Travel Tango
An admin dashboard case study about a travel platform that empowers travelers to create personalized trip itineraries while providing admins with tools to manage them.
Problem
Admin users rely on a dashboard to review, assign, and manage trip itineraries, but the current workflow makes these tasks dense and unclear. This affects their productivity and the quality of the itineraries delivered to travelers.
User Problems
- Admins struggle to complete key actions
- Work overload affect their productivity
- The process is currently unintuitive and time-consuming
Solution
- Design the end-to-end itinerary management workflow.
- Make the workflow intuitive, user-friendly and efficient.
- Create an admin dashboard to support the main tasks.
Discovery
Competitor Analysis
My first step was to conduct competitive/market research. I identified the top three companies with similar capabilities and compared them using a usability matrix.
Main Takeaways
- Each company’s core features: Like itinerary creation, actitivity and attraction planning, multi-destination, web access.
- Industry benchmarks: Focus on long-term engagement, strong conversion paths, and satisfaction metrics rather than daily usage alone.
- Shared capabilities and limitations: They share limitations in automation, real-time updates, and customization when itineraries get complex.
- Patterns and usability conventions: Chronological timelines, map-assisted planning, incremental inputs, and flexible editing.
- Exposed gaps and opportunities to refine the workflow: Travel Tango can stand out by moving from a passive planning tool to an active travel companion.
Ideation
First Sketches
With those insights from the competitors, I moved into ideation. First, by sketching early concepts to explore layout and flow.
User Flow
The drafted user flow outlines the path of the itinerary from submission onward, showing how the agent’s key actions—approving, rejecting, or escalating—directly influence its status at each step.
Information Architecture
A draft flowchart that maps out the information architecture, helping to quickly check structure and user flow before moving into detailed design.
Prototyping
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
These mid-fidelity screens explore layout, content hierarchy, and key interactions, allowing for early validation of user flows and usability before moving into detailed visual design.
Research
Usability Test
To validate the core flow before investing in detailed visual design, I conducted a quick usability test using mid-fidelity prototypes. The primary goal was to evaluate the clarity of navigation and the readability of the dashboard.
The test was conducted with three participants and followed a qualitative, exploratory approach. Participants were asked to complete a set of tasks using the prototypes while providing feedback on their experience.
Gains
- Users consistently gravitated toward the fastest path to complete the tasks.
- 67% of the participants find the tasks easy to complete.
- Participants appreciated the feedback provided after completing each task.
Pains
- Uncertainty about the clickable states of certain tags and table rows.
- 33% indicated lack of contrast that resulted in poor readability.
- Ambiguous table name lead to misinterpretation and second-guessing.
Challenge
⚠️ Unexpected Scope Change
To enhance collaboration, the client decided that admins should assign itineraries to team members for a secondary review before approval.
New Requirements
- Update flow to include the new steps: Admins require the ability to assign itineraries for peer review before final approval.
- A new feature: It should be integrated into the Approval & Feedback screen without overloading it or overwhelming the users.
Personas
As the workflow evolved, it naturally split into two roles: agent and reviewer. Together, these admin roles represent the personas for this case.
Updated User Flow and IA
The information architecture flowchart and user flow were updated to reflect workflow changes and the introduction of different admin roles.
Prototyping
High-Fidelity Wireframes
High-fidelity screens showcasing the final visual design, refined interactions, and polished UI elements, representing how the dashboard looks and behaves in its final form.
Testing
Measuring success
A second test was conducted not only to validate the high-fidelity screens, but also to confirm the effectiveness of the updated workflow.
Takeaways
- 100% of users perceived tasks as quick, straightforward, and easy to complete.
- Strong visibility and fast updates made users feel in control and informed.
- Reinforced positive interaction by the familiarity with UI elements.
- Users sometimes second-guessed their next step, instead of the intended path.
Impact
Project Learnings
This project positively influenced the way I approach product design. Being involved across the entire process (from user research and ideation to prototyping and usability testing) pushed me to gain confidence in designing end-to-end experiences. It helped me better understand how each phase connects and how thoughtful, user-centered decisions evolve through iteration and feedback.
Process & Mindset
This project helped me move from designing based on assumptions to grounding decisions in user insights. I was able to move from assumptions to validation, being more confident and intentional on my design decisions.
Dealing with Feedback
I learned to see feedback as a tool rather than a critique. Regular check-ins and reviews helped me identify blind spots early and iterate faster, ultimately improving the quality of the final solution.
Hard & Soft Skills
Prototyping and testing helped me validate flows early and refine the experience based on real user feedback. While I deepened my empathy and communication skills by understanding the motivations and challenges.