Tesseract · JioStar product design task

Helping people who browse Tesseract settle on a trip

A discovery-to-wishlist flow for history buffs and adventurers in 2050. It starts from the two things they filter by: price and time.

Problem

Three guesses about why people browse and leave

These are hypotheses. Each comes with the design change that would test it.

Users

Two ways people arrive

“History buff” and “adventurer” describe interests. The screens change more with whether someone already knows what they want.

Based on lookup versus exploratory search (Marchionini, Communications of the ACM, 2006). Ananya and Kabir are illustrative; I didn’t interview anyone.

Process

I started on paper

Then I sorted the ideas into ones to keep, reframe or cut.

• Kept: I’d circled “purchase trip”. People drop off between browsing and buying.
• Kept: then-and-now views, messy search like “panipat wali ladai”, invisible observers.
• Reframed: “too expensive” became “does it fit my budget?”
• Cut: future travel, choosing a mode of transport, reliving your own memories.

Iteration

How the home screen changed

I began with the usual travel-app home screen and checked it against the brief.

• Categories by century and “popular trips” say nothing about budget or time.
• Price shows up late and duration not at all, though those are the two filters the brief names.
• Friends appear nowhere, though the brief says this audience relies on them.

The second sketch leads with your limits, shows trips that fit first and puts friends on the cards. The prototype builds on it.

Discover

Set your limits once, and trips that fit come first

• Trip preferences (₹40,000 · up to 3 days · just me) apply on Discover, Search and the Wishlist.
• “Fits your plans” covers budget, time, group eligibility and places left. It makes no claim about taste.
• Prices are totals for the whole group, and time is a maximum.
• Each length option shows how many trips it leaves, and the button shows the total before you apply it.

Trip detail

I ordered the page by the doubts people raise

• See it: a then-and-now slider. Drag between 1520 and today.
• Cost: a breakdown that adds up to the total for 2, 3 or 5 days. The jump costs the same at any length.
• Over budget: “Nearby in time” lists other visits to the same era and what changes, such as June showers and ₹7,000 less.
• Comfort and trust: acclimatisation, walking, weather and observer rules, then a friend’s review.

Reserve is the main button because booking is a traveller’s next step. Booking is outside the brief, so here it explains the scope. A wishlist button joins it once the one on the photo scrolls away.

Prototype

Try it here

The prototype runs in the browser. A few things to try:

• Search for “panipath”.
• Describe a trip: “hampi, 3 din, 40k tak”.
• Add two travellers and watch the totals and labels change.
• Save a trip, then compare it on the Wishlist.

Live at /prototype on the presentation site.

Scope

What I left out

• Booking and payment, which the brief excludes. Reserve explains this.
• AR and VR previews, also excluded by the brief.
• Custom itineraries. They promise trips Tesseract can’t sell, so trips come as packages.
• Future travel and reliving your own memories. The second carries real ethical risk.

Thank you.