Design an app for planning vacations.

This question is all about testing your analytical thinking, problem-solving and creativity skills. The interviewer wants to understand how you approach the process of designing a product or a feature with a user-oriented perspective. To answer this question, keep the following key points in mind:

1. Understanding the problem – Before jumping to the solution, ensure you fully understand the problem. The aim is to design an app for planning vacations. Why might this be needed? What problems or difficulties can be addressed through this app?

2. Identifying the target audience – Who will use this app? Regular travelers, occasional vacationers, business travelers or specific groups like backpackers or luxury travelers?

3. Features – What features should the app have to address the problems you identified? How would these features benefit the users?

4. User Interface/Experience – How are you going to design the interface? How does the user interact with these features?

5. Feasibility – Are there any technical limits you need to consider?

6. Competitive advantage – There might be existing apps for this purpose. How to make your app different and arguably better?

The problem I am trying to tackle is to reduce the stress and possible confusion during vacation planning. The target audience for this app would be everyday people who travel occasionally and who want to have a better planning experience.

The primary feature of the app should be an integrated planner that connects to all resources needed, like accommodation booking websites, flight aggregators, local attractions and restaurants etc. Users should be able to drag and drop different elements into a daily planner, preview costs and get estimated travel time between locations.

The app would also include a recommendation engine powered by AI, suggesting destinations, hotels, attractions, and restaurants based on factors such as user profile, preferences, and past travels.

From a UI/UX standpoint, simplicity and ease-of-use would be the key design elements. An intuitive design would allow users to plan their vacation in the most efficient and stress-free way.

To gain competitive advantage, we can include a price alert function for flight and hotel prices and user-generated content like reviews and photos.

In today's digital world, a holidaymaker’s needs have evolved. They seek more than just flight and hotel booking. They are in need of comprehensive solution that will take care of planning, booking and experiencing.

We are aiming to provide a solution to travelers who seek ease in managing their vacation from A-Z. They are tech-savvy, and comfortable using digital solutions.

We will identify key features like end-to-end booking from flights to sightseeing, personalized itineraries, real-time notifications for local experiences, currency converter, language translator, local transport etc.

This app will offer a one-stop solution where planning a trip from dreaming to experiencing is just a few touches away! They can even share their memories with their social community from the app itself.

On a technical front, use of AR (Augmented Reality), AI and ML could give immersive experiences. To create a competitive edge, we will ensure local experiences like dining at a local’s house, wine-tasting at a vineyard, etc. We also plan to offer 24x7 assistance from travel experts! That’s definitely a plus in a vacation-planning app.