From wait-and-hope to book-and-go.
A concept app for reserving a ski shuttle seat to the mountain.
INDUSTRY.
Travel & Mobility
Tools.
Figma, Midjourney
Role.
UI/UX & Brand Design
THE OPPORTUNITY
Getting to the mountain is often the most stressful part of a ski day.
Picture this. You're bundled up, gear in hand, standing at a shuttle stop in the cold — no idea when the next one is coming, or whether there'll be room for your group when it does. Just hoping it works out.
So most people drive instead. Not because it's easier, but because it feels more certain. Except it isn't: resort lots fill fast, and finding no spot means rerouting to a remote lot, unloading gear, and waiting for a shuttle anyway. And for anyone with kids in ski school, that delay can mean arriving after the session's already begun.
The gap: there's no easy, reliable way to reserve a ski shuttle in advance — one that shows you what's coming, lets you adjust when plans change, and guarantees a seat is waiting — without the unpredictability of a walk-up shuttle or the price of a private ride.
And this isn't hypothetical. Last season, near Deer Valley's fast-growing East Village, a real shuttle pilot put this to the test — a bare-bones booking app where you could reserve a spot and pick a stop, nothing more. That minimal version is what sparked Glide: my answer to what a genuinely good booking experience could be.
THE PROCESS
From interviews to wireframes
Before designing anything, I wanted to hear how people actually get to the mountain and where it goes wrong. I interviewed five people with different ski styles — a cost-conscious solo snowboarder who drives two hours each way, a parent planning trips for a family of five, and locals living near the resorts. I kept the conversations focused on real behavior ("walk me through your last ski day, starting from when you left home.") That's where the honest pain points came out and the same themes kept surfacing: control and flexibility, real-time visibility, simplicity, and group coordination.
I also looked at how other apps handle similar problems — existing shuttle services, plus apps outside the ski world that nail time-slot booking and ride tracking.
With the direction set, I mapped out the key journeys someone would actually take: booking a ride, viewing and tracking an upcoming ride, and changing or canceling one. I then put together low fidelity wireframes — so I could test whether the structure made sense before spending time on visual design. That turned out to be the right call: testing those early screens is exactly what surfaced key decisions that shaped the rest of the project.
DESIGN CHALLENGES
Decision #1: seats before time
My first booking flow asked people to pick a departure time, then say how many seats they needed. It seemed logical. But during testing, people kept pausing at the same spot — they wanted to know what was available for their group size before committing to a time.
It makes sense: what time slots are available depends on how many spots you need. So group size has to come first — the same order OpenTable already uses. I flipped the order: pick your stop, choose how many seats, then see the times that can actually fit you. A quiet change, but it removes a moment of friction and second-guessing — which matters when you're outside in the cold trying to book fast.
A design system with Figtree font
Highly legible at small sizes
Modern, premium and trustworthy
Headlines: Bold/Semibold
Section Titles: Medium
Body Text: Regular
UI built for cold hands
This app gets used outside, in winter, with gloves on and gear in hand. So the whole system is designed for a quick glance and a confident tap: big tap targets, as little typing as possible, ride cards that lead with the one thing you need — when you're leaving — and consistent patterns so nothing makes you stop and think.
