Case study · 01
RoadPlan Studio
Plan the drive like a designer.
RoadPlan Studio turns vague road-trip ideas into honest, driveable itineraries. Guests can plan without an account, then save to the cloud, invite tripmates, and remix public templates for Western Canada, Iceland’s Ring Road, the Alps, Hokkaido, and more — with local season and driving-side context baked in.
The problem
Spreadsheets and pin-dropping don’t capture how trips actually unfold: drive time stacks up, daylight shrinks, lodging anchors drift, and collaborators can’t vote on stops without a dozen chat threads.
The approach
A map-first canvas where anchors, pacing, and permissions live together. Live drive times, daylight windows, and elevation keep each day honest; Discover templates and destination guides give planners a head start before they collect the rental.
What it does
Capabilities worth calling out.
01
Guest-first planner
Start at /planner/new with no login. Claim the draft when the route feels real — auth gates only Save, Share, and Tripmates.
02
Map-first pacing
Reorder stops, keep lodging anchors stable, and see live drive times with daylight and elevation so no day becomes eight hours of highway.
03
Discover templates
Public SEO itineraries (Western Canada 2026, Pacific Coast Highway, Iceland Ring Road, Hokkaido Autumn, Alps Grand Tour, and more) ready to remix.
04
Tripmate collaboration
Invite viewers or editors, email invites via Resend, comment and vote on stops while the trip is still moving.
Tech stack
What powers it.
Concrete tools a developer should list on a showcase card — not vague “full stack” labels.
Frontend
Backend & data
Maps & media
Ops & delivery
Architecture notes
How it fits together.
- Public marketing & SEO routes: /, /discover, /trips/[publicSlug]
- Planner surface: /planner/new plus authenticated trip CRUD, collaborators, and email invites
- Drizzle schema + Better Auth tables on Neon; media via S3/R2 presigned uploads
- Zod-validated APIs; TanStack Query for client cache; Framer Motion for intentional motion
Build highlights
Details that matter.
- Design exploration started in Lovable (Pacific Peaks Showcase), then production UI was hardened in-repo.
- Guest drafts claim cleanly into authenticated trips without losing planner state.
- Seed pipeline enriches public templates via Google Places before upserting Discover itineraries.
- Auth covers login, register, forgot/reset password, and account preferences — sessions stored in Neon, no NextAuth/Supabase Auth.
Outcomes
What shipped.
Result 01
Shippable international road-trip product with guest → cloud conversion path
Result 02
Reusable Discover catalog for organic SEO and template-led acquisition
Result 03
Collaboration model that matches how groups actually plan trips
Portfolio checklist
What a developer should include.
Use this project as a showcase template — every case study on this site is written so another engineer can mirror the same depth.
- Lead with the map canvas and a Discover template remix — screenshots of the planner beat abstract marketing art.
- Call out guest-first UX: no signup wall before value.
- List the stack precisely (Next.js, Neon, Drizzle, Better Auth, Google Maps) — hiring managers scan for these.
- Mention Lovable as the design springboard, then ownership of production hardening.
- Include links to live site, GitHub, and one seeded public trip slug.