Highlights · 2025 → present
Highlights: an AI travel planner with a guide called Sally
I won this project in a one-week design challenge, and it grew into more than a year of work on six products for the same US client.
1 week
design challenge, won against the agency already working for the client
How the engagement started
6
products designed for the same client since
Highlights, Zest, ePlan, ION Warp, Gluten and Wildfires
1 year+
and still running, after the client moved the whole account to me
Work taken off a large creative agency the client had hired
Overview
Highlights plans trips with an AI guide named Sally. It turns the result into a day-by-day itinerary with routes and timing that a traveller can follow on the ground. Itineraries can be edited live with other people, exported, and sold through a marketplace of trips and guides. This project also started my work with the client behind most of the AI projects on this site.
The problem
A generated itinerary is only useful if the traveller can question and change it. When people get a finished plan, they either follow it without thinking or ignore it. I was also new to the client and competing with a creative agency they had already hired, so my first week of work was also my pitch.
- An AI plan people can question, edit and make their own
- Places with enough detail to help people decide
- A trip plan that works on the go, even offline
- A competitive start against an agency already working with the client
The solution
Each place opens with its own photos, room and dining options, location tips and a map, and the "Build trip" button sits on the place itself, not at the end of a wizard. The plan builds up while you browse. Sally works as a guide: she suggests, the traveller edits, and the itinerary keeps real routes and timing so it works on an actual day of travel.
- Planning that happens while you browse
- Every place opens with photos, options, tips and its map
- Live collaboration, export, and a marketplace for finished trips
- An AI guide that suggests, while the traveller decides
Process
Challenge
One-week brief
Concept and hi-fi
Won the engagement
Product
Place and itinerary UX
Agentic planning flow
Mobile
Account
Full portfolio moved over
Zest, ePlan and ION Warp followed
More than a year so far
Result
The design challenge won the project, and within a year the client moved all of its products from the previous agency to my company and me. Zest, ePlan and ION Warp all came from this account, which is why they share one design approach.
The work has been running for over a year, and I still design and ship for all of these products.
- Won the account against an established creative agency
- Six products with one design partner
- Three of the case studies on this site started here