Collaborators
Yu Hsin Lin
Project Overview
PackWise is an AI-powered packing assistant that helps travelers prepare for trips with confidence. By combining real-time weather data, airline baggage guidelines, and user preferences, the app generates personalized packing lists, estimates luggage weight, and sends timely reminders. The goal is to reduce stress, prevent overpacking, and ensure travelers have everything they need for their journey
Conducted interviews with frequent travelers to uncover pain points and opportunities in packing and trip preparation
Synthesized primary and secondary research into actionable features aligned with user needs
Developed and evaluated AI-driven applications for weather-based recommendations, weight estimation, and reminders
Create visual assets and illustrations; designed user flows and wireframes to test and refine core functionalities
My Role
02 Solution Overview
HMW ensure travelers bring the necessary items for their trip while avoiding stress during packing?
We conducted a series of in-depth interviews with frequent travelers to uncover their packing habits, challenges, and unmet needs. We captured background details, key interview notes, and observed behaviors.
We clustered interview and observation notes into key categories, such as trip planning, safety, personal preferences, financial concerns, travel stress, and environmental impact, to reveal patterns across participants.
This process allowed us to move beyond individual anecdotes and identify recurring pain points and opportunities. By synthesizing these qualitative insights into themes and patterns, we identified pain points such as stress from:
Last-minute prep
Confusion around baggage restrictions
Uncertainty about weather-specific packing.
Research and Synthesis
Journey Mapping
We organized our research insights into a timeline that followed the traveler’s journey from trip planning and packing to being in transit and arriving at their destination. By structuring categories such as preparation, packing behavior, and managing belongings on the move, we were able to pinpoint specific moments of confusion and stress.
Take the guesswork
out of your getaway
03 Takeaways
Let’s Get in Touch.
Email: lucacao@seas.upenn.edu
Mobile: +1 (412)-583-5970
What I learned
Learned how to quickly define the problem space and target user group, translating broad challenges into a clear, actionable design focus.
Discovered how to identify specific use cases for AI that balance tailored recommendations with a smooth, generalizable user experience.
Developed a tool concept with underlying technology that can flex across multiple scenarios and serve diverse user groups.
01 Project Context