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About

Resume

Odyssey

Spontaneous travel app

As my second designathon with UXL following Pomelo, I was excited to jump back into a challenging design event and create something new. This time, I wanted to lean into the full experience by incorporating more motion and pushing further with prototyping.

Problem

It's tedious to plan a trip and create a fully thought out itinerary. At the same time it's hard to find the best places to go, and get a real feel for a new area.

Solution

A spontaneous travel app that shares local recommendations and favourites near your person. Create spur-of-the-moment plans and change them as you discover more on the way.

Role

Product designer

Team

3 designers

Timeline

Mar '23

"For the spontaneous traveller who thinks in the moment"

Ideation

We were given the prompt: “How might we design an experience that sparks curiosity, self-reflection, and experimentation to enhance learning and discovery?” Drawing from our own experiences in Toronto, we realized we always visit the same places because we don't know where else to go. Discovering new places often requires time, research, and planning we are too lazy to do. This led us to the idea of an app that removes that friction by surfacing local favourites nearby and encouraging exploration of something new.

Ideation

We were given the prompt: “How might we design an experience that sparks curiosity, self-reflection, and experimentation to enhance learning and discovery?” Drawing from our own experiences in Toronto, we realized we always visit the same places because we don't know where else to go. Discovering new places often requires time, research, and planning we are too lazy to do. This led us to the idea of an app that removes that friction by surfacing local favourites nearby and encouraging exploration of something new.

Sorry everyone looks a little yassified, the image was very blurry and I tried to enhance it.

Analysis

From there I planned out the most critical screens to begin working on and the main journeys the users may take. I also formed a creative brief to help guide the team during designing and to stay on track.

Main hypothesis

"If we allow travellers to discover local favourites, it would enhance their learning and exploration of a new place, and engage them in a way a planned trip couldn’t."

Main scenarios

You're travelling and I don't know what to do. You want a less "touristy" experience. You're interested in the local food scene and want to support small businesses.

Business opportunities

Provide places popular recommendation sites would have a hard time knowing of. Provide an engaging, adventure-like way of exploring and learning somewhere new. Access past trips and share them with friends.

Principles

Encourage discovery. Facilitate learning. Playful and interactive.

Analysis

From there I planned out the most critical screens to begin working on and the main journeys the users may take. I also formed a creative brief to help guide the team during designing and to stay on track.

Main hypothesis

"If we allow travellers to discover local favourites, it would enhance their learning and exploration of a new place, and engage them in a way a planned trip couldn’t."

Main scenarios

You're travelling and I don't know what to do. You want a less "touristy" experience. You're interested in the local food scene and want to support small businesses.

Business opportunities

Provide places popular recommendation sites would have a hard time knowing of. Provide an engaging, adventure-like way of exploring and learning somewhere new. Access past trips and share them with friends.

Principles

Encourage discovery. Facilitate learning. Playful and interactive.

Final designs and prototypes

Final designs, showcasing major flows and features of our design.

Final designs and prototypes

Final designs, showcasing major flows and features of our design.

Homescreen

Choose an initial destination to begin your adventure (or free explore), reminisce in your past trips and share your favourite spots to help others explore.

Searching

Find somewhere specific or check out popular destinations to start your journey. Different kinds of places have unique colours and icons.

Pitstop

Learn more about a new place before adding it to your trip.

Map view

See your current trip details and all the places around your person. Also see your current trip stats and enter free explore mode with the options in the top left corner.

Reflection and takeaways

What I learned from this project.

Fleshing it out

Since the timeline was so short, we had to focus on the most vital parts of the app, which meant we had to scrap a lot of our ideas. The next step would be to explore how we could incentivize locals to crowdsource the data the app would use and contribute to the system, as well as conduct more research to back up our designs.

Motion engages

I had the opportunity to apply a lot of the animation skills I learned from my previous project JamParty to this. From the responses, it seemed to really excite and captivate them, helping to set us apart from the crowd.

Sleep more

Zzzzz.

Reflection and takeaways

What I learned from this project.

Fleshing it out

Since the timeline was so short, we had to focus on the most vital parts of the app, which meant we had to scrap a lot of our ideas. The next step would be to explore how we could incentivize locals to crowdsource the data the app would use and contribute to the system, as well as conduct more research to back up our designs.

Motion engages

I had the opportunity to apply a lot of the animation skills I learned from my previous project JamParty to this. From the responses, it seemed to really excite and captivate them, helping to set us apart from the crowd.

Sleep more

Zzzzz.

Thanks for visiting my portfolio!

Best viewed on desktop.

© 2026 Chris Pan.

Thanks for visiting my portfolio!

Best viewed on desktop.

© 2026 Chris Pan.