CASE STUDY: ALASKA AIRLINES. Mobile app redesign

As a UX Design student at General Assembly, I worked on this project in a team with other two designers: Liz Wang & Julia Wayne.

My Role: 

  • Research (user interviews, competitive analysis)

  • Storyboard and scenario (copy and illustration)

  • Design (sketches, wireframes, and mock-ups of Book & Choose flights, Choose seats, NavBar, My trips)

  • Interactive prototype

  • Iterative improvements

  • Presentation deck of the project

Timeframe: 2-week sprint

CHALLENGE

Strengthening user satisfaction on Alaska Airlines App.
Improve usability and recommend additional services and features, to make the App indispensable for travelers.

APPROACH

Booking a trip is a process that requires evaluation and collaboration with others.
Goal: Keep the Booking process smooth within the App, providing users the option to compare and share flights.

By interviewing Alaska Airlines users and conducting a competitive and comparative analysis with other Apps in the same industry, we gained insight into different perspectives of the "Traveling Experience." We especially focused on the "Booking" process, although there were many flaws in the "In-flight" feature.

RESEARCH

About Alaska Airlines

  • Has one of the best Airline Apps in the market, with "Booking", "Check in" and "Boarding" features, and other essential tools for travelers.

  • Largest hub: Sea-Tac International Airport - Secondary hubs: Los Angeles, Portland, and Anchorage.

  • In Dec 2016 Alaska Airlines merged with Virgin America (now appealing to a new, younger, more digitally-inclined customer base.)

  • It is known for genuine, caring service and top-notch performance.

Knowing the user

Survey: we run a screening survey and 6 out of the 32 users who replied, shared similar characteristics with our hypothetical persona.
Interviews: through interviews, we discovered user needs and pain points, which were mainly in the "Booking" process, so this caused us to PIVOT our focus of interest from our initial hypothesis about the poor/ inexistent "In-flight" experience on the App.

DEFINING SCOPE

User flow

Persona creation

Competitive and comparative analysis

After comparing Alaska Airlines App with other similar Apps in the industry, the areas that can be improved are the followings:

  • HOME SCREEN: purely functional (impersonal)

  • SEARCHES: doesn't show/save recent flight searches

  • LOW-FARE PRICE CALENDAR: not shown by default

  • LACK OF OPTIONS: sharing, saving, and watching flights

Storyboard and scenario

DESIGN

We re-designed the complete flow of screens on the "Booking" process focusing on:

  • Navigation bar

  • Personalized home screen

  • Lowest-fare prices calendar by default

  • Option to save and watch trips

  • Option to share flights

Sketches

Screens: Home | Book & Choose flight

Wireframes

Screens: Home | Choose flight | Share flight

Mock-ups

Screens: Home | Choose flight |  Share flight

USABILITY TESTING

Interactive prototype

We created an interactive prototype (using Invision App) to test our design with users and gather information about the things that didn't work and the ones that can be improved.

Design iteration

Based on the user's feedback, the following were the main changes in our design:

  • The button "Finalize" was changed to "Buy" - to avoid verbiage confusion.

  • The title "Confirm Flight" was changed to "Review" on the navigation bar - to clarify the user's status in the Booking process.

NEXT STEPS

  • We suggest creating an “App tour” of the new features to ensure users can get the most about them, and avoid confusion.

  • Further interviews and user testing will be needed to see if a broader range of users feels more comfortable booking through the App.

  • The number of searches and bookings on the App, the rate of people using it, as well as other success metrics must be taken into account.