Revisiting a Key Booking Page
Product & UX had the opportunity to revisit the Bags page, which is an important ancillary page in the booking flow because travelers make their initial bag selections there while booking.
Main goals:
- Find the optimal design to increase the bag attach rate
- Introduce the ability for travelers to self-select new options (flying with a pet and adding more checked bag options).
This was one of the first times Product & UX had the luxury of conducting strategic user research to help inform the final solution.
Research & Insights
Before we completely blew up an important ancillary page, we wanted to have data and be confident in the changes we were proposing.
The strategic research we conducted focused on three main areas:
Based on 2 surveys, people expect to add a pet to their booking on the Bags page. This gave us confidence in having the pets experience as part of this redesign.
- We were considering a couple different booking flow pages for adding a pet
- The Bags page was one of those pages, so we built a couple surveys (one with friends & family, one with travelers) to gather insights
(A few people wrote in that they expected to add pets on the Travelers page as a passenger, which speaks to the elevated way some people think of their pets. )
Our prototype tested well with participants and was rated positively. We felt more confident that we were going in the right direction with the designs.
- The design prototype we tested introduced more bags details content and new button interactions
- We conducted usability testing with employees who were not close to the project
Cropped portion of the early prototype that was tested
The new buttons tested well with participants and was rated positively. We were able to use this data to help champion the design changes we were proposing.
- In addition to the employee usability testing, we conducted a button-focused usability test with non-employees
- This data from these tests helped convince leadership of the button change
Cropped portion of the button prototype that was tested
Design Strategies
Based on research findings, the redesign aimed to:
- Logically add a pet and specialty bags options within the current organization where travelers expect
- Encourage travelers to make a bags purchase now by:
- Surfacing bag details content to educate travelers
- Add content about why making a bags purchase now will save money
- Improve button usability for all bag types so it’s easier for travelers to interact with the page
Left Image: Current Bags page | Right Image: Redesigned Bags page
Button Update
The proposed button design update, grounded in user research, made the select / unselect experience clearer with visual cues and content changes.
Comparison between the current button designs and the proposed add/remove button designs.
Select Exploration
1 of 3: An early bags card exploration
2 of 3: Exploring different bag illustration styles with the brand orange
3 of 3: An early concept for a specialty bags and pet right drawer
Navigating a Pivot
Executive leadership had renewed interest in reviewing the redesigned Bags page because there was a significant delay between final approval of the redesign and the actual launch. The executive feedback identified opportunities to incorporate elements from the previous Bags page.
I collaborated with product to incorporate leadership's feedback with our user research insights to still create an experience that would improve usability.
Left Image: First Bags redesign | Right Image: Second Bags redesign after feedback
Impact & Reflection
The redesign did positively impact the bag attach rate. Within 2 weeks of launch, the attach rate increased by 3.7%.
Over 400 pets were added from the new Bags page within 2 weeks of launch, accounting for at least $30k in revenue.
Incorporating leadership’s pivot feedback allowed me to update the bag illustrations, which was something I had on my bucket list since I started at Sun Country, so it was a win-win!
This was a juggernaut of a project that gave product & UX the opportunity to gain a lot of user research experience.