The Challenge
For many travelers, flight booking websites and services are a key part of the decision making and planning process for travel itineraries. The challenge for this project was to create a flight booking experience tailored to the needs of a defined user group.
The Approach
Directed Storytelling
To begin, it was crucial to understand who the user was and which aspects of the current flight booking experience caused delight and which added friction to the process. Through directed storytelling with three separate users, I learned that they booked for pleasure and were motivated by price first, followed by number of layovers, preferred airline, and time of flight.
I heard that users prefer the flexibility and confidence provided by third-party flight research services, but repetitive prompts to add travel extras and unclear bag or other costs made them feel annoyed and deceived about the true total cost of flying. Additionally, the users I interviewed were very particular about their flight confirmations and admitted wanting more feedback from airlines to ensure their flights were booked and they had the information they needed.
Based on the directed storytelling sessions, I crafted a user goal statement to guide me in the rest of the redesign process.
My user is a casual traveler who wants trustworthy access to the most cost-effective flight options and the ability to control their own buying experience.
Low and Mid-Fidelity, Interactive Prototyping
From this user goal statement, I began working on reimagining the flight booking experience—first with hand-drawn sketches and then with digitized wireframes, an information architecture diagram and sample user flow and, finally, as a working prototype.
The prototypes focused on three areas of the site: an efficient homepage, flexible listing process with real-time pricing updates, and a robust confirmation page.
The homepage focused on the main task users wanted to complete—searching for a flight, while also offering options for browsing value flights if a particular destination was not known. The listing page allowed users to book flights either as a predetermined round trip fare with one airline or by easily combining a departing and returning flight from multiple airlines. This page also tracked potential bag fees and updated total projected flight costs based on the flights selected. Though users are navigated to the specific airline sites to finalize booking details, the Let’s Fly! Site tracked the progress of those bookings and led the user to a final trip summary with confirmation numbers that could be sent in a text, added to the calendar, and emailed to other accompanying travelers, if applicable.
Low fidelity site mockups for key screens
Initial digitized user flow for the larger environment prototypes might live in
Homepage with flight search as primary feature
Live updated pricing for full pricing transparency
Confirmation feedback to help user continue through booking
Final confirmation page with options for saving information
Usability Testing
To validate whether the prototyped site would meet the needs of its users, I conducted four usability tests to explore my design hypotheses:
Users will understand that they have the ability to combine flights from different airlines into one single fare
Users will find the confirmation feature of flights booked on separate airline sites a helpful aid on their booking journey
Ability to text themselves and email travel partners their confirmation codes will be easy and give the user confidence in their purchase
Surprisingly, testing revealed that though the site provided an easy and straightforward search experience, interpreting the data on the flight listing page proved more challenging. Most users indicated that they would want to try to combine flights from different airlines into one trip, but it was not clear how, or even whether, that could be done. Additionally, the features designed to provide confirmation during the booking process were not strong enough or visible enough to provide users the confidence they desired.
Following usability testing, I created some initial low-fidelity sketches that could be used to update the prototype for additional usability testing and review
This would include a reorganized layout of the flight options to clarify departing and returning flights and give more visual cues about the difference between choosing an existing round trip or multiple one way flights.
Updated confirmation cues would occur as part of separate confirmation process from the one originally prototyped on the flight listing page. This would give more visual affirmation of where the user is in relation to where they want to get to and how much more is left of the booking process.
Finally, since most users wanted to check the “My Trips” section of the site after completing booking, I created a low fidelity mockup of a potential layout for that page that could be tested for function and clarity.
Design Revisions
Reimagined and updated flight selection feature
Updated confirmation process cues wireframe
Initial low-fidelity wireframe of “My Trips” page feature addition