Case study
Designing a self-service booking platform for a boutique Japan tour company — turning Instagram DMs into an end-to-end digital experience.
Overview
The Joyful Cherry is a founder-led tour business based in Tokyo, offering off-the-beaten-path experiences for international travelers who have already seen the typical tourist spots. Tours are multi-day, emphasizing cultural immersion, hidden local spots, and genuinely unique experiences you won't find in a guidebook.
The founder, Kayo, relied entirely on Instagram DMs and WhatsApp to manage all bookings — requiring constant manual back-and-forth across time zones. The goal of this project was to create a mobile-first booking experience that lets travelers discover, evaluate, and book tours independently, while dramatically reducing Kayo's administrative workload.
Problem
Users had to message Kayo directly through Instagram or WhatsApp to ask basic questions — tour dates, prices, itineraries. There was no way to compare options or understand what was included. Every booking required days of manual back-and-forth communication, and the lack of a professional presence reduced trust with potential customers.
Goals & alignment
The solution sits at the intersection — serving both the traveler and the founder
Research & approach
I researched competitors in the boutique travel and cultural tourism space to identify best practices. Through this analysis, I found that successful platforms prioritized visual storytelling, provided clear tour details upfront, and built trust through testimonials and guide introductions.
I also mapped Kayo's existing Instagram/WhatsApp booking flow to identify exactly where friction occurred — and used those insights to define the design principles for this project.
Competitive analysis
Key finding: the best platforms lead with imagery and answer questions before users ask them
Design system
Before designing screens, I established a UI kit defining the brand's typography, color palette, button styles, icons, and logo usage. This ensured every screen felt intentional and cohesive — and gave the design a scalable foundation for future development.
UI kit
Typography, brand colors, button states, iconography, and logo variants
Solution
The final design delivers a mobile-friendly booking experience that allows users to discover tours through a clean landing page, understand tour value through structured content and imagery, and book independently — without needing to contact the founder at all.
I designed the complete end-to-end flow: homepage, tour browsing, tour detail pages, the founder introduction, social proof, and the full booking form — transforming what was previously a multi-day conversation into a process completable in minutes.
Mobile screens
Full mobile flow: hero → tour discovery → tour categories → meet the guide → testimonials → tour detail → inclusions → reviews → booking form → account
Final designs
Homepage, mobile homepage, tour detail desktop, tour detail mobile, and booking flow
Impact
The new platform eliminated the manual back-and-forth that was consuming hours of Kayo's time each week. By providing all essential tour information, pricing, and availability in one place, the design dramatically reduced repetitive customer inquiries and created a scalable foundation for growth.
What I learned
Design for both sides of the marketplace. The solution needed to work for travelers seeking authentic experiences AND a solo founder managing everything. A beautiful booking interface means nothing if the founder is still overwhelmed with admin work.
Good design for small businesses is about strategic automation. Not adding features — automating what's repetitive while preserving what makes the service special. Efficiency without losing the personal, curated feel that differentiates Joyful Cherry from larger operators.
Trust is a design problem. Since customers are making significant financial and time commitments, the design needed to provide confidence through social proof, transparent information, and personal connection with the founder.
Typography and spacing are not polish — they are credibility. Feedback from my mentor highlighted how inconsistent line heights and unclear type hierarchy can undermine an otherwise strong concept. UI craft is what separates good work from very good work — and it's where I'm actively focusing next.