MSL Vacation

Travel agency app with AI and Voice Assistant Translation


App design and development

What We Did

User Experience, App Design and Development, Animations, Voice Activate Search Assistant


MSL Vacations, a Chinese travel agency, Had an idea for a travel app. It was the first of its kind in China: using machine learning to provide a guided experience in an app for planning trips.

Our Solution

They relied on Urban Pixels to provide them with the knowledge of how to create the app, how to manage a digital product, and how to plan the roadmap for the product.


MSL Vacation Inc. is based in New York, serving travelers locally and from China going to global destinations. MSL is focused on health and wellness travel and targeting high-income Chinese outbound travelers at this stage. They hand-pick healthcare & wellness providers and introduce them to a new generation of travelers from China.

Building the prototype

We created “Ava”, the virtual assistant to help Chinese travelers plan trips to the U.S. We made her familiar and appealing to both eastern and western culture.

Ava’s multilingual abilities were enabled through Nuance Speech kit, and Google Translate API for speech recognition, and Google Natural Language API to analyze intent.

  • Nuance Speech Kit
  • Google Translate API
  • AVA – Advanced Voice Assistant
  • Designed and built prototype

Creating a multi-lingual assistant

Working with MSL, we developed a voice-activated assistant so people who speak native Chinese can easily communicate with English speaking vacation specialists.

What We Delivered

We delivered an MVP iOS app for MSL to submit to the contest. We led them every step of the way from discovery through user experience to final delivery.

User Flow Study

User Story: A couple are having trouble conceiving. They ask AVA for the best IVF clinics in the U.S. AVA connects the couple with a list of IVF specialists with ideas on vacation destinations. AVA assists the couple to set up flight and accommodations.

The app tracks all details including that all documents such as passports are current and complete.

Designing AVA

MSL requested we design a character that was easily identifiable and had the ability to be turned into a plush toy for children. Based on the voice recognition functionality we were designing we came up with AVA (Advanced Voice Assistant). MSL fell in love with the character and asked that we use AVA as the company logo.