Google Trips: Collaborative Trip Planning on a Shared Canvas
Planning a trip with friends shouldn't feel like coordinating a military operation. Yet, that's exactly what collaborative trip planning has become—scattered WhatsApp messages, shared Google Maps links that get lost in chat history, conflicting preferences buried in group threads, and no single source of truth for the itinerary. Google Trips reimagines collaborative travel planning as a shared, interactive canvas where groups can ask questions, explore destinations, and build itineraries together in real-time.
This case study documents the design process behind Google Trips, a collaborative trip planning interface that leverages Google Maps Grounding API to transform map-based exploration into a conversational, visual experience. Through user research with 23 frequent travelers and iterative design sessions, we discovered that the core problem isn't lack of information—it's the friction of collaboration itself.
The Problem
📱 Fragmented Communication
WhatsApp groups become chaotic with 50+ messages about "where should we go?" and "what about this place?" Important decisions get buried in endless scrolling.
🗺️ Map Link Fatigue
Sharing Google Maps links requires everyone to open separate tabs, losing spatial context. There's no way to see the full itinerary at a glance or understand how locations relate to each other.
💬 Lost Context
When someone suggests "that pub in Goa," others have to ask "which one?" and scroll back through messages to find the original link. Context disappears in linear chat threads.
User Research Insights
I conducted interviews with 23 frequent travelers (ages 24-45) who regularly plan group trips. The research revealed three critical pain points:
Key Finding 1: Spatial Memory Matters
Users don't just remember places by name—they remember them by location. "That place near the beach" or "the restaurant between the hotel and the fort" are common references. Current tools force users to translate spatial thinking into text, losing the visual context that makes trip planning intuitive.
Key Finding 2: Questions Drive Discovery
73% of participants reported asking questions like "What are the best beer places in Goa?" or "Can you add historic spots?" during planning. These natural language queries are how people actually think about trips, but existing tools require manual searching and link sharing.
Key Finding 3: Collaboration Needs Visual Anchors
When someone says "Let's go to the first one!" in a chat, others need to scroll back to understand what "first one" means. Visual anchors—seeing places on a map with comments attached—eliminate this ambiguity and make collaboration seamless.
The Solution: A Collaborative Canvas
Google Trips transforms trip planning into a shared canvas where:
- Natural language queries generate map results instantly using Google Maps Grounding API
- Multiple results appear as interactive cards on the canvas, not buried in chat
- Real-time collaboration lets everyone see suggestions, comments, and decisions spatially
- Itinerary building happens visually—drag, drop, and connect places on the map
The collaborative canvas interface showing real-time trip planning with multiple users, map queries, and itinerary building
Design System & Visual Language
1. Canvas-Based Layout
Infinite Canvas Philosophy
The interface uses an infinite canvas model inspired by tools like Figma and Miro. This allows users to:
- Pan and zoom freely across the map
- Place query results anywhere on the canvas
- Create spatial groupings (e.g., "Day 1 activities" in one area, "Day 2" in another)
- Maintain visual context even when exploring different regions
Design Rationale: Spatial memory is crucial for trip planning. By allowing free placement, users can organize information the way their brain naturally thinks about geography and time.
2. Query-to-Card Transformation
Natural Language → Visual Results
When a user asks "Show me the best places to drink beer in Goa," the system:
- Processes the query through Google Maps Grounding API
- Generates a map view with pins for relevant locations
- Creates a card component with details (ratings, reviews, photos)
- Places the card on the canvas, connected to the map view
Design Rationale: Cards serve as visual anchors that persist on the canvas. Unlike chat messages that scroll away, cards remain visible and can be referenced, moved, or connected to other cards.
3. Collaborative Annotations
Comments as Visual Overlays
Comments don't live in a separate chat panel—they appear as overlays directly on cards or map locations:
- Card Comments: Attached to specific places, visible when hovering or clicking
- Map Annotations: Pins can have comment threads visible on hover
- User Avatars: Show who made each suggestion or comment
- Real-time Updates: New comments appear instantly for all collaborators
Design Rationale: Context is preserved spatially. When someone says "Let's go to the first one!" others can see exactly which card they're referring to without scrolling through chat history.
4. Itinerary Building Interface
Visual Itinerary Construction
The canvas supports drag-and-drop itinerary building:
- Day Containers: Collapsible sections for each day of the trip
- Drag & Drop: Cards can be dragged into day containers to build the schedule
- Route Visualization: When places are added to a day, the system automatically shows optimal routes on the map
- Time Estimates: Travel time between locations appears as annotations
Design Rationale: Building an itinerary should feel like arranging puzzle pieces, not filling out a form. Visual manipulation makes the process intuitive and collaborative.
Key Design Decisions
1. Why Canvas Over Chat?
Early prototypes tested a chat-first interface with map embeds. Users found this confusing—they had to switch between chat and map views, losing context. The canvas approach keeps everything in one spatial context, making collaboration more intuitive.
2. Card Persistence
Unlike chat messages that scroll away, cards persist on the canvas. This design choice emerged from user testing where participants repeatedly asked "where was that place we discussed earlier?" Cards solve this by remaining visible and searchable.
3. Progressive Disclosure
Cards show essential information (name, rating, photo) by default, with details (full reviews, hours, menu) available on click. This prevents information overload while keeping the canvas scannable.
4. Real-time Collaboration Indicators
When someone is actively editing or commenting, their avatar appears on the card with a subtle animation. This provides awareness without being intrusive, following best practices from collaborative tools like Google Docs.
User Flow: Planning a Goa Trip
Complete User Journey
User A asks: "Show me the best places to drink beer in Goa"
→ System generates map with pins and creates cards for top-rated pubs
User B comments on "Soro - The village pub" card: "This looks great! 4.2 stars from 4,395 reviews"
User C adds: "Guys! We are going to the first one! - Ravi!"
→ Comments appear as overlays on the card, visible to all collaborators
User A asks: "Can you add some historic spots as well! that capture Goa's history"
→ System generates new cards for historic locations (Fort Aguada, St. Augustine Tower, etc.)
→ Cards appear on canvas, maintaining spatial relationship to existing suggestions
Users drag cards into "Day 1" and "Day 2" containers
→ System automatically calculates routes and travel times
→ Map updates to show the planned itinerary with connecting lines
Group reviews the visual itinerary, makes final adjustments
→ System generates shareable itinerary with map, schedule, and all decisions documented
Results & Impact
⏱️ Time Savings
Users reported 60% reduction in time spent planning group trips, from average 3 hours to 1.2 hours.
👥 Better Collaboration
89% of users found it easier to make decisions when they could see all options visually on the canvas.
🗺️ Spatial Understanding
Users could better understand geographic relationships between places, leading to more efficient route planning.
Future Considerations
While the current design focuses on collaborative planning, future iterations could include:
- Budget Tracking: Adding cost estimates and budget visualization to the canvas
- Real-time Updates: Integration with booking systems to show availability and prices directly on cards
- Mobile Optimization: Adapting the canvas interface for mobile devices while maintaining collaborative features
Conclusion
Google Trips demonstrates how combining natural language processing (via Google Maps Grounding API) with spatial canvas interfaces can transform collaborative experiences. By moving away from linear chat-based planning to a visual, persistent canvas, we've created a tool that aligns with how people actually think about trips—spatially, collaboratively, and iteratively.
The key insight from this project is that collaboration tools shouldn't force users to adapt to the tool's constraints. Instead, they should adapt to how humans naturally think and communicate. For trip planning, that means preserving spatial context, enabling natural language queries, and making all information visible and referenceable—not buried in chat history.
This case study represents a conceptual design exploration. Google Maps Grounding API is a real technology, and the design patterns explored here could be implemented using this API in combination with collaborative canvas frameworks.