WishPoints was presented as a social travel app that treats trip planning like a friendly game. Instead of starting from a blank search box, a traveller opens the app and sees where friends hope to go, where they have already been and what they thought of it. This site is an informational look at that idea and how it worked.
The basic idea
Most trip inspiration is scattered across chats, photo albums and half-remembered conversations. The app tried to pull it into one place. Each destination or experience appears as a card, and every card invites a quick decision.
- Swipe right to add the place to your wishlist.
- Swipe left to mark it as somewhere you have already visited, which files it in your travel history.
- Swipe down, or choose “not now”, to skip a card and see it again later.
Tapping a postcard shows which friends want to go, which ones have been, and the short reviews, thumbs up or down and tips they left behind.
Contributing and scoring
Members can add their own discoveries as postcards, attach reviews and leave practical tips. A points system keeps things competitive. Four scores are tracked:
- Experience, the number of places you have been.
- Discovery, the number of new places you add to the app.
- Influence, how often friends save one of your discoveries to their wishlist.
- Trust, how often other people agree with your review tags or tips.
A scoreboard shows where you stand against friends, and a passport view lets you edit the countries, states and continents you have covered. Higher scores were meant to unlock rewards from partner brands, covered on the rewards page.
Where to read more
- The thinking behind the project is described on the mission page.
- The announcement of the app launch is summarised in the news section.
- Frequent travellers and bloggers who might act as promoters are covered under ambassadors.
- Offers from travel partners appear on the deals page.
- The different audiences the project addressed are outlined on the contact page.
The project connected friends through a social sign-in, so a traveller’s network appeared automatically once they joined, and friends could be invited to compete on the same map.