Tripadvisor
Designing tools for tour operators, guides, and activity providers across Tripadvisor and Viator
Overview
Designing for supply-side users across the Tripadvisor ecosystem
As Lead Product Designer, I worked on the Experiences supply-side platform, used by businesses listing and managing tours, activities, and bookings on Tripadvisor and Viator. My role covered a wide range of strategic and hands-on design efforts, from core UX architecture to front-end collaboration and user testing.
- →Worked to optimize a platform supporting operators, guides, and agencies worldwide
- →Designed systems and workflows supporting real-world business operations
- →Partnered directly with engineers to build and validate prototypes with high-volume users
Product builder tool
Updating the aesthetics of the core product buliding tool
Timeline
Shifts in scope and structure
- →Joined an 8-person design team focused on supply-side experiences
- →Corporate restructuring occurred 6 months in
- →Became sole remaining product designer in the Sydney office
- →Adapted processes to continue delivering high-priority work at reduced team scale
Tour group messaging
Concept for in-app messaging for tour groups
To facilitate coordination between operators and travelers, an in-app group chat function was proposed. Ultimately, however, it was decided that we would not develop this feature.
Group messaging functionality
Connecting tour operators and travelers
Hotel pickup experience
Building a pickup workflow that reflects real-world complexity
I collaborated with the product manager, lead designer, and engineers to create a robust hotel pickup experience. We mapped happy and unhappy paths in Balsamiq and ensured the flow always informed users what was happening and what to expect next.
- →Used Balsamiq to simulate edge cases and coverage across all scenarios
- →Eliminated dead ends and reinforced clarity throughout the experience
- →Improved user trust by always surfacing system state and next steps
Hotel pickup workflow development
Random samples from dozens of wireframe workflows created in Balsamiq, representing all possible user paths.
Booking management
Designing around user mental models and front-end flexibility
We rebuilt the core architecture of the booking management interface around a calendar-based model. This decision was based on observed mismatches between our existing UI and how users expected to visualize and organize their bookings. I partnered with a senior engineer to create a live prototype and gathered feedback from high-volume operators.
- →Developed and deployed test environments via Netlify for live user testing
- →Prioritized functional alignment with third-party calendar integrations
- →Leveraged real-time feedback to reduce assumptions and validate structures
Systemic asset redesign
Creating flexible design assets for scalable integration
I led an initiative to consolidate and modernize white-labelled icons used across the platform. The goal was to reduce turnaround time, improve consistency, and ease the burden of implementation.
- →Audited legacy assets and streamlined exports across teams
- →Created new SVG icon catalogue that, via layer/object naming conventions in source files, allowed for styling/branding of icons using CSS
- →Wrote documentation detailing usage of source files and best practises for exporting SVG assets
- →Collaborated with engineers to align asset structure with dev pipelines
Help center redesign
Restructuring support content around user needs
I worked on redesigning the Traveler Help Center's information architecture and layout. Using Balsamiq wireframes with color-coded structures, we clarified hierarchy, reduced friction, and improved overall usability.
- →Created modular layouts for varied help content types
- →Designed navigation to support faster issue resolution
- →Color-coded wireframes made IA structure visible and testable
Establishing structure and entity relationships
Using color coding to illustrate how objects relate to one another reinforces the importance of structural consistency
Collaboration & process
Adapting to async teams and reduced resources
After the restructure, I continued to lead design in an async, cross-functional setup. With fewer designers, we emphasized tight collaboration, direct prototyping, and rapid iteration with engineering partners across time zones.
- →Replaced polished mockups with interactive prototypes
- →Maintained design velocity with hands-on code and embedded workflows
- →Ensured platform cohesion through centralized styles and systems