---
date: 2019-02-01
type: ship
title: Travelbook
slug: travelbook
project: Nimble
kicker: Social travel platform that grew into planning, booking, and discovery without losing its community.
excerpt: Designed the evolution from a feed of stories into a complete travel product (itineraries, journaling, social, and booking under one roof). Commercial features integrated into the social layer rather than separated from it.
cover: /assets/covers/hero-travelbook.webp
palette:
  accent: "#B89070"
  source:
    brand: "Caran d'Ache"
    name: "Sahara"
  role: Lead Product Designer
  pull: A social product can grow without losing its soul if you let the commerce live inside the story.
tags: [consumer, social, travel, growth]
---

Travelbook started as a place where travellers shared stories. As the community grew, expectations shifted. Users wanted to plan, book, and review without leaving the product. The work was to evolve the platform without breaking what made it personal in the first place.

## Context

The social roots were the asset, not the constraint. Booking systems, maps, and reviews added technical and design weight; each new feature risked crowding the interface or confusing intent. Small distributed design team, live product, no room for a clean rebuild.

![Three iPhones on warm sand-coloured backdrop, with a small mound of sand at the bottom. Left phone: Travelbook home for "Natalie" with a story-circles row, a Travelbooks map of Bali tagged "Arturo Lin", a "107 likes, 14 comments" card titled "Discover Bali", and a Check-ins strip below. Centre phone: a New York "Popular Place" card for Rouge Tomate Chelsea with a candid restaurant photo, ratings, address, and a coral "See Hotel Quickly Reviews" CTA. Right phone: an "Add Experiences" map screen scattered with restaurant pins around Bangkok, with an "Indulge Fusion Food & Cocktail Bar" result selected.](/assets/projects/travelbook/tb-mobile-feed.webp)

## What I designed

A modular architecture that let the platform expand feature by feature without losing structural or visual consistency. Core flows (feed, planning, booking, sharing) were redesigned around the insight that they were emotionally linked. People wanted to tell the story of a trip from start to finish, not stitch one together from four separate tools.

![Travelbook Bangkok city page on a MacBook beside a tropical leaf. The header shows the Travelbook wordmark, a "What do you want to add, Natalie?" composer, a search field, and Natalie's avatar. The hero is a sunset photo of Wat Arun across the river overlaid with the title "Bangkok" and a "157 likes" counter. Tabs read Where to Go, Where to Stay, Book, Photos. Below, two columns: Places to Eat (Le Du Restaurant, Bunker, Issaya Siamese Club) and Top Experiences (Chatuchak Weekend Market, Jim Thompson House, Wat Arun), each row showing how many travelbookers went there.](/assets/projects/travelbook/tb-city-bangkok.webp)

## The trade-off

We tested two integration models with existing users. One pulled commerce out into its own "Booking" tab with a feature-first sign-up flow. The other kept navigation centred on the feed and surfaced booking actions in-line with the content. The feature-first version dropped social activity meaningfully; the in-line version preserved engagement and converted commerce as well or better. We chose the slower-feeling integration over the cleaner-looking one because community was the moat.

![Travelbook hotel booking on a MacBook (rose-gold finish) sitting beside a pair of round black sunglasses. The hero is a beach scene asking "Where do you want to stay Natalie?" with three booking fields (Location set to Bangkok, Thailand; Check-in / Check-out; Guests at 2 adults) and a pink "See Hotels" CTA. A two-month date picker (December 18 to January 19) is open over the results, with a stay range pre-selected. A "Today's Deals" row shows the Siam Design Hotel and other rooms at $150 below the picker.](/assets/projects/travelbook/tb-booking.webp)

## Role

Lead Product Designer. Partnered closely with engineering on bridging social data, booking APIs, and user-generated content into a single coherent experience.