Aleksandra Irzykowska
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Cart Editing Feature

Cart editing that lets travelers change dates and group size without abandoning and restarting the booking flow.

TripAdvisor booking cart editing screens on three phones
Client
TripAdvisor
Role
Lead UX/UI Designer
Platform
Native iOS and Android
Scope
Edge cases · Self-service · Travel · B2C · Native mobile

To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I’ve omitted confidential information. The data featured here is my own and does not reflect TripAdvisor’s views.

The problem

Changing one detail meant starting the booking over.

TripAdvisor’s attractions cart is central to how travelers plan and book experiences, but it had no way to edit a selection. To change a date or group size, travelers had to clear the cart and start again. That caused frustration, cart abandonment, lost revenue, and a support queue of requests to fix bookings after the fact.

Travelers were making more spontaneous, last-minute changes from their phones, so the app’s cart needed a flexible way to modify attractions after they were added.

Key challenges

  • No way to edit attraction details in the cart
  • Simple changes meant removing and re-adding items
  • Dates, group size (PAX-mix), and tour grade were needlessly hard to change
  • Time-consuming changes that broke the booking flow
  • Inflexibility that drove frustration and abandonment

My role

As lead UX/UI designer, I owned the design process from start to finish, working closely with product managers, engineers, and the research team to make the experience both user-centered and technically feasible.

  • Led research into when and why travelers abandon their carts
  • Designed and tested wireframes and prototypes
  • Designed the native experience for iOS and Android
  • Kept product, engineering, and research aligned through delivery

Approach

Designed around how travelers actually change plans

01Learning when travelers change plans

Research showed many travelers added attractions to their cart but didn’t book until much later, some just days before the trip, others during it. The need for flexibility peaked close to travel.

40%Made edits within a week or days of their trip
30%Adjusted plans during their trip
30%Wanted to make last-minute changes

02Scoping to the edits travelers make

The strategy prioritized edits that depend on the traveler’s own choices, kept simple enough to make on a phone, mid-trip. Two new cart actions made the cart flexible:

  • Edit. Change attraction details right in the cart.
  • Save for Later. Set items aside and come back to them.

User-dependent

The focus: edits travelers make based on their own plans.

  • Dates
  • Group size (PAX-mix)
  • Tour grade

Non-user-dependent

Cart interactions that stay as they are.

  • Checkout
  • Payment

03From tabs to dynamic selectors

The first wireframes used tabs to switch between date and PAX-mix. Usability testing showed they caused friction, especially when an attraction was unavailable or a date was missing. We removed the tabs and moved to dynamic selectors, with results that update as the traveler changes criteria.

First wireframes: cart and edit modal with date and traveler tabs, time slots, options and a review of the changeRevised wireframes: one edit view with traveler counts, date and time selectors, and availability-based options
Before and after testing: tabs out, dynamic selectors in.The revised flow keeps the current selection in view, updates options as dates and travelers change, and flags when a tour isn’t available for the chosen group.

Outcome

Edit any cart item without starting over

Travelers tap any cart item to edit it, using the same selection interface as the original booking, then review a clear summary of the change before confirming. A new review step makes every edit feel safe and reversible.

Mobile booking cart: an unavailable tour, the edit view with travelers, dates and times, a higher price notice, similar tours, and the updated cart
From sold out to rebooked in one flow.When a time sells out, the cart says so and opens the edit view. A new time is picked in place, a price change is flagged before confirming, and similar tours appear as alternatives.

Impact

25% less abandonmentTravelers cited the edit flow as a key reason for completing their bookings.
  • The same editing pattern was later added to hotel bookings
  • Fewer support requests for post-booking corrections
  • Prototype testing confirmed the feature met expectations across multiple use cases

Reflections

This project was an exercise in user-centered design, iteration, and cross-team collaboration. Listening to user feedback and staying agile let us deliver a feature that met real needs and drove business impact.

Scoping tightly to the most common edits, passenger count and date changes, was the right call, and one I’d make again. We shipped something solid and learned from real usage before taking on the complex edge cases. The temptation to solve everything at once is real, especially with a large edge case matrix, but it rarely leads to better outcomes.