My team and I led research, design, and product strategy for Alaska Airlines Guest Experience and Native Mobile Apps - serving 48 million annual guests for four years. We focused strictly on the guest experience in the hope of “Creating an airline people love.”
Over the course of four years, we ran two parallel tracks. One of research and discovery, the other focused on strict product delivery.
History Lesson
Alaska’s mobile app was a shiny beacon during its last refresh in 2015. Years later, it was riddled with tech and design debt. Moreover, it wasn't a platform that was invested in historically until they hired me and my team.
Project Timeline
Foundational Research
The study investigated two key research objectives:
Understanding the behavioral and emotional fluctuations of passengers across different touchpoints and environments, including the factors that influenced these changes
Examining the relationship dynamics between passengers and the airline, with particular emphasis on identifying pain points in the day-of-travel experience
This methodological approach enabled us to gather rich, contextual data about the passenger experience in its natural setting, providing valuable insights into user behavior patterns and emotional responses.
Sentiment Analysis – Emotional Valence & Intensity Coding
Individual Chart Plotting
With each participant, I plotted their expressed sentiment in a chart to show mood variation across the guest journey.
Segmentation Chart Plotting
For further evaluation, I segmented the data across Frequent Flyers, Business Travelers, Liesure (Alone), Leisure w/ Others to look for any similarities.
Averaging Inbound and Outbound Journeys
In conclusion, I looked at the mean average for both inbound and outbound flights. This showed an interesting but expected result.
Guest Journey
Once we completed the analysis, we designed and shared this artifact across the org to help identify areas of opportunities and help inform the product roadmap moving forward.
Our Workspace (WeWork Seattle, WA)
Co-Design Workshop
We believed that there was still more work to be done. So, we set out to validate assumptions about airline app features – specifically focused on navigation, trip management, and timing (from booking to post-flight).
We ran co-design workshops along the west coast in major citeis, where participants built their ideal app using foam-board navigation and action/info cards aligned with each timeline milestone (D-48, D-12, delays/cancellations, in-flight, arrival, etc.). These findings will inform an intuitive, guest-focused mobile architecture.
Synthesis, Analysis, & Share Out
Afterwards, we synthesized all the data and presented it to executives, product leaders, and other groups within the organization.
How might we?
How might we leverage all the research and design visioning we conducted but place more an emphasis on driving business outcomes post-Covid?
Solution Hypothesis
We believe that a personalized, data-driven dynamic home screen will increase user engagement and satisfaction by proactively adapting and responding to individual user needs and market demands.
Ancillary Products & Services Audit
To get us started, I conducted a comprehensive audit of ancillary products and services across all business units to develop an integrated mobile app strategy. Led stakeholder alignment sessions with respective teams to establish strategic priorities. Conducted targeted research with the use of multiple card sorts to evaluate content relevance and user desirability across various user states and scenarios to help inform the product roadmap and feature prioritization.
The Strategy
An intelligent, efficient, needs-driven framework grounded in research — giving us the ability to respond to business, market, and guest needs.
Intelligent Home Screen Layout & Schemas
My thinking here was that the new "Home" screen is to be designed on a flexible decision-making framework that adapts business responses based on market conditions, business requirements, and personalization data. This system enables strategic adjustments by analyzing market trends, optimizing business performance, and delivering personalized user experiences. This approach balances market dynamics with organizational goals to drive informed decisions and business value.
To start, I began placing the puzzle pieces of content in different layouts. These schemas explore both signed-in and signed-out users and the various loyalty levels with or without upcoming trips
Schemas to Wireframes
Using card sorting data and tiered content strategy, I started to draw up what the layout of the home screen could look like in wireframes.
Highlighting Dynamic Content
Here, I'm highlighting the use of different content in the Secondary Content Module.
Prototyping & User Testing
Whenever possible, I incorporate usability testing to gather meaningful insights. For this project, I created a fictional airline brand, Logo Air, and used a grayscaled baseline interface. This approach allowed me to fully prototype the user journey for both mental model validation and concept testing.
Results
The results were positive. Users appreciatd the slick design and ease of wayfinding. After a few iterations, we landed on a final UI.
Some FAB action
Showcasing our new fab button for quick actions on the new Trips screen
Outcome
The new design was well received both internally and externally. The team continues to iterate on the framework established. Note: The UI has changed some since it's initial release.
Result Metrics
App Ratings & Downloads
Maintained 4.9 out of 5 stars (iOS) with nearly double the reviews
Focused Marketing Campaigns
December 2020 BOGO Marketing Campaign success This was overall was best campaign to date
Revenue Generation
Upward trend in bookings on app ~16% (growing from 10% of all bookings)
Food Pre-Orders on mobile app increased 68% in first month (previously only seen from Flight Details)
Food Pre-Order Program
Redesigned the multi-channel food pre-order experience
Same-Day Change flight
Introduced a new streamlined change flight experience
Flight Status (Multi-platform)
Selected by CEO to lead a tiger team to redesign Flight Status across Alaska Air Group
Baggage Tracking
Experimented with various solutions on how to instantiate baggage tracking across the network
Check In
Explored ways to streamline and redesign the multi-channel check-in experience including Express Check-in
IRROPS
Experimented ways on how to improve the guest experience during the event of a re-route in the Bay Area
Special Thanks to:
WeWork Westlake Center
Radiator Whiskey
Pasta Casalinga
McGee Building (SeaTac)
Bob's Burgers & Teriyakis (SeaTac)
Fish salad (aka Mondernized Seattle Poke)
Research International Inc.
Sam Choys Poke Food Truck
Bomba Fusion Food Truck
Norstrom Westlake Cafe
King County Metro
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