PiCK

Make Group Travel Planning Fun

Comment

Inspiration

Planning a group trip should be exciting, but in reality, it’s often stressful and time-consuming. Endless group chats, unresponsive friends, and messy spreadsheets turn what should be a fun experience into a frustrating one. In many cases, coordinating a trip takes longer than the trip itself.

From our survey of 42 travelers:

  • 71.4% usually travel in groups, yet only a fraction feel the planning is a shared effort.
  • 61.9% struggle to find dates that work for everyone.
  • 57.1% feel overwhelmed by too many messages and scattered links.
  • 47.6% find the process simply too time-consuming.

Some even shared that planning a group trip can take up to a year, while solo travelers typically plan in just a few weeks.

Why does this happen?

  • It’s hard to keep track of everyone’s preferences.
  • Not everyone contributes equally.
  • Existing tools focus on booking—not collaboration.

So, how might we make group travel planning easier, more organized, and actually fun?

What it does

PiCK is an AI-powered collaborative travel planner that helps groups plan trips effortlessly using an interactive visual whiteboard. Users can add sticky notes, images, text, and drawings, and use stamps to vote on ideas. AI then analyzes group preferences and suggests the best destinations, flights, hotels, and activities based on the team’s input.

User Journey

  1. Create a Planning Board – Start with a blank canvas or select a guided template
  2. Invite Friends – Share the board via link or code for real-time collaboration.
  3. Brainstorm - Add sticky notes, upload images, write notes, and sketch travel ideas. Group members can stamp their favourite options.
  4. AI Summarization & Recommendations – AI analyzes input and suggests optimized travel options.

How We Built It

Frontend

  • Next.js + TypeScript
  • TailwindCSS + Shadcn/ui
  • Motion = Smooth animations
  • Liveblocks = Real-time collaboration
  • Fabric.js = Interactive whiteboard for planning

Backend

  • Auth.js = Secure, hassle-free logins
  • Turso (libSQL) = Fast, scalable database
  • Drizzle ORM = Type-safe SQL without a cost

AI

  • Google Gemini 2.0 Flash = Instant answers
  • Gemini 2.5 Pro = Smarter trip planning
  • Perplexity Sonar Pro = Up-to-date travel research
  • Imagen 3.0 = High-quality destination visuals
  • Gemini’s function calling
    • Fetch real-time flight/hotel APIs
    • Auto-structures itineraries

UIUX

  • Desk Research
  • User Survey (Google Forms)
  • User Interviews (Zoom for interview, Ottor.ai for transcript + Figjam for interview summary/affinity diagram)
  • Benchmark - There weren't existing platforms that use whiteboard + AI to assist group travel planning, but we looked into Figjam, Tldraw, Milanote, and Miro for layout references
  • Competitor Analysis
  • Figma = to make the UI
  • Illustrator = to make SVG files (assets on tool bar, stamp)

Challenges We Faced

Getting our whiteboard to feel smooth wasn’t easy. We had to:

  • Optimize Liveblocks to reduce lag
  • Tweak Fabric.js for seamless dragging
  • Add Motion micro-interactions for a polished experience

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

Building AI agents, not just chatGPT wrappers

  • Combined Gemini 2.0, 2.5, and Sonar Pro for:
    • Real-time pricing updates
    • Hidden-gem recommendations
    • Smart itinerary planning
  • Used function calling to live APIs for real bookings
  • Delivered structured outputs—no messy JSON

What We Learned

  • Real-time collaboration is complex – Smooth multiplayer needs more than just WebSockets. We optimized Liveblocks, fine-tuned Fabric.js, and synced Motion animations.
  • Whiteboards require precision engineering – Making interactions feel natural took time, from perfecting cursor smoothing to snap physics.
  • AI needs to be useful, not just respond - We built AI that takes unstructured whiteboard input and turns it into clear, actionable results.

What's next for PiCK

  • Voice Support – Enable users to record voice memos, with AI converting speech to text and extracting relevant travel preferences.
  • Flexible Itineraries - Let users choose which activities they want to do together and which ones they prefer to explore separately.
  • User Contribution Tracking – Click on a user’s profile to see what they’ve added to the board, making it easier to track input.
  • Integrated Payments & Booking – Connect with payment platforms to let users book flights, hotels, and activities directly.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates