Background
As the inaugural User Experience (UX) Designer in the Digital Experience Team, my primary objective is to leverage user research to uncover design solutions that enhance the digital experience to unprecedented levels. By employing a user-centric approach, I aim to create a digital journey that surpasses expectations, delivering a truly exceptional experience for our travelers.
Persona Development
Definition:
Personas are detailed profiles that represent our target customers
Need:
They help us understand their preferences, needs, and behaviors, allowing us to design products and services that cater specifically to their wants and provide a better user experience
Steps taken:
- Conducted interviews with the Sales team to gain insights into user behavior and preferences
- Collected possible archetypes from Customer Experience Director
- Made initial drafts
- Ran an internal survey involving staff members who regularly interact with travelers to validate the accuracy of personas and identify key personalities
- Based on the feedback, made final adjustments
In the example, demographic information has been intentionally omitted to maintain confidentiality.
Sample Persona
Takeaways:
Our research and persona development have equipped us with valuable insights, enabling us to confidently approach real users for conducting in-depth research and gathering meaningful data
User Journey Illustration
Definition:
A user flow is a visual representation of the steps a user takes to complete a task or achieve a goal in a product or service
Need:
User flows are essential for understanding and optimizing the user experience, identifying pain points, and improving task completion rates by creating a seamless and intuitive journey
Steps taken:
- In our current website, we conducted an extensive analysis of all possible optimal flows for a specific task, tailoring them to each persona
- Taking into account the behavior and characteristics of each persona, we then meticulously illustrated speculated flows that represent the most likely paths they would take
Sample User Journey Map
Usability testing:
We partnered with usertesting.com for a free test run, sharing our personas and optimal user flows. They designed tests that matched the task and our persona demographics, resulting in valuable feedback and validating our speculated user flows
Takeaways:
To address persona pain points and frustrations, we need to identify their exact needs and align them to find solutions in a common direction
Booking Tool Redesign
Why?
- Travellers needed to recall essential information before making decisions, but the existing interface design did not adequately support them
- The aim was to create a more user-friendly design
- Facilitate easy access to decision-making information
- Opportunities to increase the clarity of information by implementing a better content strategy
- Present necessary details in a more organized and understandable manner
- Ensure all information is readily available to users
- Opportunities to interact with travellers in a more effective manner with an improved interface design
- Focus on creating a seamless and intuitive user experience
- Enable smoother interactions and user goal achievement
- Focused and effective CTA
Old Design
New Design
Usability testing:
The prototype of the booking tool redesign was tested on the Maze platform with 10 users who closely matched our target traveller demographics. The testing provided valuable insights
Takeaways:
- Success: Most of the redesign goals were achieved, improving user-friendliness and providing clearer information
- Feedback on Young Adult Feature: Users found the feature’s placement and meaning unclear, questioning its uniqueness and limited options
Future redesigns should focus on presenting the trip page with clarity for better context. The booking tool should align with the revised page for a cohesive user experience
Design System (In Progress)
Definition:
A design system is a collection of reusable components, guidelines, and standards that ensure consistency and efficiency in the design and development of products or services, helping teams such as UX, marketing, and developers, work together effectively and maintain a cohesive visual identity
Steps taken:
- Color palette and typography: Collected existing marketing materials and streamlined them to create an enriched color palette and typography collection
- Buttons: Collaborated with developers to identify the properties of their platform’s UI (MUI) and created a button collection, covering various scenarios
- Layout Breakpoints: Added standard layout breakpoint designs to ensure consistency across different screen sizes
- Cards: Currently working on creating a component library for cards, with defined properties that will be used in redesigning the entire site from scratch
New website (In Progress)
Workflow:
- Exploration: I was assigned to design an experimental improved version of our website, based on my perspective, and information gathered from the existing site and competitor’s offerings
- Progress: By showcasing the benefits of streamlined presentation and innovative development ideas in enhancing aesthetics, and addressing user pain points, I received approval to proceed with designing the new website using a defined design system
- Strategy: While designing the new site, my primary objective is to present our business information clearly, ensuring that the digital experience effectively conveys the luxurious service our customers will receive during their actual trip. Key factors I am taking into account for content strategy and aesthetic development include conducting competitive research and researching our services
Ways to Collect User Feedback (In Progress)
Steps taken:
I have also conducted research to identify trending best practices from a user experience (UX) and marketing perspective for collecting feedback from users. Furthermore, I have discussed each point and explored how it can be implemented in our service. During our discussions, we have decided to move forward with most of these best practices after the launch of our new site.