The World's Most Experienced Airline
To get a better understanding of the current market and expectations of the potential users, I employed two research methods--competitive analysis and customer interviews. For the competitive analysis, I examined direct and indirect competitors and conducted research on current trends and obstacles as well as future trends of the industry.
The goals for my research process was the following:
To get a better understanding of the current market and expectations of the potential users, I employed two research methods--competitive analysis and customer interviews. For the competitive analysis, I examined direct and indirect competitors and conducted research on current trends and obstacles as well as future trends of the industry.
I also created provisional personas for each of the competitors to start imagining who the Pan Am persona would be. With this in mind, I proceeded to the Customer Interviews.
For this project, I recruited 5 participants who shopped online within the last year. (Because of the current pandemic, many people are not flying. Several participants had traveled within the last few months but a few were further out.) The age of participants ranged from 23 to 35; 4 identified as female and 1 identified as male.
Here are some general insights I observed:
During the interview process, I noticed that patterns were emerging. After I finished interviewing my participants, I synthesized the qualitative data I gathered into an empathy map.
"I am usually flexible on dates that I travel so I like to see if I could get the best price those weeks."
"I used to fly red-eye for the lower price. But now that I'm older, I care about comfort and convenience as well -- such as, departure/arrival times, flight duration, and seats."
"I don't like it when information is all cluttered and you have to really look hard for what you want."
"I hate it when they deceive me to upgrade the flight. Just show me what makes it better."
Jeremy is a freelance videographer in Los Angeles. He is originally from Boston, MA. He gets plenty of gigs in LA. But since he’s from the East Coast and has friends and family there, he has built up quite a network there and travels often for work. On top of that, he loves to travel and see new places. So he’s always looking for an opportunity to go somewhere new and travel the world. He used to look for the cheapest deals but not anymore. Comfort and convenience is just as important as flight cost. He wants flights that fit his schedule and make him feel comfortable and at ease. He also tries to visit family in the Philippines every few years and plans an Asia trip when he does.
Pan Am is remembered as an airline that provides an excellent flying experience. With this in mind, I created a user flow that allows users to book a flight while also selecting seats in the process. With comfort and convenience in mind, this user flow gives the user more control over their flight booking experience.
During my primary research, all of the participants booked their flights on their laptop or desktop, especially if they are booking flights overseas. So I decided to curate a flight booking experience for a desktop.
In my sketches, I implemented design patterns that I saw during my research process. Specifically, I enjoyed how Jet Blue branded their experience as well as Virgin Atlantic. For my third sketch, I wanted to capture the Pan Am spirit. So at the beginning of the homepage, I wanted to integrate photos of friendly stewardesses. Underneath, I included a world map that is interactive with each continent for the exploring spirit. In my fourth sketch, I tried to compile these ideas into one design.
To ensure a well thought-out flight booking experience, I tested a low-fidelity prototype with the wireframes I created based off the user flow. So I started by laying out all the pages needed to complete the user flow. From there, I continued my research of other airlines' booking experiences and filled each page with information that was necessary for that process.
View Low Fidelity PrototypeI tested this low fidelity prototype on 5 participants. From this test, I was able to understand what vital pieces were missing and what was confusing. Here are some of the findings I used to improve my design for my high fidelity prototype:
For the responsive home page, I created designs for the mobile, tablet, and desktop. After researching various different airlines, I knew I wanted my homepage to include these features.
In my research, participants are interested in booking the best prices for the weeks they are traveling. With a flight overseas, there is usually more planning involved and so they can be a bit more flexible with dates for the better price. So I included it as a part of the Flight Selection Process.
After viewing the prices for those weeks, user can browse through the flights that populate. Since I wanted to feature the ability to select seats before booking, I made it so that the user can select the cabin class from the seats button to land on the Seat Selection Page.
During the low-fidelity prototype, the participants did not notice the different steps to the checkout process at the top. So I added a progress bar with the brand color to show where the user is in the process.
In the Traveler Information section, the user can log in and their information is auto-populated for the user to confirm and proceed.
I recruited 5 participants for the Usability Test. Four of these participants were also my research participants. So I made sure to recruit one participant who had never seen this project before.
I conducted 5 usability tests that were around 10-15 minutes each. Participants were able to complete the task with relative ease. A few places they ran into problems were the following:
View Revised High Fidelity PrototypeThe most important revision was the change to the user flow. Now the user can select their seats after selecting the price, which will prompt a pop-up that shows the differences among the cabin classes and give the ability to the user to either continue booking or select their seats then. I also updated the color for economy because the previous economy blue did not provide enough contrast. To avoid confusion on the returning flights page, I removed the "Book with Confidence" banner with photo to differentiate it from the Departing Flights and bring more attention to the "Returning from LON - NYC" copy. I was also able to finish the confirmation visuals, add the Apple Wallet and Google Pay buttons, and update the photo for Premium cabin class to a nicer photo.
Next I would test this updated prototype to see if these changes improved the process. I would particularly want to confirm that the new user flow works better.
This project took me much longer that I thought it would take. There were so many aspects to the booking process to consider. It was my second Designlab project so I was glad that I was able to build on my first project of Mosaic, the clothing ecommerce site.
