Taste of Place
UX Research · Case Study · Product Design · Mobile Application · 2026
A mobile app that turns scattered social media travel inspiration into real food and photo trip plans, combining place discovery, walkable routes, and a digital-postcard memory feature.
Overview
Trip planning today is fragmented. People save inspiration on Instagram, check reviews on Yelp, browse maps on Google, and still end up scrolling at the table trying to decide where to actually go. Taste of Place brings discovery, planning, walking, and remembering into a single, culturally-grounded experience.
PROBLEM
Scattered tools make travel planning feel like work.
SOLUTION
One curated "Place Hub" with food, photo spots, context, route, and memory.
OUTCOME
14-screen hi-fi prototype validated with 2 rounds of usability testing.
Travelers and culturally curioius city explorers want to discover food, attractions, photo spots, and cultural context for a destination. However, the tools for these jobs live in separate apps. Inspiration is collected, planning is repeated from scratch, and memories are scattered across screenshots and camera rolls.
Problem Statement
1
Design a single mobile experience that lets a user move from inspiration to plan to walk to
remember without leaving the app. Validate the flow with a high-fidelity prototype and at least two rounds of usability testing.
Project Goal
2
If users can see food, photo spots, cultural context, and route planning around a destination instead of around a business listing, they will plan faster, feel more confident, and engage more emotionally with the places they visit.
Hypothesis
3
The Problem
The Problem
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Travelers and culturally curious city explorers want to discover food, attractions, photo spots, and cultural context for a destination. However, the tools for these jobs live in separate apps. Inspiration is collected, planning is repeated from scratch, and memories are scattered across screenshots and camera rolls.
PROJECT GOAL
Design a single mobile experience that lets a user move from inspiration to plan to walk to remember without leaving the app. Validate the flow with a high-fidelity prototype and at least two rounds of usability testing.
HYPOTHESIS
If users can see food, photo spots, cultural context, and route planning around a destination instead of around a business listing, they will plan faster, feel more confident, and engage more emotionally with the places they visit.
Design Objectives
Combine discovery, planning, route, and memory in one flow.
Reduce app-switching
1
Add a "why this place matters" layer to every venue.
Surface context, not just ratings
2
Show busyness and wait time, not only stars / ratings.
Make confidence visible
3
Capture one photo + one note as a "Digital Postcard."
Turn trips into memories
4
Research
Combined primary research (6 interviews, 20 respondent survey) with secondary research and two expert consultations. The research was not decorative, every major feature in the final prototype maps back to a specific finding.
Research Methods
Informal Interview
6 participants · mixed students, frequent travelers, and newly-relocated residents. 30 min, semi-structured. Asked how they currently plan a weekend trip, which apps they use, where they get stuck.
Secondary Research
Reviewed published behavior studies on travel planning, food discovery, and memory keeping. Audited gaps in existing platforms (Dianping, Yelp, and Google Maps) to find unmet jobs.
Online Survey
20 responses · 8 short-form questions distributed via student channels and personal network. Focused on app usage patterns, decision blockers, and memory habits.
Expert Consultations
Two structured conversations - one with a frequent business traveler (decision-making lens) and one with a software engineer (technical feasibility lens). Each surfaced a feature the survey couldn't.
User Research
80%
use 2+ apps just to plan a single trip.
70%
feel overwhelmed choosing between options.
60%
save places online but rarely revisit them.