Boston Easytrip

https://boston-story-map.lovable.app/

Boston EasyTrip is a learning-centered travel planning platform designed for first-time visitors to Boston, with a particular focus on international tourists, newcomers, and parents of international students visiting during graduation season. We aim to help users build culturally informed trip experiences. This is especially important for international visitors, who may face additional barriers such as unfamiliar cultural references, limited local knowledge, and language differences.

In our project, trip planning is treated not only as a logistical task but also as a learning process. The project evolved through multiple prototyping stages, from early low-fidelity exploration focused on homepage structure and maps, to mid-fidelity interaction design that improved navigation flow, category systems, AI-supported planning, and multilingual visitor support.

ROLE
Product Designer & AI Prototype Developer

SKILLS
Concept Development
Product Design
Interactive Prototyping
User Research & Testing
AI-Supported Planning Flow
Multilingual Interface Design

TIMELINE
Apr 2025 – May 2025

TOOLS
Figma
Lovable / Vibe Coding
AI Prototyping
Adobe Creative Suite

TEAM
Fengyi Ye
Mary Mei
Yuzhi Duan

PROBLEM

First-time and international visitors often face more than a navigation problem when visiting Boston. They need to learn how to understand the city’s geography, transportation system, cultural landmarks, local history, budget expectations, and everyday travel decisions.

Most travel tools help users find places, but they do not always help users learn how to plan a meaningful, realistic, and culturally informed trip.

The challenge is not simply navigation, but helping visitors learn the city while planning their trip. Boston EasyTrip explores how travel planning can become a more educational, personalized, and confidence-building experience for international visitors.

USER RESEARCH

To better understand this gap, we analyzed existing travel tools, tourism platforms, and the needs of first-time Boston visitors, especially international families and tourists visiting during graduation season.

Key Findings ↓

(01) Motivation

Visitors want more than directions — they want to understand Boston’s culture, history, and neighborhoods while exploring the city.

(02) Need

Users need one platform that combines cultural learning, practical travel support, personalized planning, and multilingual accessibility.

(03) Pain Point

Most travel tools separate navigation, itinerary planning, and cultural storytelling into disconnected experiences, forcing users to switch between multiple apps and websites.

RELATED WORK REVIEW

Existing Boston travel resources support visitors in different but disconnected ways. Official tourism websites such as Meet Boston and City of Boston provide broad visitor information, while tools like the Freedom Trail app and National Park Service audio tours offer strong place-based historical learning. General itinerary platforms such as Wanderlog, Visit A City, and Tripadvisor Trips help users organize plans, and transportation tools like MBTA support practical navigation. However, these tools rarely connect cultural learning, itinerary planning, transportation, and multilingual visitor support into one cohesive experience.

This gap shaped Boston EasyTrip’s direction as a learning-centered travel platform that helps visitors not only move through Boston, but also understand the city more meaningfully.

How Boston EasyTrip Fills the Gap

SOLUTION

Boston EasyTrip is an interactive travel-learning platform that combines cultural exploration, interactive maps, personalized planning, multilingual support, and AI-guided recommendations into one connected experience.

Through landmark storytelling, practical visitor guidance, and customizable travel plans, the platform helps users navigate Boston more confidently while building deeper cultural understanding.

You Might Ask ↓

Who is Boston EasyTrip designed for?

First-time Boston visitors, especially international tourists, newcomers, and families visiting during graduation season.

What makes it different?

Boston EasyTrip connects:

Interactive cultural maps
Landmark storytelling
Personalized trip planning
Practical travel support
Multilingual accessibility
AI-supported guidance

into one cohesive learning-centered travel experience.

When should users use Boston EasyTrip?

Before and during their trip, especially when planning routes, learning about neighborhoods, organizing saved places, or making real-time travel decisions around transportation, food, and cultural destinations.

FINAL DESIGN

Video Demo of User Journey

DESIGN PROCESS

STAGE 1: Initial interface using Figma and AI-assisted prototyping

STAGE 2: Low-Fidelity Prototype using Codex

Focused on homepage, map, landmark pages, Trip Starter, and saved places
Challenges: poor flow, incorrect proportions, inconsistent structure, and wrong landmark placement
This stage helped us clarify the basic components we needed, but it also showed that the prototype tool was not reliable enough for building a clean and accurate interaction flow.

STAGE 3: Mid-Fidelity Prototype using Lovable

Improved visual map, menu structure, categories, and early AI plan flow
Helped create a clearer and more connected user experience

User-testing Feedback

Unify repeated buttons that lead to the same page or feature to reduce confusion.
Need a way to evaluate users learning outcomes
Add practical travel information, including budget and souvenir options
Support manual/customized planning