TRAVANA: Go beyond the Map
VISUAL INTERFACE DESIGN. APP DESIGN. TRAVEL APP. DESIGN TO REDUCE CULTURAL BIAS
Designed a Travel App: Travana empowers you to overcome stereotypes, avoid unintentional disrespectful behaviour, and truly connect
My Role and Responsibilities
-
Design Styles Research
-
User Research
-
User Journey Mapping
-
Wireframing
-
High Fidelity Mockups
Project Context
-
March 2025 – July 2025
-
Team: University Project Team
-
Project Team: 3 Members
-
Role: Product Designer
Tools used
-
Figma
TRAVANA
Whether you're an Indian student living in Germany, a traveler visiting Japan, or anyone navigating global experiences, Travana empowers you to overcome stereotypes, avoid unintentionally disrespectful behaviour, and truly connect.
Personas
Sam Carter is a seasoned travel blogger from Atlanta who’s visited over 15 countries.
Despite his experience, he seeks culturally accurate guidance to avoid missteps and share respectful insights with his global audience.
Diya Sharma is a 24-year-old master’s student from India navigating her new life in Germany.

Eager to grow academically and personally, she seeks cultural clarity and social connection while adjusting to everyday challenges as an international student.
Lasse Leo is a 26-year-old software engineer from Germany preparing for his first international trip.
Eager to explore new cultures but anxious about making mistakes, he looks for simple, supportive guidance to travel with confidence and respect.
User Needs
User Journey
After gaining a better understanding of the user needs, we created a user journey to understand the steps involved.
Using this user Journey, we came up with some key features we thought we might need, arranged them by navigation / flow and decided on a subset to design.
Design Style Research
Through this exploration, we analyzed:
Tonality & Mood – What emotions do the styles evoke?
Typography, Color & Layout – How do they guide attention and interaction?
Cultural Appropriateness – Which styles resonate across diverse user groups?
Device Compatibility – Which styles adapt well to mobile, tablet, and AR interfaces?
Style Selection for Travana
Moodboard
Final App
For paper prototyping, we used an iPhone template.
Core flows:
-
Home-Page & Navigation
-
Interactive learning features
-
Onboarding flow
-
Search functionality
User Feedback
Detailed Wireframes
As part of digitizing the paper prototype, we implemented the previous feedback,worked on improving and standardizing layouts,expanded the amount and detail of screens to complete all mayor flows,Improved onboarding trough better explanations and shorter overall flow.
Final Hi-fidelity Mockups
New Illustrative Style:
A warm, friendly illustration style was developed to humanise the experience and reflect cultural diversity.
Balancing Illustrations and Images:
We combined playful illustrations with real photos to create a balance between storytelling and authenticity.
Strategic UI:
The UI focuses on clarity and ease of use, with intuitive navigation, soft visuals, and purposeful hierarchy.
Onboarding
Curated Homepage and Search
Country Details and Quiz
Map and Myths
Community
TRAVANA
Go Beyond the Map
TRAVANA reimagines travel as an opportunity for cultural understanding rather than surface-level exploration.
By combining inclusive design, real-time cultural guidance, and community-driven insights, the project demonstrates how thoughtful UX can reduce cultural bias and empower travelers to engage with new places respectfully, confidently, and meaningfully.
Thanks for watching!
Get in touch :)
Let's talk about Design, Sports, Animals or drop in just to say 'Hi ;)'
