IOS APP · PRODUCT DESIGN · 2026
Punku Travel, Clear.
IN SHORT
The 30-second version
PROBLEM
Argentine travelers juggle five apps to plan a single trip, pay full price, and miss local discounts they never knew existed.
WHAT I DID
Led research and information architecture, defined the MVP scope, and designed the freemium flow and core UI system end to end.
OUTCOME
A single iOS experience that unifies discovery, planning, and verified local discounts — validated through prototype testing.
THE INSIGHT THAT DROVE IT
Travelers didn't want more information. They wanted clarity. That reframe shaped every decision that followed.
IN SHORT
The trip that
shouldn't be this hard
THE SITUATION
You arrive in a new city excited, open your phone, and get lost — not in the streets, but in a sea of apps, tabs, and recommendations that all say something different.
You eat somewhere you found on Google, pay full price, and only later learn the place next door was better, cheaper, and had a discount you never knew existed. That gap between what travelers do and what they could have done is what Punku set out to close.
The research kept pointing to one thing: travelers weren't looking for more information — they were looking for clarity.
Research & synthesis
To understand how travelers actually plan, I ran user interviews, an affinity mapping exercise, and a competitive teardown. The goal wasn't just what people do while traveling — it was how they feel during the planning itself.
From [X] interview notes, five themes emerged — discovery, planning, discounts, trust, real-time info. I prioritized discounts and trust because they appeared in every session and no competitor owned them.
From [X] interview notes, five themes emerged — discovery, planning, discounts, trust, real-time info. I prioritized discounts and trust because they appeared in every session and no competitor owned them.
From [X] interview notes, five themes emerged — discovery, planning, discounts, trust, real-time info. I prioritized discounts and trust because they appeared in every session and no competitor owned them.
From everything possible
to one MVP
To understand how travelers actually plan, I ran user interviews, an affinity mapping exercise, and a competitive teardown. The goal wasn't just what people do while traveling — it was how they feel during the planning itself.
In scope · MVP
Curated city guide & discovery
Activity planning & scheduling
Verified local discounts
Freemium subscription flow
Deferred · v2
Community reviews & social feed
In-app booking & payments
Multi-city trip itineraries
Offline mode
Information architecture
The card sort fed directly into the app's structure: a six-section model with discovery at its center. I then mapped the two flows that carry the product's core value.
From wireframes to UI
Ten low-fidelity screens tested the structure before a single pixel was polished. Showing that messy middle is the point — it's where the real decisions happened.
Before · Low-fi
Before · Low-fi
The decision in between
In the wireframe, the discount lived on a separate screen. Testing showed users never crossed over to find it, so I pulled it onto the activity card itself. Savings became impossible to miss — and that single move is what makes the freemium model feel generous instead of nagging.
One place, end to end
Punku centralizes the full arc of a trip — discover, plan, save — so travelers spend less time searching and more time in the city.
Curated city guides
Cultural events & museums
Verified local discounts
Gastronomy & local spots
Excursions & activities
Personal trip planner
Discovery opens on the city, not a search bar — the app does the first work so the traveler doesn't start from a blank page.
FREEMIUM ECOSYSTEM
Free exploration earns trust before asking for anything. Premium unlocks the verified discounts that turn Punku from a guide into a budgeting tool. The paywall appears at the moment of value — when a real discount is in reach — never as a gate on the front door.
A lightweight system
A focused set of tokens, components, and patterns kept discovery, planning, and premium consistent — and flexible enough to add new destinations without redesigning the app.
Discovery opens on the city, not a search bar — the app does the first work so the traveler doesn't start from a blank page.
IN SHORT
Testing the prototype
WHAT I LEARNED
I tested the high-fidelity prototype with [N] participants on the two core flows. The discount placement change came directly from watching users miss it in an earlier build. If you didn't run formal testing, say so here and frame it as the clear next step — a senior reviewer trusts that more than an invented metric.
OUTCOME
Where it landed
Punku turns fragmented planning into one streamlined experience. As an academic capstone, the deliverable was a validated, build-ready prototype rather than a shipped product.
OUTCOME
What I'd carry forward
01
Design around frustration, not features
The strongest concept didn't come from adding capabilities — it came from naming a feeling. Reframing the problem as the "cost of unawareness" turned a vague travel app into a product with a point of view.
02
Saying no is a design decision
Cutting community from the MVP was uncomfortable but right. A focused product that does three things well earns more trust than one that does ten things halfway.
03
What I'd do differently
I'd test the freemium pricing earlier. I validated the flow, but whether travelers would actually pay — and at what price — is the assumption I'd pressure-test before any build.
THANKS FOR READING
Want to see it move?
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Designed & developed
by Ramiro M. Chavez
2026 — All Rights Reserved
Made with Figma + Framer