Trip Builder Start Screen (Entry Point Selector)¶
Figure 12. Trip Builder Start Screen (Mobile): single-column hero prompt with vertically stacked entry tiles and horizontal Quick Starts rail for rapid itinerary seeding.
1. Purpose¶
Remove friction at the very beginning of planning by letting the user begin from any "spark" (promo, saved, recommendation, theme) and immediately preview a scaffolded Day 1.
2. Hero Prompt¶
Primary text: “Where shall we begin, Dragos?”
Subtext: Pick a starting point — I’ll build the rest for you.
Behavior: fades once a starting tile is chosen; replaced by compact trip title editor.
3. Entry Tiles¶
| Tile | Source | Default Content | Tap Outcome | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| From a Promo | Seasonal / trending campaign (e.g. 🍂 Autumn Festival in Dănești) | Hero image + season tag | Seeds draft with promo petal as anchor, pre-fills date (next weekend) | Pulls from curated promo feed |
| From a Saved Petal | UserProfile.saved_petals (recent / most-loved) | Real photo + tags | Draft trip with that petal as Day 1 Activity 1 | Ranking by recent interaction weight |
| From a Recommendation | AI curated (preferences + season + region) | Illustration / neutral scenic | Generates 2–3 seed petals (cluster) | RAG retrieval + diversity pass |
Recommendation Generation (Seed)¶
Steps: profile preference tag weights → hybrid search (region + seasonality) → cluster by tag set → pick top centroid + complementary diversity pair.
4. Smart Suggestions (Quick Starts Bar)¶
Horizontal chip / card rail (scrollable): examples: Family weekend near Bucharest, E‑bike loop + picnic, Water activities before autumn ends.
Selecting a Quick Start executes a predefined filter/prompt template and opens the builder with initial retrieval set + provisional ordering.
5. Instant Builder Preview Transition¶
On selection: 1. Overlay spinner (<400 ms target) while retrieving seed petals. 2. Slide left-to-right into standard Builder layout (Day 1 + map snippet + suggested add-ons side panel). 3. Show toast: “Draft initialized — refine or add more petals.”
Esc / Back (within 3 s) returns to Start Screen preserving previous selection state.
6. Suggested Add‑Ons Panel¶
| Source | Logic | Placement |
|---|---|---|
| Nearby complementary | Tag diversity vs seed anchor | Top section |
| Popular in region | Popularity snapshot cache | Middle |
| Personal favorites | Intersect favorite_tags | Lower |
| Seasonal expiring | Season end proximity | Highlighted badge |
7. Merge Into Active Trip (While Traveling)¶
If user is already in On‑Trip Mode and launches a Promo:
- Offer dialog: “Add to current trip or start new?”
- Choosing Add inserts promo petal into next available compatible time slot (conflict check: duration + travel delta) and regenerates local route polyline.
8. Telemetry¶
| Event | Payload |
|---|---|
| builder_start_view | { userId } |
| builder_tile_select | { type:"promo |
| builder_quick_start_select | { templateId } |
| builder_seed_generate | { count, durationMs } |
| builder_merge_into_active | { source:"promo", tripId } |
9. Edge Cases¶
| Scenario | Handling |
|---|---|
| No saved petals | Hide Saved tile; show an encouragement to save petals via search |
| No promos active | Replace Promo tile with dynamic recommendation cluster |
| Recommendation retrieval empty | Retry with relaxed geo radius; fallback to popular set |
| Slow seed generation (>2s) | Show progressive skeleton (skeleton tiles) |
10. Accessibility¶
- Tiles: role=button, aria-label includes tile type + primary petal name (if present).
- Quick Start rail: list semantics + focusable chips.
- Provide skip link directly to “Builder Preview” after selection.
11. Security & Privacy¶
| Concern | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Promo injecting restricted content | Promo curation pipeline validates license_flags before publish |
| Recommendation leakage of private tags | Only surface tags already visible in profile preferences UI |
| Seed hallucination | All seed petals required to have source + source_id citations before acceptance |
12. Future Enhancements¶
- Multi-select starting seeds (e.g. pick 2 saved petals to combine).
- Voice start: “Plan a weekend nature trip.”
- Recently abandoned drafts shortcut.
- A/B test tile ordering vs engagement.
Figure 12 added: 2025-09-05 (image trip-builder-start-mobile.png).
Cross-links: user-dashboard.md, trip-in-progress.md, on-trip-mode-transition.md, petal_schema.md.