Travel Diaries : Expanding Travel Journaling Worldwide
Travel Journaling, Reimagined
Our Client
2022
Travel Diaries is a global travel journaling platform helping users document and share their journeys digitally—and in print. With over 200,000 users across 180+ countries, it serves as a digital companion for travelers, backpackers, and storytellers. Recognized by National Geographic, The Boston Globe, Metro, EMERC, and De Volkskrant, the platform allows users to write, photograph, map, and turn their diaries into high-quality printed books. Travel Diaries partnered with Crazydes to evolve their product from a minimal tool into a global, scalable, feature-rich experience that could drive engagement and unlock new revenue streams.
Expertise
- Product strategy
- UI/UX design
- User Research
- Feature Ideation
Platforms
Scaling a basic journaling app into a feature-rich platform ready for global users.
The Challenge
Travel Diaries had strong early traction, but the user experience fell short of its potential. The MVP offered diary creation and print functionality but lacked clarity, flexibility, and discoverability. Users found navigation unintuitive, onboarding confusing, and sharing limited. App Store reviews and user feedback consistently highlighted layout constraints, unclear pricing expectations, and limited interactivity—reinforcing the need for a thoughtful redesign focused on usability and engagement. Despite these limitations, users showed strong interest in the concept. To reach a global audience, the product needed a complete design rethink—one that encouraged exploration, enabled creative storytelling, and opened new paths for growth and monetization.
The Solution
Designing a Story-Driven Platform That Powers Growth. Crazydes reimagined Travel Diaries as a scalable, emotional, and revenue-ready product. We expanded it beyond journaling—with smart community features, automated sharing tools, and smartly integrated AI-powered features into existing tools. We redesigned the layout editor and cover designer to give users more creative control and customization. We introduced a premium community layer, enabling new revenue streams through member-only content and connections. A blog auto-generation tool boosted visibility, while improved journaling, navigation, and sharing experiences were optimized for both mobile and web. Our strategy balanced user delight and product growth. We built for scale, designed for emotion, and opened new business paths.
Our Process
Building a Scalable, User-First Experience
- We began with collaborative workshops to align on the product vision, uncover key user goals, and define business needs with design clarity.
- Through competitor analysis, heuristic evaluation, and journey mapping, we identified friction points and opportunities for UX and UI improvements.
- Moodboards, style tiles, and brand alignment sessions helped set a consistent visual direction rooted in storytelling, emotion, and clarity.
- We developed a flexible, component-driven design system using Figma, enabling rapid design iterations and easier scaling across mobile and web.
- Interactive prototypes were tested and refined through usability testing and internal review, leading to confident developer handoff with detailed specifications and interaction guidelines.
Global Travel Community
We introduced a discovery feed and follower model—helping users share stories and connect, increasing repeat visits and potential upsell to a premium profile.
Auto Blog Sharing
With one click, diaries now turn into SEO-friendly blog posts—driving organic traffic and allowing users to share stories with non-users, boosting visibility.
AI-Powered Story Assistant
We built AI tools that help users structure entries, suggest images or maps, and auto-format stories—reducing effort and increasing output.
Smart Print Experience
We improved print layouts, simplified the cover design process, and made navigation more intuitive—reducing friction and enhancing the overall usability of the print journey.
New implementations improved product
New implementations improved product
50 %
increase in daily user engagement from community and discovery, making Travel Diaries a feature-rich app ready for global rollout and future investment opportunities
40 %
lift in public diary sharing through blog automation, expanding reach and community value further enhancing community engagement and expanding brand footprint
50 %
growth in revenue opportunities through new monetization features, improved product experience, and cross-platform user growth from both existing and new audiences
The Impact
2023
Travel Diaries is now a globally-ready, feature-rich platform with improved UX, new revenue streams, and higher user engagement across mobile and web.
- Created a unified design for mobile and web with scalable components
- Launched features designed to increase upsell and user referrals
- Improved user sentiment through streamlined and flexible experiences
- Enabled content virality through auto-blog sharing and discovery feed
- Delivered a rollout strategy to ease users into the new product experience
