CHEAPFLIGHTS PERSONALISATION
OVERVIEW
Cheapflights, a travel search engine, wanted to make finding flights faster and easier for users. Their goal was to personalise the user experience across all digital touch points. This meant creating a seamless and tailored product that would save users energy & time.
As the lead product designer for web services, I collaborated closely with the app designers, UX team, product managers and developers whilst leading brand development and asset delivery. Our teams worked together to design and deliver a unified design solution that would not only streamline the flight booking process but also strengthen the overall Cheapflights brand experience.
ROLE: PRODUCT DESIGN, PROJECT MANAGEMENT, BRAND DEVELOPMENT
TEAM: PRODUCT DESIGN (WEB & APP), DEVELOPMENT (WEB & APP), PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, BRAND DESIGN
UX Research & Development Process
PROBLEM STATEMENT: Users cannot save or resume their flight search sessions, forcing them to repeat steps and wasting time which discourages repeat visits, high rates of drop-off and reduces revenue per user.
GOAL: To create a seamless flight search experience across all devices (web and app) that remembers user preferences & progress which saves them time and effort.
Competitor analysis: Leading travel booking platforms examined to see how user progress and preferences are handled.
Market research: User behaviour trends and industry best practices in flight search functionality examined and UX workshops conducted as part of user discovery to identify drop-off points in the user flow.
Collaborative User Flows: Research insights informed the creation of high-level user flows. These flows mapped out the ideal user journey, outlining how users would search for flights, save preferences, and resume searches across devices. Brainstorming sessions identified optimisation areas such as: forms states, copy, illustration, and modular design.
DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS
Standardising Forms Across Platforms: As the lead product designer, I collaborated closely with the lead app designer to tackle the ubiquitous presence of forms across user flows. We focused on form styling, investigating interactivity options, label behaviour, colour treatments, button design, and error message presentation.
Consistent User Experience & UI DESIGN LIBRARY: Our goal was to maintain a consistent style across both web and app while adhering to platform-specific guidelines and addressing browser rendering differences. This resulted in a redesigned form language, creating a seamless design experience and the first elements of the Cheapflights design system.
TONE OF VOICE DEVELOPMENT: All copy within the personalisation user flows underwent a comprehensive review. The product team collaborated closely with content, providing context for each screen to ensure the "Cheapflights Tone of Voice" was effectively developed and applied across the product. This extensive copy review, created a unified voice across communication, marketing, and the product itself.
PersonaliSation Meets Rebrand: As the personalisation feature was being developed, the company embarked on a complete rebrand meaning form styles, colours, typography, illustrations, and brand voice all needed to be updated for launch.
Form guidelines for development (pre rebrand and including UI design)
Rebranded app and web form guidelines (including UI design and app walkthrough)
Tone of voice collaboration documents
Personalisation sign up form styling (at launch) - States: Default / Focus / Error
Personalisation sign up form styling using new components from the Visual Design System - States: Default / Focus / Error - Form is less cluttered and optimised for faster sign up
Application of new illustrations for personsalisation on the app
Illustrations taken from the app userflow (BRAND DESIGNER)
Sample personalisation user journey (not all parts shown) - Log in / Select airline preferences / Apply airline preferences on search
Flight preferences in account profile - preferences area saved and then applied to search results
Search filters working seamlessly with preferences and clearly highlighted on the UI
THANK YOU!
Looking to create something you'll love?
If you like what you see and think I can help you, get in touch: sayhi@wilderlanddesign.co.uk