ViaKonnect

ViaKonnect already had a web platform for discovering and purchasing travel guides and experiences. The product worked, but the experience had never really been designed for mobile.

I started by using the existing product myself, then restructured the experience around clearer journeys, mobile navigation, real content, and the business rules behind the product.

I owned the UX structure, flows, wireframes, and interaction logic, and worked closely with the UI designer and technical team through implementation.

Outcome: a dedicated mobile product launched on iOS and Android.

The product already worked. The experience didn’t.

The existing platform had:

• Travel guides
• Experiences
• Creators
• Destination content
• Purchasing logic

But it also had:

• No dedicated mobile experience
• Unclear navigation
• Content without a strong hierarchy
• Business rules that were not always documented
• Disconnected journeys between discovery, purchase, and post-purchase use

The challenge was not to redesign a few screens. It was to understand the product well enough to reorganize it for mobile.

One of the first things I asked for was a free guide so I could complete the purchasing journey myself. Looking at an account that already owned a guide was not enough — I needed to understand the purchasing flow itself.

I wanted to see:

• How someone discovers a guide
• What they need before purchasing
• When authentication becomes necessary
• What happens after payment
• Where purchased content lives
• How someone returns to it later

Understand the real journey before trying to improve the interface.

ViaKonnect needed to support different travel behaviors.

The experience needed to work for someone who already knew where they wanted to go and someone who was simply exploring.

A large part of the UX work was about organizing what already existed. The product included destinations, experiences, guides, creators, maps, tips, transportation, purchased content, and account information.

I structured the mobile experience around simpler questions:

• Where do I want to go?
• What can I do there?
• Which guide is right for me?
• What do I need before buying it?
• Where do I find what I already own?

These questions shaped the information architecture and core journeys.

I did not want the app to feel like the website inside a smaller screen. The product needed its own mobile logic.

I mapped the experience around:

• Onboarding
• Authentication
• Explore
• Search and filters
• Experience details
• Guide details
• Creators
• Wishlist
• Purchasing
• My Guides
• Maps
• Profile

Design connected journeys, not isolated screens.

1. Discovery
2. Guide details
3. Trust
4. Authentication
5. Purchase
6. Ownership
7. Return

The purchase needed to feel like the beginning of ownership, not the end of the journey.

A missing delete button was not just a UI choice. It came from a product rule.

A feature should fit the product behind the interface, not only look useful on the screen.

Placeholder content made the product look simpler than it really was. Real experiences could contain transportation details, verified guide information, destination context, daily activities, tips, maps, recommendations, and purchase information.

I asked for a complete real experience before locking parts of the design. Real content exposed:

• Missing information
• Hierarchy issues
• Longer states
• Edge cases
• Information that needed stronger priority

Real content exposed problems that placeholders were hiding.

My work focused heavily on the UX foundation:

• Journeys
• Information architecture
• Workflows
• Wireframes
• States
• Business rules
• Interaction logic

I then worked closely with the UI designer to translate that structure into the final visual experience. My responsibility was to make sure the interface continued to support the intended journey, the right hierarchy, the business logic, real content, and technical constraints.

Explore before sign-up

Travel discovery often starts casually. Users could explore first and authenticate when an action genuinely needed an account.

Authentication when ownership matters

Purchasing created long-term content ownership. Authentication became important at the point where guides needed to stay connected to the user.

Workflows before final screens

Important journeys were mapped before final interface design. This reduced the risk of creating polished screens around unresolved logic.

Maps stayed focused

The map supported ViaKonnect’s real travel offering rather than becoming a generic place-discovery feature.

Real content before final layouts

The experience was tested against actual content complexity instead of ideal placeholders.

Once development started, new questions appeared — backend constraints, missing business context, interaction questions, data dependencies, evolving states.

Figma and Jira helped, but they were not enough on their own. I stayed involved with the technical team, clarified flows, and introduced short direct sessions when the developers needed more context behind the experience.

For me, handoff was part of the design process.

I tested early Android builds as they became available instead of waiting for the entire product to be complete. I reviewed onboarding, sign up, personalization, navigation, search, filters, dates, maps, guide access, and missing states.

I also separated incomplete backend behavior from actual UX issues. That helped us catch experience gaps while the product was still being built.

ViaKonnect launched on iOS and Android.

The mobile product connected:

• Travel discovery
• Experiences
• Search
• Maps
• Digital guides
• Purchasing
• Purchased content
• User profiles

The product continued evolving after the initial launch and reached real users through both app stores.

Good UX often starts before the interface.

Some of the most important design decisions came from:

• Using the existing product
• Asking about business rules
• Understanding real content
• Mapping journeys
• Challenging assumptions
• Working directly with engineering

The screens were the visible result. The real work was creating enough clarity around the experience that those screens made sense.

The biggest change wasn’t turning the website into an app. It was turning a complicated product into an experience people could understand on mobile.