The Dyrt Trip Planner

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

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 reviews, and upload photos of campsites across the U.S.

I joined The Dyrt during a pivotal moment in its growth. After years of building an active community and a robust 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

Not only are RV and camper van sales in the U.S. booming, but the buyers were also diversifying. More people, of all ages and backgrounds, were hitting the road on camping trips across the country. 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 our existing users as well as prospective users at a local RV trade shows. Key insights included:

  • RV campers often travel for 4–10 nights at a time and value tools that simplify trip planning. Besides bugs, planning the trip was their least favorite part of camping.

  • Many experienced stress over the nuances of traveling with a large rig. Finding gas stations that accommodated large RVs as well as navigating routes with low overpasses or narrow dirt roads were top-reported concerns.

  • 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 campground and review database.

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

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 centered around a map right from the start. But we quickly pivoted to two separate flows to better support onboarding and responsive layouts.

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.

From our conversations with campers, we defined what our tool would need to accommodate to meet the needs that other tools were missing. I learned a lot about the challenges of driving an RV! We turned these considerations into an onboarding wizard.

user testing & iteration

As soon our brainstorming began resulting in viable 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.

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

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

guided onboarding

To reduce the cognitive load of our robust offering, we created a setup wizard. Campers answer a few questions, and in return, get a custom camping itinerary and route. This allows users to personalize their trip right from the start and leads to an “aha” moment when revealed.

Research indicated that a segment of our campers wanted a more manual tool. So, step two lets them skip straight to it.

launch desktop prototype >

delightful anticipation

To reduce the friction of our long MVP load times, we created a cheerful loading animation with messaging that makes the wait feels purposeful rather than passive.

customizable plan

On the trip map campers customize their plans by swapping, or removing campgrounds, fuel stops, and custom waypoints. To add a stop, campers can search along a segment of the existing route or add to the end of a trip and extend the route.

launch native prototype >

Outcomes

  • high engagement

    Over 21K trips were planned within the first month of launch. Trip Planner quickly became our second-most-used feature after Search.

  • exceeded revenue goals

    Due to Trip Planner’s success, we quickly surpassed our revenue goal ahead of schedule. In 18 months the company went from $0 to $4M in ARR.

  • strategic impact

    The feature enabled leadership to raise $7M in funding, their largest investment to date. I was empowered to hire and lead a team of product and brand designers.

reflections

This project was a perfect example of aligning business goals with user needs. By staying focused on our core audience while thoughtfully expanding to meet the needs of RV campers, we delivered a feature that not only added real value, but also proved that design can drive growth.