The Idea
TripSitter is a web application that is currently in development, and once completed will act as a way to log, manage and share trips with all the other trip members. This will allow for easier collaboration about trip details such as reservations, dates, check in times and other relevant notes.
There will also be a way to view all trips taken on a map, and just have a log of the previous trips that the user has taken, to act as a sort of journal of their trips. Eventually there will be a small social media style feed to view other connections' trips, if they so chose to display that to the public.
The Process
A long, somewhat disorganised, bikepacking trip and my search for a fulfulling web development project spurred the idea to create this application using TypeScript, which during the start of this project, I had been getting a lot of exposure to at my place of work. The initial phase of the project consisted of using and getting familiar with Figma to create protoypes and designs for the site and each planned page.
After creating getting my design ideas down on Figma, I decided to create a React app with Vite, as they were technologies that I was never quite given the chance to play around with and thought this would be the best way to get some real experience. I also then decided to host the site on Vercel which I had been hearing a lot more of and wanted to get acquainted with the platform before I fell too far behind.
The Progress [Oct 10th, 2026]
All the main pages have been set up and are mostly functional. Users are able to add, edit and delete trips, either from the quick add on the home page or from the My Trips page. The trips details include title, description and dates, as well as a special spot to add any reference links which for now is limited to a place to embed Airbnb links.
All past, current and future trips can also be viewed on the My Map page. On the home page there is an upcoming trip widget which shows the closest upcoming future trip. Additionally, users can also add other users as their connections from the connections page, as well as remove connections and ignore requests.
The Future
There is still quite a bit of work that needs to be done, which is mainly to do with the main reason for the app and that is the actual trip management and collaboration aspects. Now that all the other pieces have been set in place, I will be able to put all my focus into integrating these components to make sure that the user has the intended enjoyable experience of the application.
Changes include adding a way to add collaborators to trips, adding a way to add more than one reference to each trip, and maybe different "subtrips" or legs for each trip. Another useful tool to have in the application would be for users to be able to upload and store their documents if they so choose to on their profile for ease of access.