Project Outline

OVERVIEW

As part of my diploma in UX Design with the UX Design Institute, I worked on a 9-month project called Voe, an airline application. The project encompasses the entire UX design process, with a particular focus on the research and ideation stages.

The main goal is to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the airline app industry through generative and evaluative research. This enables the acquisition of valuable insights that can be shared with designers and developers, with the ultimate goal of creating a seamless and efficient booking experience via Voe application.

ROLE

UX Researcher

Competitive benchmarking, online survey, user interviews, problem definition, ideation and user testing

May 2021 - February 2022

Understanding The Problem

Booking flights via smartphone is part of any traveler’s life. Consolidated companies offer applications that streamline this process for the end users it’s been years.

Voe is a small airline company looking to break into the industry. How can a small company strive in this robust and standard market?

The solution is to create an user centered airline application that offers a pleasant and efficient booking experience.

But how do we start?

Exploring The Competitors

I started the research by analyzing 4 best-in-class airline apps to understand some key points:
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My goal is to do the following:

• The problems they solve;
• The conventions they use;
• Best practices to emulate;
• Spot areas to improve.

Below, you see a screenshot from the competitive analysis report in the 'choosing outbound flight' stage of KLM app:
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KEY DESIGN PRINCIPLE LEARNINGS

Throughout this analysis, I identified several key design principles that were crucial to the success of these airline apps. Here are some of the main takeaways:

1. Autofill departure using geo-location: This feature simplifies the booking process by reducing the need for manual input, enhancing the overall user experience.

‍2. Default return trip as the main trip type: By making the return trip option prominent, the apps catered to the majority of users' needs and simplified their decision-making process.

3. Display previous and next day flight options after choosing the flight dates: This allows users to easily explore alternative travel dates without having to go back and modify their initial selection.

4. Intuitive booking process focused on behavior prediction: This approach minimizes the steps required for booking, making the process more efficient and user-friendly.

5. Avoid excessive screens and ads: The analyzed apps recognized the importance of maintaining a clean and uncluttered interface, ensuring that the focus remained on the core functionalities and enhancing the overall user experience.

6. Display full price during the journey: This allows users to have a clear understanding of the total cost right from the beginning, promoting trust and reducing potential frustrations during the final stages of the booking process.

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Listening To The Users

After understanding how renowned airline apps on the market solve some design problems, I decided to run an online survey to gain a deep understanding of the users' preferences, opinions, and mental models. By doing so, I aimed to understand how an application that is centered around the needs and desires of the users should work.
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The survey contained 4 multiple choice, 1 semi structured question, and 4 open ended questions and 40 results were collected. Check the questions below:

And the results were gathered into sessions like the one you see below (example of questions' 4 graphic result):

KEY SURVEY INSIGHTS

• 57,5% used mobile;
• Factors to choose the company are price, brand memory and the ability to compare different fares;
• Goals are booking a flight or comparing fares and dates;
• Their wishes are making the booking process faster, less confusing and distracting and displaying the cheapest prices first.

Letting Them Talk

After getting a quantitative notion of user preferences, I ran one short 15 minute interview to learn the reasons why they have their travel habits and in which contexts they book a flight.
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I followed an interview script with two sessions with personal questions and travel website/app usage habits:

‘Dates combined with reasonable price matter the most’ - Arthur‍
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Interviewee answer to the question 'What was the most important when booking that flight?'
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KEY INTERVIEW INSIGHTS

• Access internet from computer 70% of the time;
• Uses social media and news apps;
• Travels 3x per year for leisure and business;
• Uses Google Flights to check prices;
• Price is more important when booking.

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Learning Their Behavior

After the interview, I ran a 1 hour usability test with the user to learn how they book a flight and why they book that way. The reason why I decided to apply a usability test on existing apps was to assess their user-friendliness, identify areas for improvement, and gather valuable insights to enhance the overall user experience for Voe.

I recorded the session using zoom and used a reflector app to capture both screen and user’s expressions.

Below you find the usability test guide:

KEY USABILITY TEST QUOTES AND LEARNINGS

‘I need more experience to be used to the system’ - Arthur‍
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Screenshot of usability test. Phrase above the screenshot revers to Swiss Airlines' seat selection page. ‍
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Derived from the synthesis of the usability test data, a compilation of six principal topics has materialized, each of which will be expounded upon in the ensuing discussion:

• Banner Confusion: The user questions whether a certain element is a functional option or just a decorative banner.
• Seat Price Discovery: User selects a seat but realizes there is a cost associated with it, prompting them to remove the seat.
• Flexible Pricing Calendar: The user expresses a desire to view a calendar with dates that have variable prices for better comparison.
• Economy Class Preference: User clicks on the 'economy' option and explicitly states their preference for the cheapest choice.
• Filter Preference: User repeatedly uses filters to sort flights based on duration and price, indicating a desire for specific sorting options.
• Accommodation Trade-off: The user contemplates staying longer in a hostel by reducing expenses, highlighting the trade-off between cost and duration.

Finding Patterns and Unveiling The Journey

To make sense of all data, I applied triangulation to interpret the research findings. I gathered all the data in an affinity diagram.
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With a friend’s help I ran a 2h session in Miro with sticky notes from research findings. The diagram was mostly focused on understanding the strong and pain points, user behavior, mental models, suggestions and the the elements of price. Below, you can see a partial screenshot of the diagram (phrase 3, booking process groupinh):

And then, I replicated the insights on user flow in a customer journey map. As an interpretation of the affinity diagram, the map is a visual of the customer's goals, behaviors, pain points, positive interactions and mental models on each journey step. It’s structured in columns, rows and processes. You can check the customer journey map below:

CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP MAIN CONSIDERATIONS

• User Starts probing prices to book later.
• Cluttered icons and navigation are not providing a good experience to start booking.
• Journey gets better when the app predicts behavior (i.e. departure autofilled).
• Package upgrades and seat selection are boring.
• Clear flight summary makes the experience ‘straightforward’.

With the clear mapping, a design team would be able to create an app that has an initial browsing experience that is intuitive and engaging, addressing the issue of cluttered icons and navigation. Additionally, the team should focus on implementing behavior prediction features, such as autofilling departure details, to enhance the user journey. Furthermore, consider ways to make package upgrades and seat selection more appealing and interactive to keep users engaged and also prioritize creating a clear flight summary that presents information in a straightforward manner, as it greatly enhances the overall user experience.

User Testing On Prototype

Following the prototype creation, I conducted one usability test in order to validate the design choices and pinpoint any potential usability challenges.

The participant was asked to perform the following tasks:

1. Book a return flight in the end of July for 2 people from Amsterdam to Barcelona
2. Choose economic package
3. Choose regular seats
4. Pay with credit card

Below, you can see three screenshots of the screens being used in the usability test (homepage, selecting dates, and choosing outbound seats):

OVERALL USER TEST RESULTS

1. Choosing The Flights

Action: User tried to click on ‘Amsterdam’ to double check if there was any other airport in Amsterdam they could choose from.
Comment: Consider running other usability tests to check the autofilling option need.

Action: User found intuitive to find barcelona in the dropdown of options.
The participant was a bit confused about the price range on the calendar and didn’t know if it was the price per flight of total price listed.
Comment: consider adding a note on the booking process stating if the price is the total price of the whole booking for two people round trip or if it’s listed per day

2. Choosing Economy Class

Action: user easily clicks on economy class and acknowledge the price listed on the calendar and it’s confused with the price listed not matching the price on the calendar before.
‍Comment: consider listing the prices with the same logic to avoid confusion.

Action: user notices the total price on top right of the screen and it makes the prices make more sense.

3. Choosing Regular Seats

Action: user choose seats for two people on the two different flight with ease.

Action: user mentioned they would choose random seats on real life.

4. Paying With Credit Card

Action: user easily put the payment details on the screen. Mentioned they would pay by iDeal in real life.
Comment: consider running other usability tests to check what should be the default payment method.‍
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Project Takeaways

Three main takeaways of the Voe Project are:

1. User-Centered Design

‍The project emphasizes the importance of creating a user-centered airline application. By conducting extensive research, including competitive analysis, user surveys, interviews, and usability tests, the design team gained valuable insights into user preferences, needs, and pain points. The key design principles and user insights gathered from the research informed the decision-making process and helped shape the design choices for Voe.

2. Streamlined Booking Process

‍One of the primary goals of the Voe Project was to create a seamless and efficient booking experience. Through research and user testing, the project identified areas for improvement in existing airline apps, such as simplifying the input process with features like autofill based on geo-location, displaying previous and next day flight options, and minimizing excessive screens and ads. By implementing these insights, Voe aimed to streamline the booking process and make it faster, less confusing, and more user-friendly.

3. Clear Communication and Pricing Transparency

The Voe Project recognized the importance of clear communication and pricing transparency in enhancing the overall user experience. By displaying the full price during the journey and providing clear information about costs associated with seat selection, the project aimed to build trust with users and reduce potential frustrations. Additionally, user feedback highlighted the need for clear explanations about pricing and total costs, ensuring users have a clear understanding of the booking details.

Overall, the Voe Project focused on user-centered design, a streamlined booking process, and clear communication to create an airline application that offers a pleasant and efficient booking experience for users.

Voe