Hidden Polaroid
Discovering Experiences Beyond the Obvious
AI-powered travel planning that helps tourists discover hidden gems while preserving memories beyond the journey.
Role
Timeline
Tools
UX/UI , UX Research, Brand Identity Designer
8 Weeks
Figma, Blender, Illustrator, Photoshop
Project Overview
The Challenge
Planning a meaningful trip is surprisingly fragmented.
Travelers jump between booking sites, blogs, maps, social media, reviews and note-taking apps just to organize one vacation.
Even after returning home, those memories become scattered across thousands of photos that are rarely revisited.
How might we design one experience that helps users discover meaningful destinations, plan smarter journeys, and preserve memories long after the trip ends?
Understanding the Landscape
Understanding Travel
Tourist Types
Planning Factors
Research Methods
Survey
Google form survey conducted. Received 90 responses.
Primary Research
Interviews conducted with target users. 19 interviews conducted.
Competitor Analysis
Personas
Gen-Z / Millenial - Shrishti
Gen-X - Manish
Journey Mapping
Affinity Mapping
Stakeholder Mapping
HMW Workshop
How might we help tourists make a well-planned trip while also helping them preserve and relive their travel memories after the journey ends?
Imagining a Better Way
Hidden Polaroid
An AI-assisted travel platform designed around the complete travel lifecycle.
Rather than focusing only on bookings, Hidden Polaroid combines intelligent trip planning, hidden destination discovery, personalized itineraries, and interactive memory preservation into one seamless experience.
The Experience
Hidden Polaroid accompanies travelers through every stage of their journey—from discovering a destination to preserving the memories they create along the way. Instead of solving isolated travel problems, it creates one connected experience before, during and after the trip.
Every memorable journey begins with curiosity.
Instead of asking users to search endlessly across blogs, maps and travel websites, Hidden Polaroid introduces personalized destination recommendations based on travel preferences, interests and available time. The platform encourages exploration beyond mainstream attractions by highlighting hidden gems unique to each destination.
Intelligent planning without the overwhelm.
Planning a trip often involves switching between multiple applications for budgeting, transportation, accommodation and itinerary management. Hidden Polaroid brings these decisions together into one guided planning experience, allowing users to generate personalized itineraries that balance time, budget and interests.
Discover places most visitors never see.
Rather than directing travelers only toward popular attractions, Hidden Polaroid encourages exploration through curated hidden gems, local recommendations and culturally significant destinations that are often overlooked.
The experience promotes more authentic tourism while supporting local communities.
Meet the people who know the city best.
Users can connect with registered local guides who offer authentic insights into the city's history, culture and lesser-known destinations. This creates richer travel experiences while simultaneously generating employment opportunities for local communities.
Every journey deserves to be remembered.
Throughout the trip, travelers can collect photographs and memorable moments that later become part of a personalized digital travel journal.
Instead of creating another photo gallery, Hidden Polaroid transforms travel memories into meaningful stories.
Memories become stories.
After the trip, Hidden Polaroid automatically generates an interactive digital flipbook that combines photographs, visited destinations and personal memories into a lasting keepsake. Rather than leaving images buried inside a gallery, the experience encourages travelers to revisit and reflect on their journeys.
Hidden Polaroid transforms travel from a sequence of disconnected tasks into one continuous experience—helping users discover meaningful places, explore with confidence and preserve the stories they create along the way.
Information Architecture
Brand Identity
Hidden Polaroid name is inspired from the said camera that gave instant photos for memories. The word hidden adds value to the hidden gems. The logo is a lens of a polaroid.
Design System
Wireframes
Final UI
Website UI
Innovation
What Makes Hidden Polaroid Different?
Instead of booking another vacation...
Hidden Polaroid helps users discover places they wouldn't normally find, generates itineraries around their travel style, and transforms their memories into an interactive keepsake.
The primary differentiators are:
AI-assisted personalized itinerary generation
Focus on hidden gems rather than mainstream attractions
Registered local guide ecosystem
Interactive AI-generated memory flipbook
End-to-end travel lifecycle support
Storyboard
Business Model
Key Partners:
Local Tourism Authorities: Collaborate with local tourism authorities to gain access to information, resources, and support for promoting hidden gems in Chandigarh.
Local Businesses: Partner with local businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and tour operators to offer bundled tour packages and enhance the overall travel experience.
Tech Partners: Collaborate with technology partners to develop and maintain the platform, including AI trip planning algorithms and interactive flip book features.
Value Proposition:
Discovery of Hidden Gems: Offer travelers the opportunity to discover and explore hidden gems in Chandigarh that are not typically included in conventional tourist itineraries.
Personalized Itineraries: Provide personalized itinerary generation services based on user preferences, interests, and time constraints, allowing travelers to tailor their experiences to suit their individual needs.
Interactive Flip Book Memories: Offer travelers the option to create interactive flip books to preserve and share their trip memories in a unique and engaging format.
Channels:
Online Platform: Utilize the online platform as the primary channel for promoting and delivering services to customers, including tour bookings, itinerary generation, and flip book creation.
Social Media: Leverage social media platforms to reach and engage with target audiences, share content, and promote special offers and deals.
Partnerships: Collaborate with local tourism authorities, businesses, and influencers to expand reach and access new customer segments.
Revenue Streams:
Tour Package Sales: Generate revenue through the sale of tour packages for hidden gems in Chandigarh, including ticket bookings, accommodations, and guided tours.
Personalized Itinerary Services: Charge a fee for personalized itinerary generation services, providing travelers with customized recommendations and suggestions.
Flip Book Creation: Offer flip book creation services as an additional revenue stream, allowing travelers to preserve and share their trip memories in an interactive format.
Cost Structure:
Platform Development: Invest in platform development costs, including website design, software development, and ongoing maintenance.
Marketing and Promotion: Allocate funds for marketing and promotion activities, including digital advertising, social media campaigns, and content creation.
Operational Expenses: Cover operational expenses such as employee salaries, office rent, utilities, and customer support services.
Technology Infrastructure: Budget for technology infrastructure costs, including servers, hosting services, and software licenses.
The Outcome
Execution
Test it with the users and get valuable feedback. This will be achieved by performing Usability and Guerrilla Testing.
Guerrilla Testing
Insights:
- UI is very simple and soothing
- Photograph interaction is very nice
- Some places prototyping is not working properly
- More information can be asked during onboarding
- Make the waiting screens in delay prototyping
Usability Testing
Insights:
For Website
Navigation is easy
Menu bar is not evenly placed on every screen
Liked the concept of polaroids in UI
Minor font size problems
Colors are very suitable
No readability issues
Consistent and well structured
Flip book idea is great
Spell check
For App
Very soothing imagery
Information in an orderly manner
Step-by-step revelation helps
Some screens have a lot of text
Tasks Asked for Usability Testing:
App Testing Tasks
Website Testing Tasks
Accordingly, the needful changes were implemented on the UI screens for better experience and discovery tasks.
Conclusion
Hidden Polaroid reimagines travel as a continuous experience rather than a collection of disconnected tasks. By combining AI-powered planning, personalized exploration, and memory preservation, the platform encourages tourists to venture beyond popular attractions while creating lasting emotional connections with the places they visit.
The project also explored how thoughtful UX design can promote local tourism, support cultural preservation through registered local guides, and create a more memorable travel experience from planning to reflection.
Looking Back
This project is a pilot focused on Chandigarh, India. It serves as a test case to demonstrate the concept before potentially expanding to other locations.
The project focuses on developing a platform with three core things:
Curated Tour Packages: The platform will feature pre-designed tours that highlight hidden gems within Chandigarh.
Personalized Itinerary Generation: Users can input their interests and preferences to receive a customized trip plan that fits their needs.
Interactive Flipbook Memories: As a unique memento, tourists can choose to create an interactive flipbook showcasing their trip memories.
Also,:
Discovery experiences benefit from emotion-driven design.
Visual storytelling can replace traditional search flows.
Simplicity enhances exploration, not limits it.
Available