Reimagining travel planning on Google Search

Overview

Problem

Search returned text-based links with no memory between sessions. Every visit started from zero. Travellers had to stitch together inspiration, comparisons, and logistics on their own, across tabs, screenshots, and half-remembered searches. The product was built for a decisive user who, in reality, rarely existed.

Goal

Research

We didn't start from scratch. Google had a large database of existing user research and I spent time going deep into it before touching a single frame. The patterns were consistent: people planning trips were flexible and undecided. Most hadn't committed to a destination, a date, or even a duration.

Three friction points kept coming up: getting inspired, comparing options without losing context, and resuming a search without starting over. Those gaps became the backbone of the framework.

Framework

We structured the work around a three-stage traveller journey, with each designer owning one stage. My primary responsibility was stage three, Rediscover the Journey. On top of that, I took on the work of pulling all three stages into a coherent experience, since they had been designed independently and looked very different from each other.

I. Get inspired

A visual, cross-vertical surface that surfaces destinations, stays, and things to do before any destination has been decided on.

Without map: Broad exploration

With map: Contextual exploration

II. Look into alternatives

Side-by-side comparisons with price signals and sustainability cues to help weigh tradeoffs without jumping between tabs.

III. Rediscover the journey

A curated view of the user's search history, personalised and kept up to date, so returning to a trip mid-planning feels like picking up a conversation, not starting a new one.

Prototyping

I always start with quick sketches to make the delivery clear, align the team early, and pressure-test the idea before investing in high fidelity.

Me in action, brainstorming with the team.

I built high-fidelity mobile prototypes in React with a live Google Maps integration, something that wasn't possible in Figma at the time, before AI tools existed to bridge that gap. The prototypes were used directly in user research sessions and made it possible to evaluate motion, map interactions, and the overall feel of the experience in a way static mocks couldn't communicate.

Outcome

The sprint ran alongside a major organisational restructure at Google, which made for an uncertain backdrop. Teams were shifting, priorities were being renegotiated, and it wasn't always clear who the work ultimately belonged to. Getting anything across the line in that environment felt like its own achievement.