Case study · ACM project
PackD — planning large group trips in one place
Planning large group trips are difficult, discover trending destinations, save money, time and communicate with ease using PackD.
- My role
- UI/UX Designer & Researcher
- Timeline
- Spring 2026
- Tools
- Figma, FigJam
My contributions
- Designed and created the home page
- Designed and created the messaging page
- Designed and created the smart search features
- Led the showcase presentation
Problem statement
How might we create a mobile app that simplifies the trip planning process for young adults so that planning trips is more budget and group friendly?
Goals
- Simplify group trip planning
- Encourage budgeting
- Improve communication
- Reduce cognitive load on navigating through multiple apps
Competitive analysis
Most solutions excel at organizing travel logistics but fall short in supporting group coordination. Users often rely on multiple tools to manage availability, communicate preferences, and make decisions collectively.
These findings informed our design direction for PackD: a unified platform that streamlines both trip planning and group collaboration, reducing friction throughout the travel planning process.
User research
User research was conducted via surveys. We discovered that users disliked needing to navigate through multiple apps and having a messy system that easily overwhelms them.
The majority preferred features such as splitting expenses, curated destination suggestions, and clean itineraries, while disliking cluttered user interfaces.
Solution
My team and I addressed user concerns and created PackD, a centralized travel planning mobile app where users can collaborate on destinations, split expenses (as well as remembering who owes whom and for what expense), use a group itinerary editable calendar, and a personal messaging hub within the app.
With a simple interface, users can navigate easily without struggling with confusing features.
Usability findings & iterations
Finding
Users thought the front page looked too static and plain.
Solution
Added a texturized background.
Finding
The original navigation bar design seemed confusing for users, as the indicator for which page they were on was not clearly defined.
Solution
Changed into a bubble style where the icon's color inverted when the user is on the page.
Next steps
- Gather information from a broader, more diverse group of users for their input on the app
- More emphasis on the discover page of the app — making different features, changing the layout, etc.
- Fleshing out the finance page more for app consistency
- Emphasis on creating easier steps for user flow
- Integrate a map feature with all the stops
Research
User flows
Low-fidelity design
My part
Above is my ideas for the low fidelity mockups of my screens was that I wanted to have the homepage include easy to see features that can easily impact a user's day - such as what the weather would be like in their desired city. As well as including an easy method to remember what exact dates were their planned trip (as someone who tends to forget what day of the week it is), this reduces the need for the user to swipe out of PackD and check their calendar on when they are finishing the trip.
Visual identity
High-fidelity & prototype
My part
Above were the fleshed out screens/features that I designed:
The home screen offered a carousel of all the current trips that are being planned with a search feature to take the user anywhere they want on the app + with destination suggestions. The smart AI feature allows users to ask the PackD AI anything they want, such as restaurant recommendations, best flights, weather in different cities, etc.
The messaging screen allows for favorited chats to be pinned to the very top of the screen - with blue dots signaling that there is an unread message whereas a red dot indicates an urgent unread message.