- Group project
- 7 members
- UX/UI design
- AI experience
Nextrail
A group exploration of how AI can take you from travel inspiration to an actual trip, starting from the content you already save, not a blank search.
My role Product Designer
The problem
We save hundreds of travel ideas.
Most never become trips.
We find places through Instagram, TikTok and YouTube every day: a reel here, a saved video there, a link sent to a friend. The saving is effortless. The problem is what happens next: when it’s time to plan, all of it is scattered across apps, and planning starts from zero.
What we found
Three things kept coming up.
Inspiration lives on social media.
People find where to go through reels, shorts and creator videos far more than through travel sites or blogs. The discovery already happened before any planning tool is opened.
Saved content rarely becomes action.
Everyone saves with the intention of coming back to it. Almost no one organises those saves, and most are never opened again.
Planning still starts from scratch.
Even with a camera roll full of inspiration, planning means switching between maps, notes and booking tabs and rebuilding everything by hand.
We stopped asking
“Where do you want to go?”
and started asking
“What already inspired you?”
Introducing
Feed2Fly.
Your saved travel content, turned into your next trip.
Feed2Fly lets you share the travel content you find on social platforms straight into Nextrail. From there, Nextrail organises that inspiration by destination and turns it into something you can act on.
Research
The work behind it.
Before any of this took shape, we scanned 40+ travel platforms, followed how travel spreads on social, pulled threads from travel communities on Reddit, and sat down with real travellers: solo adventurers, weekend groups and families. The trips were different. The frustration was identical.
What kept coming up
Nine patterns, over and over.
- 01
Scattered planning
Maps in one tab, notes in another, bookings in a third: nothing talks to anything.
- 02
Info overload
Endless “top 10” lists, none of them yours. More reading than deciding.
- 03
Hard to find inspiration
The ideas worth acting on sit in feeds and DMs, not on travel sites.
- 04
Personalisation & vibe
People want a trip that matches their mood, not a generic itinerary.
- 05
Budget stress
Cost stays a guess until the booking screen. No running total anywhere.
- 06
One-stop booking
Hopping apps to compare stays, flights and activities kills the momentum.
- 07
Safety is critical
Families want verified stays and a read on crowds before they commit.
- 08
On-the-go changes
Plans shift mid-trip; a fixed itinerary can’t keep up.
- 09
Wants an AI planner
People already expect something to turn their inputs into a real plan.
By the numbers
What the survey said.
0%
are looking for a travel plan personalised to them
0%
want help finding hidden gems, not the usual list
0%
want suggestions drawn from videos they saved or liked
0%
compare hotel prices and amenities before they book
0%
like to keep a running track of their travel budget
Who we built for
Two travellers we kept in the room.
Our audience runs 16–50 and loves to travel. Two of them stood in for the rest through every design decision.
Riya Mehta
24 · Mumbai · Solo traveller · UX designer
I save reels all the time. They never turn into an actual trip.
- Travels for local culture, not the landmark checklist
- Wants verified stays and a plan that fits her mood
Needs One app, information she can trust, and planning that starts from what already inspired her.
Rajiv Sharma
35 · Pune · Family traveller · Runs a business
A family trip needs more than bookings. We need peace of mind.
- Plans kid-friendly trips around safety and comfort
- Travels to spend unhurried time with family
Needs Clean verified stays, crowd and safety cues, and one place to plan the whole thing.
Interview insights
In their own words.
I keep saving reels and videos, but I never know how to turn them into an actual trip.
Every app gives me pieces, but none of them give me everything I need in one place.
I spend so much time planning, only to realize I’ve gone way over my budget.
Why can’t I just drop my vibe or mood, and get a trip plan built around that?
Sometimes I just want quick, local experiences without the usual tourist chaos.
I use Google Maps, Booking.com, and ChatGPT, but I still end up feeling confused and unprepared.
How it works
Four beats, one path.
01 / 04
See something
worth going to.
You find a place, a stay, a viewpoint or a hidden spot while scrolling: a reel, a short, a clip from someone whose taste you trust.
02 / 04
Share what
inspires you.
Instead of saving it somewhere you’ll forget, send it straight to Nextrail, from the same share sheet you already use.
03 / 04
We organise
the inspiration.
Nextrail gathers everything you’ve sent and groups it by destination, so a scattered pile of links becomes one place you can work from.
04 / 04
Turn it into
a trip.
From there it’s a guided path (who’s going, when, and your budget) and the content you saved becomes a day-by-day plan.
My role
My role in Nextrail.
I worked in a seven-person team on the product thinking, user experience and interface direction for Nextrail, with Feed2Fly as the piece I stayed closest to.
Product thinking
Exploring the opportunity around how people discover travel and where planning breaks down.
UX design
Helping structure the user journeys and interaction flows across the product.
Feed2Fly
Contributing to the concept and the experience of turning saved travel content into an actionable plan.
UI design
Designing and refining key interfaces and product moments.
What I learned.
- Start with behaviour, not features.
- Feed2Fly came from something people already do: save and share travel content. The work wasn’t teaching a new habit; it was making an existing one pay off.
- Inspiration needs structure.
- Discovery is spontaneous and emotional. Planning is structured and practical. The whole design problem was the bridge between those two moments.