ROAMER
A travel discovery app for people who prefer getting lost. End-to-end UX from research to hi-fi — including a wrist companion.
Role
Solo UX Designer
Duration
12 Weeks
Platform
iOS · watchOS
Methods
Interviews · Lo-fi · Hi-fi · Testing
Why do good places disappear?
"Build a travel app." Four words that pointed at a symptom and missed the disease underneath. Everyone has a place they loved and can no longer find — buried in a camera roll, a screenshot, a WhatsApp message. The brief pointed at features. I went looking for the feeling underneath.
Reframed as: help people stay lost, intentionally. A travel product for the moments between plans, not a routing engine optimising the path between them.
What I *actually* observed.
Users had rich internal decision logic — apps forced them into keyword searches that dismissed how they actually think about places.
No product bridged both modes. Planners got itinerary builders. Explorers got maps. Nobody got the moment between the two.
Everyone described places loved and lost — buried in photos, old bookmarks, a WhatsApp message nobody can find. Four apps tested. All failed at the same point.
The solution to changing the product is a solution to changing the problem — and we still don't actually understand it.
User interviews across 3 archetypes
Said apps "get in the way"
Competitor products audited
Prototype iterations before hi-fi
I designed it *three times*. On purpose.
First attempt prioritised a search-first model. Users hated it immediately. The keyword box felt like homework.
Removing the search bar and replacing it with a mood selector reduced decision anxiety. Users described it as 'finally feeling like someone understood how I travel.'
Structure before style. Navigation logic validated before a single colour was chosen.
The full map of Roamer
ROAMER
├── Onboarding (zero onboarding — map opens immediately)
├── Home / Roam Mode
│ ├── Mood Filter (Quiet · Alive · Golden · Outside · Sharp · Lost)
│ └── Map + Results (place cards below)
├── Place Detail
│ ├── Description
│ ├── Your Memory (personal note)
│ └── Navigate / Save
├── Memory Vault
│ ├── Saved (with context)
│ ├── Visited
│ └── Shared
└── Watch Companion
├── Distance card
├── Place name
└── Roam CTALow friction. *High intention.*
Every screen justified by a research finding. No feature added without a pain it resolved.
Research: Users didn't want to search. They wanted to be shown something that matched their mood.
Research: Atmosphere over taxonomy. 'Alive' returns different results than 'bar' — because that's how people actually talk.
Research: Memory is a first-class feature. Not a pin. An experience.
Research: Saves capture who you were with and why you loved it. Not just a location bookmark.
Research: Watch-first design forced brutal prioritisation. If it doesn't survive the wrist, it doesn't deserve a phone screen.
Designed from first principles, on purpose.
Changing filter labels ('Quiet' vs. 'Relaxed') drove the biggest usability gain — bigger than any layout change. Words are product decisions.
Designing for 44mm first forced brutal prioritisation. If it doesn't survive the wrist, it doesn't deserve a phone screen.
Saves capture context — who you were with, why you loved it — not just a pin on a map.
Discovery filtered by atmosphere, not taxonomy. 'Alive and buzzing' returns different results than 'bar.'
The first second of the app mirrors the first second of arriving somewhere new. No tutorial. Just a map and a mood.
If users are looking at their phone, the app has failed. If they're looking at the street, it worked.
I didn't just test usability. *I measured confidence.*
5 moderated + 3 unmoderated sessions. Tasks from first-time discovery to re-finding a saved memory. Success metric: did you feel more capable after?
First-attempt task completion. No critical navigation errors recorded in hi-fi testing.
Activated Roam Mode in session one, before being prompted. Feature sold itself.
Correctly interpreted mood filters with zero explanation. Language design working.
Every tester said they'd replace their current travel app. "Finally made for me."
"Finally feels like it was made for me."
— Participant 2
"I actually felt like I could get lost and be okay with it."
— Participant 5
"The Watch companion made me stop looking at my phone. That's a first."
— Participant 7
What this project *actually taught me.*
The brief is never the problem
Reframing the brief from 'travel app' to 'help people stay lost intentionally' changed every design decision that followed.
Constraints are creative fuel
Designing Watch-first made the phone app better. The most limited surface forces the most honest decisions.
Language is the interface
The biggest usability gain came from changing labels, not layouts. Words are product decisions.
Measure confidence, not completion
Task completion is a floor. The real question: 'After this, do you feel more capable?' That's the metric worth chasing.
"Good work isn't made from following a brief. It's made from the decision to keep being wrong, keep building, keep returning to the people you're building for."