Revolutionizing Travel: A Design Masterpiece

Unveiling Saltanat Tashibayeva's Award-Winning Travel Website

Driven by the frustration of booking trips home, three university classmates from Aachen, Germany, decided to create a travel search engine in 2008. Their vision was to create a travel companion that empowers the traveller by offering flexibility and choice. The result was a product that provides as many options as possible in the most transparent way. Whether the traveller prefers the fastest, cheapest, or most eco-friendly option, the product caters to every individual's unique needs.

The uniqueness of this design lies in its commitment to the traveller's freedom of choice. It does not push one mode of transport over others, recognizing that there is no right or wrong way to travel. The product is designed to help every traveller, reflecting the diverse needs of each unique journey.

Realized through Sketch, Zeplin, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Invision, the product is a travel online website service, a mobile website service, and a mobile application service that runs on Android and iOS-based devices in all resolutions. The design team, led by Saltanat Tashibayeva and assisted by Raviv Mordoch, ensured the product's functionality across all platforms.

The product's interaction is designed to be user-friendly and efficient. With one search field, the user can discover all available travel options: the fastest, cheapest, or even eco-friendly. The product includes a parallel search between airplanes, trains, car-sharing, and buses, eliminating the need for numerous applications on the phone. The product helps to find and select the most optimal route, indicating the location of transfers with just a single click.

The project started in 2008 and underwent a global product redesign in 2020 by the Berlin Team. Over the past decade, it has grown from three students into an international family with more than 70 members, spanning over 30 countries of origin in the Berlin office. The company is meticulous in researching users and their behaviors, using various UX Research methodologies to guide decision-making and innovation.

The main challenge in the project was the technology behind the search engine. The team had to generate an algorithm for selecting routes that provided the best possible search results for the connection, price, duration of the route, and so on. In parallel, the search had to be carried out quickly and not force the user to wait long for the results. The design used a minimalist style, balancing simplicity with the need to provide complete information about travel.

The design's excellence was recognized with a Silver A' Design Award in 2020, a testament to its outstanding expertise and innovation. This award is given to top-of-the-line, creative, and professionally remarkable designs that introduce positive feelings, amazement, and wonder. The intellectual property rights belong to Denisa Kostolányiová, and the image credits go to Emma Young, Eric Linn, and Anton Repponen.