The Dyrt Trip Planner

Turning user insights into a revenue-driving feature for a growing camping community.

background

The Dyrt is a crowdsourced app that helps outdoor enthusiasts discover and review campgrounds. Think of it as Yelp for campers. Users can search and browse campgrounds, share experiences, and upload photos of campsites across the U.S.

I joined The Dyrt during a pivotal moment in its growth. After years of building a vibrant community and a massive database of campground reviews, the company was ready to introduce a new revenue stream. As Lead Product Designer, my role was to collaboratively define and design a compelling premium experience that users would be excited to pay for, laying the foundation for a scalable subscription model.

business goal

Develop a premium feature that:

provides real, differentiated value to campers
justifies a paid subscription
helps the company reach $1M in revenue within the first year of launch

user & market insights

RV ownership in the U.S. is booming, with more people of all ages hitting the road for extended trips. Meanwhile, feedback from The Dyrt’s community reported a growing demand for features tailored to RV campers, especially tools that help with planning and logistics.

To dive deeper, we conducted surveys and interviews with existing users as well as prospective users at an RV trade show. Key insights included:

RV campers often travel for 4–10 nights at a time and value tools that simplify trip planning.
Many experience stress over the nuances of traveling with a large rig. Specifically finding RV-friendly gas stations and navigation concerns about low overpasses or narrow dirt roads.
Campers often juggle multiple travel apps but the RV specific tools were too complex and simpler planning tools were only helpful in conjunction with The Dryt’s map and community content.

hypothesis

We believed that an easy-to-use trip planning tool powered by our trusted community data would:

stand out from complex, non-specialized travel tools
attract new RV campers to our platform
provide value to current users looking to discover campgrounds along a route

design process

We started with a cross functional team brainstorming around a whiteboard.

Early concepts included a horizontal layout, and a map based entry point but we quickly pivoted.

ideation & prototyping

With alignment from leadership, I partnered closely with our product and engineering leads to begin ideating. We focused on building a tool that felt intuitive, friendly, and useful right from the start.

Early concepts included a horizontal layout, but we quickly pivoted to a responsive grid-based approach to better support mobile and desktop users.

something about how we decided to start with a wizard instead of the map

A robust prototype allowed us to test and iterate before moving on to visual refinement.

Our users were very generous with their time and interest in testing out our new feature. This user even participated from her RV during a camping trip!

user testing & iteration

As soon as we had functional wireframes, I built an interactive prototype and ran moderated usability tests with users. Through three rounds of iteration, we refined the UI, clarified the user flow, and prioritized features based on feedback.

Once development began, we continued testing in our staging environment to fine-tune data integration and user interactions.

We launched the MVP with confidence, backed by strong user validation and a clearly prioritized roadmap for future enhancements.

delightful onboarding

To keep things simple, we started the experience with a setup wizard—campers answer a few quick questions, and in return, they get a personalized, map-based trip plan with campsite recommendations along the way.

add something about the loading spinner.

customizable trip