Curated Travel Made Simple
Brevity
Luxury Travel Experience, AI-Powered Personalization, Mobile App UX
Luxury travelers often confront an overwhelming flood of information when planning high-end trips. They rely on a mix of scattered online sources, personal recommendations, and traditional concierge services—which can be slow, inconsistent, or impersonal. This fragmented process creates friction, wastes time, and can make even the most well-planned journey feel stressful rather than effortless.
Brevity set out to transform this experience by combining AI-driven recommendations with a highly intuitive, curated booking platform. The goal was to provide travelers with personalized suggestions, streamline decision-making, and offer a seamless path from inspiration to booking—all while maintaining the sophistication and exclusivity expected in the luxury travel space.
The challenge was to design a high-end digital experience that balanced efficiency, personalization, and exclusivity, giving users the confidence that every trip would be meticulously tailored to their preferences. By embedding AI-driven insights into a refined, user-centered interface, Brevity aimed to simplify complex travel planning while preserving the sense of discovery and indulgence that defines luxury experiences.
My Role
Product Design
UX Architecture
Data Flow
Client Communication
Platforms
iOS
Android
Business Challenge
Luxury travelers today are wealthy in options, yet often scarce in seamless solutions. While they demand bespoke, high-end experiences, the journey from inspiration to booking remains fragmented—requiring hours of research across disparate portals, consultation with concierges, and navigating inconsistent service levels. Many turn to old‑school concierge services, but these can be slow, manual, and lack full transparency or digital convenience.
Brevity's mission was clear: to reimagine luxury travel planning by delivering an experience that matched the sophistication of its audience—efficient, personalized, and exclusive. The challenge lay in bridging three core needs:
Efficiency: Reducing the time and friction inherent in planning a luxury trip while still delivering depth and quality.
Personalization: Anticipating and catering to the unique preferences of affluent travellers—luxury becomes meaningful when it feels curated.
Exclusivity & Trust: Ensuring every suggestion, every booking, and every interaction reflects the premium nature of the experience, without sacrificing usability or speed.
Designing a platform that felt as elegant and refined as the high‑end trips it planned—yet intuitive enough to use without training—was no small feat. The interface had to look luxurious and function flawlessly. The recommendation engine needed to feel smarter than a standard booking site. And the entire journey—from discovery to reservation—had to instil confidence, not confusion.
In short: Brevity needed to transform the luxury travel workflow—from scattered inspiration and fragmented booking to one connected, digital experience that elevates the planning process into something as refined as the destinations themselves.
Research Methods
To ensure Brevity delivered a seamless and highly personalized experience for luxury travelers, we implemented a comprehensive research strategy that combined qualitative insights, competitive benchmarking, and behavioral analysis.
User Interviews – We conducted in-depth interviews with over 30 high-net-worth individuals to understand their unique travel preferences, booking behaviors, and pain points. These conversations revealed key frustrations, including fragmented booking processes, inconsistent concierge services, and difficulty accessing curated, high-quality travel recommendations.
Competitive Analysis – We reviewed leading luxury travel platforms, concierge services, and high-end booking tools to identify gaps in personalization, convenience, and user experience. This benchmarking highlighted opportunities to differentiate Brevity by combining efficiency with curated, AI-driven recommendations tailored to individual traveler preferences.
Usability Testing – Multiple rounds of prototype testing with real users helped refine navigation, interactions, and AI-generated suggestions. Observing how users interacted with the platform uncovered friction points, guided interface improvements, and ensured the booking journey felt effortless, intuitive, and premium.
Behavioral Analysis – We analyzed the decision-making patterns of affluent travelers, from initial trip inspiration to final booking. This research informed the structure of content, the design of recommendation engines, and the placement of key actions within the user journey, ensuring Brevity aligned with the way luxury travelers think and plan.
Outcome – By combining direct user feedback, competitive insights, and behavioral research, we built a strong foundation for designing a platform that truly catered to the expectations of luxury travelers, balancing efficiency, personalization, and exclusivity.
Failed Iterations & Key Learnings
Overly Complex Customization – In the initial design, we allowed users to customize every detail of their trips, from accommodation and transportation to dining and activities. While feature-rich, usability testing revealed that luxury travelers often found this level of complexity overwhelming. They preferred smart defaults that handled most decisions automatically, with the option to fine-tune details as needed. This insight led us to implement a balanced approach, combining automation with flexibility, which simplified the experience while maintaining a sense of control and personalization.
Minimalist UI vs. Rich Visuals – The first iteration embraced a hyper-minimalist interface to prioritize speed and simplicity. However, feedback indicated that users expected a more visually immersive, luxurious experience. A stark minimalist design felt sterile and did not convey the premium quality associated with luxury travel. In response, we refined the platform to incorporate high-quality imagery, elegant typography, and subtle animations, enhancing visual appeal while keeping the interface intuitive and navigable.
AI-Powered Suggestions – Early AI-generated recommendations were too generic, failing to account for individual user preferences, travel history, or context. This lack of personalization reduced engagement and trust in the platform’s suggestions. After multiple iterations, we enhanced the machine learning model to deliver context-aware, personalized recommendations that considered user behavior, stated preferences, and curated insights from similar luxury travelers. The result was a system that felt intelligent, relevant, and tailored, significantly improving user satisfaction and adoption.
Key Learnings – These iterations reinforced the importance of balancing complexity with usability, visual richness with clarity, and automation with personalization. By testing assumptions early, listening to real user feedback, and iterating thoughtfully, we created a platform that felt both effortless and luxurious—delivering a seamless, premium travel planning experience that resonated with our audience.
Metrics & Outcomes
⏳ 50% Faster Trip Planning – By leveraging AI-driven recommendations, smart defaults, and an intuitive interface, Brevity enabled users to plan luxury trips twice as quickly as traditional concierge services. Streamlined workflows and contextual suggestions reduced decision fatigue and made the entire planning process more efficient and enjoyable.
📈 70% User Preference – After initial trials, 70% of users reported that Brevity had become their preferred travel planning tool. This high adoption rate reflected the platform’s ability to balance personalization, convenience, and luxury, meeting the expectations of high-net-worth travelers.
💎 35% Increase in Bookings – Within the first three months post-launch, Brevity drove a 35% increase in bookings. This boost demonstrated the platform’s effectiveness in converting planning activity into actionable travel experiences, reinforcing both user satisfaction and business impact.
🚀 High Retention – The platform fostered strong early engagement, with 60% of initial users returning to plan future trips. High retention underscored the value of Brevity’s personalized recommendations, curated experiences, and seamless booking process, which kept users coming back for new journeys.
Overall Impact – By combining user-centered research, iterative design, and AI-driven personalization, Brevity transformed the luxury travel planning experience. The measurable improvements in efficiency, user preference, bookings, and retention highlight how thoughtful design and technology can elevate a traditionally complex process into a seamless, engaging, and premium experience.
Key Takeaways
User Research & Testing – In-depth interviews, surveys, and usability testing with high-net-worth travelers provided crucial insights into booking pain points and preferences. This user-centered approach guided every design decision, ensuring the platform not only enhanced usability but also maintained a sense of exclusivity and premium service.
Iterative AI Refinement – Continuous testing and optimization of AI-driven recommendations ensured that suggestions were highly personalized, context-aware, and aligned with the sophisticated expectations of luxury travelers. By refining the machine learning model iteratively, we delivered a system that felt intelligent, relevant, and effortless.
Luxury-Focused UX – By balancing efficiency with premium aesthetics, Brevity created an experience that was both visually immersive and highly functional. Elegant visuals, intuitive workflows, and seamless interactions differentiated the platform from competitors, reinforcing its position in the high-end travel market.
Strategic Outcome – Brevity successfully redefined the luxury travel planning experience, combining AI-powered personalization, thoughtful design, and a user-centered approach. The platform provided travelers with a streamlined, engaging, and luxurious journey from inspiration to booking, setting a new standard for convenience and sophistication in high-end travel. ✈️✨
Awards & Recognition
The successful launch of Brevity’s Phase 1, highlighted by the demonstration of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), not only validated the platform’s design and functionality but also secured millions of dollars in funding, enabling the project to advance into Phase 2. This milestone marked a critical step in bringing a premium, AI-powered travel planning experience to market.
Brevity has also received numerous accolades, reflecting both its innovative design and its user-centered approach:
W3 Awards 2022 –
Mobile Apps & Sites: Business for Mobile (Gold) – Recognized for excellence in delivering a high-impact business app experience.
Mobile Apps & Sites: Travel for Mobile (Gold) – Celebrated for creating an intuitive and luxurious travel platform tailored to high-end users.
Mobile Apps & Sites: Professional Services for Mobile (Silver) – Acknowledged for effectively combining professional-level service with mobile usability.
Mobile Features: Best Visual Design Aesthetic for Mobile (Gold) – Honored for a visually immersive interface that conveyed luxury and sophistication.
Mobile Features: Best User Experience for Mobile (Silver) – Recognized for delivering an intuitive, seamless, and highly functional user journey.
Mobile Features: Best User Interface for Mobile (Silver) – Celebrated for a clean, elegant interface that balanced usability with premium aesthetics.
These awards and recognitions not only validate the design excellence, usability, and innovative features of Brevity but also highlight the platform’s ability to meet the high expectations of luxury travelers while achieving measurable business and user impact.