MONARC
Streamlining travel planning for groups of all sizes, making traveling easier and more enjoyable.
ROLE
TEAM
1 Product Designer
3 Developers
DURATION
July - September 2024
IMPACT
UX Research
Visual Design
Interaction Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Cross-Functional Work
Overview
Monarc is a centralized hub for all things travel related, where users can easily plan travels for groups of all sizes.
Inspired by the monarch butterfly, Monarc captures the spirit of purposeful, connected travel. Born from a casual conversation with a friend about our shared love for travel and the need for a better way to plan, this project became my first deep dive into design and a meaningful collaboration that brought our idea to life.
Our Goal
Simplify the complexities of travel planning by streamlining all the different moving parts.
With Monarc, the goal was to simplify the often complex and fragmented process of travel planning by creating a clear, easy-to-use platform where users can manage all trip details in one place. By enabling collaboration and providing clarity, Monarc aims to reduce the stress and confusion that often accompany travel planning, making it a more enjoyable and efficient experience for everyone involved.
The Problem
Various aspects of travel planning often make the process stressful for a lot of people.
As someone who loves to travel, I’ve had countless trip ideas with friends that never made it past the group chat. Though everyone was excited about the idea, planning often felt too overwhelming, especially with the process of jumping between apps to plan itinerary and trying to coordinate everyone’s preferences.
In fact, while many people eagerly anticipate traveling, the planning process often feels less exciting. Managing logistics across multiple apps can make it difficult to track your progress and identify what’s still missing. Group travel adds another layer of complexity, requiring careful coordination to accommodate everyone’s preferences and keep track of expenses.
User Research
How might we make travel planning and management a simpler and more enjoyable experience for all?
After surveying 40 individuals from various age groups about their past experiences and challenges with travel planning in a group, I found that many travelers want a simple planning tool that allows for a seamless coordination with everyone involved.
53.8% of respondents indicated that their travels are typically in a group
57.5% find that planning activities and itineraries are the most challenging
77.5% of respondents claimed that planning itineraries is the most stressful part of group traveling
55% think that detailed itineraries and advance bookings will help them feel more in control
90% of respondents would find a travel app for planning and organizing travel logistics helpful
72.5% want comprehensive planning app
55% want expense-tracking tools
52.5% want collaborative planning
I then conducted 6 interviews to delve deeper into the specific challenges travelers face. These conversations revealed consistent frustrations and patterns, which ultimately pointed to two key pain points.
Difficulty managing logistics with a group
“People always want to do different things, and it’s hard to keep track of different preferences when planning”
“It’s hard to get everyone on the same page about trip plans”
Lack of simple centralized hub for all things travel planning related
“I’m constantly going back and forth between different apps when planning for trips”
“I’d prefer to have an app that specifically offers group-based planning instead of other unnecessary features”
With the findings from the survey and user interview, I synthesized user pain points to consider for ideation, ensuring that the key implementations are addressing real user needs.
There is a lack of platforms that specialize in customizable travel planning.
People want to customize their itineraries to be structured or flexible as needed based on their travel styles.
It’s challenging to get everyone on the same page about travel details.
When traveling in groups, people often struggle to plan collaboratively and effectively organize individual preferences.
The different aspects of planning for a trip are overwhelming.
All necessary travel information is scattered across various platforms, resulting in an ineffective planning experience.
Different types of travel call for different tools.
People need tools tailored to the size and dynamic of the group that they are traveling with.
Competitive Analysis
Competitors are already offering features for central travel planning, but there are limitations.
Analyzing the popular travel planning apps in the market provided understanding of how they are supporting centralized planning. However, I found that many do not offer group-based planning, and for those that do, this feature is locked behind a paywall.
Itinerary Management
Travel Suggestions
Collaborative Planning
Budget Management
Tag members for expenses
Location-specific reminders
Airport-specific reminders
Customization
Travefy
TripIt
Google Travels
Sygic Travel
Only available in paid plans
Ideation
Exploring key features that relate to the overall product goals.
With research findings in mind, our team identified product goals relevant to users’ goals and needs. This laid a clear ground for feature brainstorming, where we ideated potential features that can directly relate to each of the product goals.
Enable users to plan itineraries to match their travel style
Customizable itineraries to fit any travel style
Add relevant sections in travel groups for more personalized travel plans
Provide tools to better coordinate group traveling
Suggest the most popular activity indicated by members of the group
Collaborative tool to plan itineraries and travel details together
Expense tracking for who covered specific expenses and those involved
Minimize stress by simplifying the planning process
Suggest relevant and popular activities
Community Board with suggestions by other travelers
Reminders about airport and location-specific requirements and alerts
Mitigate the risk of comprising user privacy
Anonymity in community boards
Warning for users when sharing personal information
Storing data in a permanent location so they can be deleted when requested
After, I planned out how the app would be structured, ensuring that the key features could be found where the users would expect them to be. This process allowed me to clearly envision how to organize and design the app moving forward.
Before moving into wireframing, I first sketched out the preliminary designs so that I could better visualize how to bring the features together.
Iteration & User Testing
Ensuring that the design is intentional in delivering an intuitive travel planning experience.
After receiving feedback on the initial sketches from my team, I created mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma and conducted 4 usability tests, asking users to interact and create community posts, find saved posts, and find archived trips. This process allowed me to gather user feedback that helped guide the next round of design iterations.
Community Post
The community post feature adds a social layer to Monarc, giving users a way to connect with fellow travelers and discover relevant suggestions. The layout of the post was a key focus during the design exploration phase. It was essential to structure the information intuitively, ensuring users could quickly find what they’re looking for when engaging with a post.
Unintuitive information hierarchy due to unconventional layout
Users were unsure of the reliability due to a lack of information on when the post was made
Added a time stamp/date for when the post was made
Rearranged the layout of the post to reflect user expectations
Trip Group
Iterating on the trip group page revealed the need to explore how to display all essential trip details in one place, ensuring users could access everything they need for their trip from a single, centralized page. Through usability testing, I found that though reminders are available on the home page, users would like to see this same information in the within the corresponding trip group page for better context and convenience.
Users felt that not having reminders on this page would cause unnecessary switching between pages and disrupt their flow
Added an expandable reminders section to give users easy access to trip-specific tasks without cluttering the rest of the page
Past/Archived Trips
To accommodate the growing number of trip groups users may accumulate over time, I explored ways to store and access past trips within the app. Users expressed that having access to previous trips was important for future reference. To support this need, I introduced the ability to archive past trips, keeping the interface organized while still allowing easy access when needed.
Users wanted to see their past trips, but didn’t like the idea of past trips being pilled up in the trips page
Created an archived section within the profile page, allowing users to easily access past trips while keeping them separate from active trips to avoid clutter
Design System
Developing a design system helped me design with consistency.
Typography
Primary Color
Text, important action items, and section backgrounds
Secondary Color
Button color and text as button
Buttons
Navigation Bar
Primary Button
Secondary Button
Final Product
After many rounds of ideation, iteration, and testing, we present Monarc!
Access upcoming trips conveniently
Directly access upcoming trips and reminders upon entering the app and the My Trips page.
View all relevant trip details on one page
Say goodbye to endless tabs. The trips page consolidates all essential trip details in one place, making your travel experience effortless and seamless.
Collaboratively plan with travel members
Invite your friends to join in collaborative planning and keep everyone up-to-date with the latest details.
Don’t lose essential information
Manage edit history through activity logs, ensuring essential information can be easily recovered if needed.
Simplified expense tracking for seamless cost-splitting
Easily track trip expenses by tagging group members who covered specific costs and those involved. No more tedious manual calculations—Monarc handles it all for you.
Create a community post
Share your travel experiences with the Monarc community! When posting during your travels, Monarc will warn you to protect your privacy.
Manage relevant information in profiles
Access all your travel preferences, saved posts, personal posts, and archived trips in one convenient place. Adjust your settings and privacy preferences anytime you need.
Next Steps
Monarc is still work in progress...
I’m continuing to collaborate closely with the developers to ensure that all design elements are responsive across devices and technically feasible to implement. With additional time, I would like to enhance the expense tracking feature by allowing users to specify how bills are split by percentage, providing greater flexibility and accuracy in group expense management.
Final Thoughts
Take initiative, but don’t be afraid to reach out when needed
As the only designer on the team, this project taught me to be more comfortable in navigating unexpected challenges that arose during the design process, especially because I had to rely on my own decision-making a lot of the time. I learned to seek help from others when needed, while also looking for resources on my own and learning a lot from what is available in the design community.
Thoughtful solutions emerge from meaningful collaboration
Though I led the bulk of the design process, collaborating closely with my team was a core part of the experience. Sharing ideas, giving and receiving feedback, and working through challenges together taught me the value of open communication in a creative partnership. This collaboration helped me become more open to constructive criticism and reminded me that diverse perspectives are essential to designing thoughtful, user-centered solutions.
Plan with purpose and trust the process
Developing an application concept from scratch was undoubtedly one of the most challenging aspects of this project, but it also pushed me to plan thoughtfully and be more intentional with my design process. Seeing all the pieces come together throughout the journey was incredibly gratifying. I truly enjoyed this process and am excited to see what future projects have in store for me!