Timeline
1 month
Role
Self initiated travel domain design exploration.
UI/UX, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Motion Design, Branding
Tools
Sketch, After Effects, Adobe Photoshop
Challenge
How can the flight booking experience be simpler, more satisfying and more efficient?
Year
2016
Overview
For this project, I defined a number of constraints to work within, as well as a project scope. I also outlined goals I was after, focusing on creating seamless and simple yet efficient flight booking experience.
Problem Definition
Through firsthand observation of top 5 travel apps, and interviews with real users, a clear picture emerged of the traveller’s pain points. To name just a few:
Lack of exploration & inspiration - no content within flight booking apps to inspire people to travel, most just focus on search.
Price suggestions - many users lacked help with deciding when to go, when the prices would be better.
Complicated booking - all top 5 apps for booking the flight redirect you to airline website with completely different UI, and on top of that it is a web view, not a native app experience.
Payment - third-party services with different UI, hussle of adding your card details, filling all the fields every time – true UX nightmare.
Designs
Explore & Get Inspired
Place for inspiration right on the Home page – browse destinations in different categories depending on your liking. Explore interesting facts, insights, photos & videos and best offers about your favorite getaways.
Find the Right Flight
Set your desired destination and then pick the dates with the help of price suggestions tool right on calendar view. It helps to travel much cheaper.
Narrow Results Down
Adjust the results to your specific needs, using simple yet efficient filters. Dropdown controls packed together in one view allow for intuitive and streamlined experience.
Book Without Hustle
Book the flight right in the app, without going to airline or other third-party webviews. Select class, pick a seat in intuitive way with the help of highly visual interaction.
Pay in One Tap
With Apple Pay integration you don’t need to fill all those nasty bank details every time – just scan with Touch ID and your payment is done.
Author's note: Apple Pay was still a new, not commonly adopted tech when this project was designed. So I was predicting the future here :)
Typography
The primary font is Karla. I’ve picked it for a couple of reasons: I needed a free, simple yet quirky grotesque font with a lot of character. Karla checked all the boxes.
Secondary font of choice is Bebas Neue. It is a condensed, all caps font that I used whenever horizontal space needs to be saved (like on flight results).
Color Palette
For palette I chose bright active colors that are meant to represent the drive and energy of exploring the world around, experiencing its’ bright cultures and fascinating sights.
Results
I shared the project online on design related platforms. It got great feedback and huge attention there being featured on Behance, Dribbble, Muzli, UpLabs, Smashing Magazine and more.
Eventually it was noticed by the product design team of Kayak.com, one of the biggest travel meta search engines in the world. They reached out to me, and that’s how I got hired there as a Mobile Product Designer.
