PlacePass
Company
PlacePass
Role
UI/UX Designer,
Product Manager
Duration
3 months
Tools
Sketch, Illustrator
Context
PlacePass is a travel tech startup whose mission is to help people find and book great things to do in any destination. I joined PlacePass in its first few months, when there were only 4 full time employees. PlacePass had a website in an early beta state, and were looking to launch their live site for customers.
MY ROLE
As the only designer, my role was to completely design the first iteration of the PlacePass website. I focused on priority pages such as the homepage, city landing pages, and checkout process. Additionally, I also worked on creating templates for the secondary pages (e.g., careers, About Us). While it was intimidating to have complete responsibility over such a visible part of the company, it was a growing experience that pushed me to better work with ambiguity, collaborate cross-functionally, and drive my work independently.
Competitor Research
I looked at 4-5 competitors to understand their user flows, as well as general aesthetic and design practices. I specifically researched major pages such as the homepage, activity landing page, check-out process, etc. to understand the most important elements and features.
After looking at the companies, I synthesized some of the major trends and takeaways across all the competitors. For example, when looking at the activity landing page, I found that core information most competitors included 1) overview of activity (e.g., highlights, itinerary, included/excluded) 2) images and reviews from experience to increase trust and improve perception, and 3) logistics (e.g., price, schedule, cancellation policy). These findings drove our initial designs, which we would continue to test with users.
High & low-fidelity designs
Homepage
Two major goals when we redesigned the homepage was to better evoke exploration and inspiration in users, as well as build a sense of legitimacy and trust. It was important for the homepage to be able to engage a wide range of users:
Intentional travelers: those who have a destination in mind/planned for and are looking for activities to do in a specific destination
Casual browsers: those who are exploring various options and simply want to browse for inspiration and ideas for possible future travels
LOCATION landing page
After searching for a location, the user is able to see the various activities available in the given location. The way PlacePass operates is that it sources the activities from a variety of different partners - this gives users more convenience and optionality, as they can see a comprehensive list of activities in one place. However, we wanted to make sure the activities are displayed in a way that was cohesive with PlacePass’ overall brand and feels like a seamless experience.
Additional pages
I also worked on designing a variety of content pages to round out the PlacePass website. Some of these pages included About, Careers, FAQ, etc.
Reflections
This was my first experience with UI/UX design in a professional setting, which was both exciting and a little bit daunting. Overall, had a fantastic time working with the PlassPass team and also challenging myself to push my design skills. Some of my key takeaways from my summer at PlacePass are below.
Cross-functional collaboration and alignment
I collaborated closely with all functions during my time at PlacePass (e.g.,strategy to understand the brand and roadmap, engineering to turn ideas into reality). It was important to clearly communicate my design rationales, as well as ensure alignment within our team.
For example, I iterated with engineers to come up with designs that were both intuitive and implementable under our constraints. Especially at such a small company, we had to focus on the balance between features and designs vs. implementation and feasibility.
Self-drive and independence
Because there were no other designers or product managers, I had full reign over the designs and features for PlacePass. While it was challenging due to the lack of mentorship, I learned a lot through trial and error and ultimately teaching myself various design principles (e.g., reading articles, studying UX and visual branding of other websites, talking to friends). With the size and stage of the company, there was a heavy bias to get things done, pushing myself to grow a lot in the process.
Focus on experience
In the past, I’ve worked more heavily visual design projects and sometimes focused too heavily on the aesthetics. PlacePass pushed me to think more deeply about the overall user experience, determine the most critical features and functionality, and decide on the best way for users to interact with our product (e.g., filters, favorites).