Client project · GPT

A GPT tour finder for On the Go Tours

In early 2023 I built On the Go Tours a tour finder powered by OpenAI's GPT models. You tell it what you enjoy and when you can travel, and it suggests a tour and shows you the itinerary. It was client work through Designed for Humans, alongside a new design system for their website.

What problem does it solve?

A tour operator's catalogue is a lot to wade through. Most people know what they like and when they're free. They don't know which tour fits, and filters only get you so far when the real question is "what would suit me?"

A conversation is a better fit for that question than a form. So instead of more filters, I gave people something to talk to.

How does it work?

• Ask about the traveller. What they enjoy and the kind of trip they're after.
• Ask about dates. When they can travel.
• Suggest a tour. It matches their answers to a tour On the Go Tours runs.
• Show the itinerary. So they can see what the trip involves, day by day, before they book.

Where does the design system come in?

On the same engagement I built On the Go Tours a new design system on Tailwind, because that's what their developers already used. A design system that matches the team's tools gets used. One that asks them to change frameworks gets admired and ignored.

Across the engagement, small improvements and experiments across customer segments increased booking conversion by 300%. I also ran paired programming sessions with the developers, so good UX practice went into the code as well as the designs.

Why is a 2023 project on this page?

Because it was early. I built it in early 2023, months before OpenAI launched custom GPTs that November. The approach hasn't changed since: start with what the customer is actually trying to do, then decide where AI helps.

Fancy something similar?

At Designed for Humans I help product teams work out where AI genuinely helps their customers, then design and build it. See how we can work together, or see all my AI projects.