Otterra Travel

Three questions to the project team

What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
From a UX point of view, the challenge was designing a travel-planning experience that felt complete without feeling complicated. International travelers often move between separate tools for itineraries, places, group decisions, tasks, and expenses, which can make planning feel scattered and stressful. With Otterra Travel, we aimed to bring everything into one clear, visually engaging flow. The key challenge was balancing rich functionality with simplicity, so users could coordinate trips, understand responsibilities, and make decisions at a glance while still feeling excited, inspired, and in control of their journey.

What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
Our personal highlight was watching Otterra grow from a collection of travel-planning ideas into a more thoughtful and connected experience. The aha moment was realizing that the app was not only about organizing trips, but about making group travel feel less stressful and more enjoyable. Features such as group voting, shared tasks, itinerary planning, location suggestions, and expense splitting became stronger when we designed them around collaboration and clarity. On the other hand, having so many features in one app and making sure it has a smooth transition through user testing was a tough one, but it helped us prioritize what truly comes first, a travel companion that feels useful, intuitive, and exciting to use.

Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
In the next five years, we see ourselves growing as UX-minded product builders who can connect user needs, business goals, and technical execution more confidently. For Otterra Travel, we hope the project can continue evolving from a student-built concept into a more complete travel platform for international and group travelers. We would like to see it expand with stronger personalization, smarter recommendations, smoother collaboration tools, and a more polished cross-cultural experience. Most importantly, we hope Otterra continues to represent our original goal: making travel planning feel less fragmented, more inclusive, and more enjoyable from start to finish.