Budget airline IBIS AIRWAYS needed a new website and fresh rebrand to appear on par with its major competitors. The company also wanted to realign it’s values and place more emphasis on customer service. During this project, extensive user research was done to pinpoint the areas in airline service design that can be improved for an overall better experience. I was the sole designer for this hypothetical project that lasted a duration of 4 weeks.
IBIS AIRWAYS started out strong when they were established back in 1982. Their vision was to be an affordable airline that is accessible to everyone, but still feels like a luxury experience people will tell their friends about. Flying with them was the first opportunity of affordable travel for many people, and promising new company become widely used throughout Asia.
In the last 12 years, IBIS has seen a decline in popularity and sales. Our inclinations as to why can be attributed to a loss of relevancy - there are now many budget airlines and IBIS has some tough competition. With so many airlines these days, the interactions all look the same - search for a flight, pick your best option, and book. Since the airlines make the rules, the customers experience frustrations and limitations while booking flights, and we're seeking out to change the norm.
After doing some competitive review to identify some airline conventions and current trends, valuable insights were gained about the industry standards as well target demographic for IBIS’s type of passenger - savvy shoppers that also want a top notch experience when traveling. I then sought out to interview some individuals within this demographic - specifically people that purchase flights at least three times a year, primarily look for budget airlines, and are familiar with using their mobile device for things like searching, booking, online check-in, etc.
Without a doubt - finding a cheap fare is typically the biggest motivator for choosing one airline over another. Many of us have the same pattern of experience when looking for a flight. Lured in by a cheap price - only to find numerous hidden fees tacked on along the way, resulting in a total price that’s considerably higher than shown initially. Every person interviewed mentioned this frustration, and how they feel in general, airlines cannot be trusted. This lack of transparency creates an overall dissatisfaction with airlines, and an expectation of deceit. Another thing mentioned by all participants is that they typically complete their purchases with a laptop, mostly because of the use of tabs to organize different searches for comparing. Many participants also noted that when they are booking a flight, they often feel that too much information is being presented and can often be confusing during the checkout process.
From the interviews, some key areas of frustration were identified within the booking process, and this gave us a clear direction of where to aim our efforts - a better way to organize searches that invokes a feeling of honesty and trust in the company. Through achieving these goals and adding some fresh new branding, IBIS hopes to regain their popularity as a budget airline.
These discoveries from the research were very valuable in terms of understanding the needs and frustrations experienced by users in the target demographic. From this analysis, a persona was developed so that I could centralize the ideas about who exactly I was designing for. Sunjay became a pretty accurate representation of the target user.
Once a clear point of view had been established, next a user flow chart was produced to outline the steps in which Sunjay would go through while booking a flight.
Based on Sunjay’s journey through the user flow, low-fidelity wireframes were sketched to experiment with what type of page layouts would work best throughout the booking process.
Once the booking flow architecture was set, medium-fidelity wireframes were developed to more accurately represent layouts for different key pages. After these wireframes had been iterated and decided on, a low-fidelity prototype was created using InVision to quickly test if the elements and interactions were right. At this point in the process, it was confirmed that the current version was fitting the criteria for the design.
Near the end of user testing with the prototype of mid-fidelity wireframes and a few iterations on them, the next step was to create a solid visual identity for IBIS AIRWAYS’ new look. The name comes from the Crested Ibis bird found in Japan, also known as Toki. New logo was inspired by the bird in flight with its wings open, and. The Japanese word Toki refers to the pinkish-blue hue of these birds that is seen during flight, which was inspiration for the color palette. Typography was chosen to give a modern, yet friendly feel.
After establishing a new visual identity for IBIS, high-fidelity designs were crafted for each step of the booking process.
The focus was put on 3 main pages - searching, viewing results, and confirming your flight selection.
• minimal and intuitive design
• flexible dates by default
• collapsible
• only necessary details
• chronological display of selection
The InVision prototype was updated with desktop versions of the hifi screens, and usability tests were conducted in-person and remotely with users in the target demographic. Participants were asked to complete the booking process - search, selection, inputting details, and confirmation. The booking flow was tested in order to asses if the steps were coherent, and uncover if there were any user pain points, frustrations, or confusions that could be further iterated on.
Moving forward, I’d want to create additional screens and test new user flows to validate other functions of the site. This would help further develop the platform and validate that other functions of the site meet the expectations of the users.
Research done in the beginning helped me gain a lot of insight about which stages of the booking process can cause frustration to the user, and helped aim my design to better the experience of the traveler. During this project, I learned a lot about developing my own workflow as well as project management - juggling many duties at once. Designing for IBIS gave me a chance to use my creativity to help solve issues that are experienced by many.
