Local Gems
Project Scope:
End-to-End App
Role:
UX Research, Branding, UX/UI Design
Local Gems helps people discover and book authentic, non-touristy experiences curated by locals.
The Issue
Planning a trip should feel exciting, but for many people, it quickly becomes overwhelming. With endless recommendations across Google, TikTok, and travel blogs, it’s hard to know what’s actually worth doing.
Most platforms prioritise what’s popular, not what’s meaningful. As a result, travellers often find themselves in the same crowded spots, following the same itineraries, and missing out on the places that make a destination feel truly unique.
“How can travellers explore authentically without leaving a negative footprint?”
Through user interviews and surveys, I wanted to:
Understand how travellers currently discover activities and local experiences
Investigate how travellers plan and organise itineraries
Identify barriers small businesses face in being discovered by new customers
Research objectives
Group #1: Travellers
People who are exploring a new city and want more authentic, non-touristy experiences.
Group #2: Small Business Owners
Local operators offering unique experiences (e.g. workshops, cafes, tours).
Research Insights
DISCOVERY IS FRAGMENTED
Most travellers rely on 3–4 different platforms to find activities, jumping between Google, TikTok, Instagram, and blogs. No single source feels fully trustworthy, resulting in a scattered and inefficient discovery process.
PLANNING IS OVERWHELMING
All participants saved content across multiple apps, with many resorting to notes, screenshots, or spreadsheets to organise their trips. Despite spending significant time planning, most still make decisions on the day.
AUTHENTICITY DRIVES DECISIONS
All users expressed a strong preference for unique, local experiences that feel personal and uncrowded. However, these are often the hardest to find, while small businesses offering them struggle with visibility.
It was clear that travellers need a reliable way to discover authentic local spots without jumping between platforms.
I found that both novice and experienced travellers seek authentic, local experiences, while some look for guidance to avoid tourist traps, others are searching for deeper, more meaningful ways to explore.
Target Audience
Persona #1: the quiet traveller
These travellers dislike large crowds and falling for hiked up tourist prices. These travellers usually spend more time looking through online guides and forums to find hidden gems, but struggles to find in-person recommendations through actual locals. These difficulties may be due to local businesses not being well advertised online. Their biggest roadblock is struggling to find quieter activities and places, and ending up in tourist traps.
Persona #2: the experienced traveller wanting more
These travellers are experienced in travelling, but have often gone through cruises and guided tours that limit what they can see and do. These travellers struggle to find more authentic experiences as many of the activities and places are limited by word of mouth. Their biggest roadblock is not knowing where to look, or who to talk to for these local gems.
Persona 3 - the small business owner
These owners find joy in their work, often opening from a place of passion. These owners may struggle to successfully market themselves, especially in known tourist areas, as travellers may flock to more known businesses.
A key takeaway for all three personas is the idea of connection, whether it be sharing your passion to others as a business owner, or feeling confident with the destination you’ve dreamed of travelling to.
Which led me to think:
How Might We?
Help travellers discover authentic, locally loved experiences?
Find the best time for travellers to avoid crowds and visit well known spots?
Bring together scattered content into one seamless discovery experience?
“travel like a local, not a tourist.”
How might I build trust between travellers and small local businesses? How can I help travellers discover hidden local experiences but also let them have the best experience when visiting known places? How can I integrate discovery, planning, and booking into one seamless experience?
Ideation
A clear sitemap that outlines the basic tasks travellers can do throughout the app
A basic user flow showing how a user may find an activity and book it in the app
Wireframes
Based on my research, I wanted to focus on creating exposure for lesser known businesses, and creating a seamless experience for travellers to find and book places and activities.
Key functions
Finding and booking activities
Finding the quietest times
Finding bookmarks and importing posts
Discover
The app shows curated itineraries as inspirations, as well as activities and places near you.
Brand creation
I designed the brand with the idea of excitement and inclusivity in mind. Yellow, a colour often associated with happiness and optimism was a perfect fit. This allows Local Gems to stand out among other travel apps that don’t tend to venture into bold colours. By creating a few hand drawn illustrations, I wanted to create a sense of wonder through the small characters.
Maps
Popular spots are too good to miss sometimes, maps allows users to find the hotspots in order to find the quietest times to visit.
Post
Users can share their own local gems.
Testing Objectives
VALIDATE CONCEPT
I wanted to ensure that Local Gems delivers value by helping users discover authentic, non-touristy experiences. Gathering feedback would help refine whether the concept resonates with both travellers and supports small local businesses effectively.
OBSERVE USER FLOW
I wanted to watch how users navigate the app and find out whether discovery, saving, and booking activities feel intuitive. This would highlight any friction points in the journey from browsing to planning.
BENCHMARK BRANDING
As a new platform, I wanted to understand how users perceive the Local Gems brand. I wanted to consider its name, visual identity, and overall tone, and whether it communicates trust, authenticity, and a sense of local discovery.
Usability Results
100% users liked the branding and concept
3 of 5 mentioned social media integration
100% task success rate across core features
Users clearly understood the app’s purpose as a platform for discovering authentic, local experiences. All participants successfully completed key tasks: booking, posting/reviewing, and using the map, indicating an intuitive user flow.
Trust emerged as a key factor, with all users relying heavily on reviews and testimonials, highlighting the need for greater visibility of social proof. Users also identified an opportunity to enhance discovery through social media integration, particularly importing content from TikTok and Instagram.
ITERATIONS & REFINEMENT
Based on usability testing, several key improvements were made to enhance trust, discovery, and overall usability.
A rating and review system was introduced to strengthen trust between users and activities, making social proof more visible and influential in decision-making.
To support trip planning across multiple destinations, bookmark collections were added, allowing users to organise saved activities by country or trip.
Discovery was further enhanced through social media integration, enabling users to import and save content from platforms like TikTok and Instagram—aligning with existing user behaviours.
Finally, the map experience was refined by introducing a time-based heatmap, allowing users to adjust the time of day and see how crowd levels change, helping them plan visits more effectively.
These iterations ensure Local Gems better supports both intentional planning and spontaneous discovery, while aligning closely with user needs and expectations.