Gradual Redesign of a Complex Travel App

Modernising an existing product and building a scalable design system

My role:: UX/UI Designer
Platforms:: iOS and Android
Project duration:: 2+ years

Focus:

Mobile App Redesign
Information Architecture
New Feature Design
Design System Development

For more than two years, I worked on the gradual redesign of a mobile app in the travel segment, connecting ski resorts, water parks, and other leisure activities across multiple countries.

This was not a new product built from scratch. The app was already actively used and continuously expanded with new services and features. My role was to modernise the user interface step by step, unify the individual parts of the app, and create a system that would support its future growth in a consistent way.

This experience taught me how to take over an existing product, navigate a large number of features and dependencies, identify weak points, and propose improvements without disrupting the overall system. Alongside redesigning existing sections, I also designed new features and gradually evolved the visual language of the app.

The challenge

The app had evolved over time and included a wide range of content types, services, and user scenarios. Its individual sections were not always visually or functionally consistent. Some user flows needed to be simplified, and the existing interface was not an ideal foundation for adding new features.

The challenge was not simply to create a more modern visual style. The product had to be redesigned gradually, while remaining fully functional and familiar to existing users. New sections needed to work naturally alongside older ones, without making the app feel fragmented.

Once most of the key areas had been modernised, we were able to evolve the visual language further and move the product to a higher level of refinement.

My role

As the UX/UI designer, I was responsible for the design of the mobile app. I worked as part of a product team led by a product manager and product owner, who reviewed and approved the direction of the product.

For each task, I analysed the existing solution, prepared wireframes, and explored several design options. Together, we selected the direction that best matched the product goals and the technical possibilities of the existing system.

My responsibilities included:

gradual redesign of existing sections,
design of new user flows and features,
simplification of navigation and information architecture,
creation and continuous development of the design system,
unification of components and interface states,
preparation of design assets for implementation,
review of implemented designs and refinement based on technical constraints.

Redesigning the homepage information architecture

One of the main areas of focus was the redesign of the homepage. The original solution did not provide enough flexibility to present the full range of services and activities in a clear way.

The new homepage was designed to improve orientation, organise content more effectively, and bring relevant offers closer to the user. The goal was to make it easier to discover services and activities without unnecessary steps or overly complicated navigation.

Managing a large amount of content on a limited screen

One of the most demanding parts of the project was presenting a large amount of information, services, and user benefits clearly within the limited space of a mobile screen.

The app connected resort offers, products, purchased items, a digital user card, points, credits, cashback, benefits, and other related features. These elements were closely linked, but users still needed to understand them quickly and intuitively.

My focus was on creating a clear information hierarchy, prioritising content, and connecting individual parts of the system in a way that felt simple and understandable. The interface needed to show the right information at the right moment without overwhelming the user.

A similar challenge applied to the resort detail pages. These contained current information, services, products, activities, and practical details with different levels of importance. The redesign required careful grouping of content and progressive disclosure of additional information.

A design system as the foundation for future growth

The new designs gradually became the foundation of a design system that helped unify the app and support the addition of new features.

The system included colours, typography, spacing, navigation elements, buttons, form components, cards, modal windows, component states, loading states, empty states, and other reusable interface elements.

This was not only a visual clean-up. The design system accelerated the design of new sections, reduced the number of inconsistent solutions, and provided clearer assets for implementation.

Areas covered during the project

During the collaboration, I worked on the design and improvement of a wide range of areas, including:

homepage and product catalogue,
search, filters, and categories,
onboarding, sign-in, and permission flows,
profile and app settings,
digital user card and purchased items,
benefits, credits, and cashback,
favourite items,
notifications,
feedback and review flows,
loading states, empty states, and error states,
dialogue windows, information messages, and confirmation states,
differences between signed-in and signed-out users,
localisation and variable text lengths,
seasonal content changes and personalised offers,
promotional banners and campaign placements,
gamification elements and challenges,
differences between iOS and Android components,
mobile versions of externally loaded content,
cookie and GDPR-related screens.

Process

My work was based on an audit of the existing app and an analysis of competing solutions in the travel segment.

For new or redesigned sections, I prepared wireframes and compared multiple variants. In later phases of the project, after feedback tools had been implemented, we were also able to evaluate designs based on user feedback and internal testing.

The process also included reviewing the implemented designs. Not every proposal could be delivered without compromise, so it was necessary to continuously balance the quality of the user experience with the technical possibilities of the existing system.

Outcome

The gradual redesign resulted in a more modern and unified app with a more consistent user interface.

The new design system created a more scalable foundation for future development. It made it easier to design new features, reduced the number of inconsistent solutions, and provided clearer assets for implementation.

The result was not just a visual facelift, but a gradual transformation of an existing product into a system that could be developed more efficiently and consistently over time.

To protect confidential information, the visuals in this case study have been anonymised and created as illustrative examples. They represent the type of challenges I worked on and my approach to solving them, rather than specific screens from the production app.