Challenge
The app’s original home feed was causing friction for travelers during their trip and in some instances delayed them from getting to the information they needed.
objectives
Focus the app around the user’s trip by illuminating real-time journey information and tasks.
Remove the home feed and simplify the navigation so a user’s trip is the main landing page
Update the trip card UI with functionality and imagery
Surface relevant travel information the help users reach the next point of their trip
Role
Lead designer - research, wireframes, prototyping, testing, and visual design
Research
Understanding user needs
To better support travelers on their trips, we need to understand their expectations. User interviews were conducted with existing clients and the main takeaways included frustrations with the following:
Confusion with how trips were organized - difficulty distinguishing between completed trips and future trips.
Not being able to easily view trip information that may be getting lost with other card content
“…I think the blog entry is clutter and takes away from the app. I just want to open it up and get the info I need.” (Beta Upsilon)
Original Home feed
Original Trips page
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed in their 2018 Global Passenger Survey (GPS), that passengers are looking to new technology to give them more control, information and improve efficiency when they travel.
Based on 10,408 responses from 145 countries passengers’ top three priorities after booking a flight were identified as receiving information on flight status (82%), baggage (49%) and waiting time at security/immigration (46%).
Competitive analysis
2 key insights emerged while exploring direct and indirect competitors in online travel booking.
Timely Information
Dynamically display information and actions that support the next step in the user’s itinerary. The trip details transition from pre-trip, on-trip, to post-trip details to ensure that the most relevant information surfaces.
Limit Content
Prioritize only the key information that should be displayed to the user. Consider creative ways beyond text to communicate information, such as city imagery and icons.
Google Trips
Airbnb
United Airlines
Design
Sketches and wireframes
Sketches explored a design that eliminates the original home feed. The new design would need to ensure that what was valuable to customers isn’t lost and would be accounted for on this new trips page.
Scope creep, well, creeped in as we considered navigational changes, universal color changes and new interactions. While the team saw potential in having a more persistent chat in the header, taking on an overhaul of the navigation and visual design would be too much. For this project we’d narrow the scope to updating the trips page, while trying to impact other screens a little as possible.
Trip card variations
Prototype & TEST
High-fidelity designs
Annotated specifications
We discovered during development that accurate city images aren’t always available for every small town or city. As a fallback, if an inaccurate image is returned for a city, a generic inventory image would be the alternative.
As the user’s trip evolves so do the trip cards, dynamically transitioning from departure information, to check-in tasks, to returning information - helping users successfully reach their destination at every step.