Budget-Friendly Planning: A feature to help users manage major travel costs within their budget

  • Clear Pricing: Users expect transparent pricing.

  • Cost Breakdown: Users want a clear breakdown of trip costs for each participant that can be easily shared.

  • Budget Flexibility: Users want the ability to adjust plans easily to fit their budgets without confusion.

  • Lack of information on road conditions, safety, and vehicle-specific routes.

  • Real-time updates on traffic and detours would improve the journey.

Expectations

  • Personalized Route Suggestions: Users want routes based on options like fastest, optimal, or scenic, with filters for toll-free or paved roads.

  • Regular Updates: Users need clear and accurate updates during the trip about road changes or traffic issues without confusion or missing information.

  • Size and Comfort: Users may struggle to choose the right vehicle size for comfort and amenities.

  • Access Restrictions: Some locations have vehicle size restrictions or limited parking.

Expectations

  • Clear Vehicle Information: Users expect detailed info about vehicle features, size, and suitability for their needs.

  • Filter Options: Users want to filter vehicles by amenities (e.g., beds, bathrooms, kitchen) and size to match their needs and budget.

Stops /Stays

Used Popular Applications

pain points

Expectations

  • Comprehensive Platform for Stops and Stays: Users expect centralized, clear, and easily accessible information about rest stops, tourist attractions, and accommodations on a single platform.

    Detailed Facility Insights: Users expect information on amenities—like parking, restrooms, safety, and nearby services at each stop—to be accessible, clear, and well-defined.

pain points

  • Lack of a Dedicated All-in-One Platform: Users mention there is no platform that consolidates everything they need (like stops, attractions, and parking) based on personalized preferences.

  • Switching Between Apps: Users find it inconvenient to use multiple platforms to get all the necessary information.

  • Simplicity and User-Friendliness: Users expect the platform to be easy to use and not overly complex.

  • Up-to-Date Information: Keeping the platform's information updated is essential to avoid confusion and errors during trips.

Expectations

  • Lack of Attraction and Accommodation Info: Users have no dedicated comprehensive platform for finding information on scenic spots, tourist attractions, and accommodations—often relying on Google Maps but switching between platforms breaks the flow.

Based on Insights from the interviews, we created an Affinity Diagram and identified pain points and expectations for each key step.

Our chosen persona represents users who value time management, budgeting, and organized planning. The users I interviewed are eager for road trips but avoid them due to limited time. They need a comprehensive platform to meet all their travel needs in one place, helping them manage both time and money while planning a memorable road trip.

Persona

Site Map

To ensure our information architecture meets user expectations, I conducted 16 open card sorting using the Optimal Workshop platform. After the initial exercise, I developed our first version and iteratively refined it based on user testing and competitive analysis.

Here is our final site map:

I added a customization task to the user flow for personalized packages, providing a seamless experience for busy professionals like Sam.

Final User Flow

Develop

Challenges

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Solutions

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Sketches and Wireframes

I initially mapped out our ideation using hand-sketched low-fidelity wireframes, aiding communication within the team during the early design stages. Later, I transitioned to creating low-fidelity wireframes on Figma to visualize page layouts and design direction. These wireframes underwent several iterations before final content development.

Moodboard

I shaped our mood board inspired by nature, ultimately arriving at a color palette that includes a variety of green shades symbolizing nature and vitality, along with cream tones inspired by the sunrise.

UI Kit

Our UI kit balances casualness with a color palette of dark & light green, light orange & brown tones, modern and easy-to-read fonts.

Deliver

High Fidelity Wireframe

Protoype

Here is the last prototype, displaying what I've achieved through our design process.

Final Desktop Prototype

Iteration and Usability Test

Throughout the project, I went through multiple iterations, driven by the insights I gained from usability tests. These tests were instrumental in shaping our decisions and constantly enhancing our project.

uxui_canada@gmail.com