DIY flight edits
In-app flight editing feature for Lola.com, allowing users to modify their existing flight booking.
Client: Lola.com
Role: Product Design (lead)
Duration: June 2020 – Dec 2020
background
Before Covid-19, Lola.com primarily focused on providing travel needs for small to mid-size businesses. With the outbreak of the pandemic, travel came to a sudden stop, leading to a significant increase in flight cancellations and rescheduling requests. As a result, the Lola product team prioritized the development of the flight self-editing feature. The goal was to provide an option for users to modify flights on their own and to ease the burden on the customer service team.
My role
As the lead product designer for Lola.com's travel pillar, I led the design efforts throughout the entire cycle. I was fully integrated into the product and engineering team, working closely with the product manager, and front-end and back-end engineers.
This meant designing the feature from start to finish, conducting research and testing, being involved in the decision making by attending daily stand-ups and collaborating on a daily basis, and ensuring that the feature was developed and shipped according to the design specifications and within the designated timeline.
problem space
The lack of ability to self-edit or cancel flights within Lola.com caused customers to be completely reliant on the Lola Wombat team (also known as the Lola.com Customer Service team). This dependency created inconvenience for both the customers and the Wombats, who faced challenges in managing the high volume of traveler edit requests, exacerbated by the travel disruptions during the pandemic.
Research
The primary goal of the research was to comprehend the flight edit requirements, mainly based around the Lola customers' and Wombats' needs, and also, to identify technical and airline-induced limitations. Finally, to understand the current trends in the field, I conducted a thorough market research.
Use cases
To gain insight into the problem space, I outlined various use cases and, as a result, I grouped them into two categories: eligible and ineligible for self-editing.
Self-service eligible
• Number of travelers within a booking: Single traveler.
• Number of already flown segments: Any.
• Class change: All legs of flight must be selected.
• Booker type: Booked by the traveler and Booked on behalf of someone else.
• The proximity to the departure day and time: More than 60 mins.
Self-service ineligible
• Number of travelers within a booking: Multiple travelers / Contact Wombats.
• Class change: Individual legs of flight.
• The proximity to the departure day and time: Less than 60 mins / Contact Wombats.
Flow chart
Once use cases were identified, I developed a flow chart to visually illustrate the pathways for users. The goal was to clearly identify pathways that would enable users to make in-app edits independently, otherwise the Wombat team would provide the needed support.
Design strategy
Due to the significant impact and tight timeline for the new feature, I expedited the design cycle, aiming to deliver high-fidelity designs to the engineering team within a very short time line. To achieve this, I collaborated closely with both the front-end and back-end engineering teams on a daily basis to ensure that the designs I produced were technically feasible. Additionally, I selected a group of existing customers and a number of Wombats to test various components of the feature on ongoing basis. This approach allowed us to maintain a user-centric strategy while advancing the technical implementation.
As part of the process, we also identified various touch points with the customer, including email confirmations, notifications, in-app trip receipts, PDF invoices, and more.
Wireframes
I created wireframes for the 'happy path' flow as well as numerous variables and edge cases. I tested and iterated the wireframes extensively, to ensure clear user comprehension and effective communication of messaging in all flows.
user flow: change outbound flight date
I booked a round trip flight, BOS – SFO, departing on May 27th and returning on May 30th. I'd like to depart a day later.
Step 1: Select the trip I want to change from the Trips page
Step 1: Select the trip I want to change from the Trips page
Step 2: Select the leg of flight I want to change
Step 3: Select new date
Step 4: Search
Step 5: Select the new departure flight
Step 6: Check out
Step 7: Confirm
Prototype
The high fidelity mockups were designed not only for the 'happy path' abut also for other use cases. These additional scenarios included functionalities like changing cabin class, implementing alerts, integrating chat features for situations requiring assistance from the Wombat team, handling various refund types, and more.
happy path
The happy path scenario shows the entire flow of self-editing a flight successfully.
cabin class change
User had the ability to modify the cabin class, but it applied to the entire flight and not to individual legs of the journey.
one leg flown
When one of the legs was already completed, the flown leg was displayed but was nonselectable.
refund types
Travelers had access to three types of refund options: even exchange, airline credit, or forfeited residual value.
multiple travelers
In cases where a trip was booked for multiple travelers, it was not eligible for self-editing. Instead, travelers were connected with the Wombat team through a live chat to make the necessary modifications.
60 minutes to departure
Travelers were not permitted to make changes on their own if the flight was scheduled within less than 60 minutes. Instead, they were advised to either contact the gate agent at the airport or connect with the Wombat team via live chat for assistance.
change within void period
In accordance with U.S. law, travelers have the right to receive a full refund if the flight is canceled within 24 hours of booking. It was strongly encouraged to opt for the refund in such cases, rather than attempting self-editing.
learnings
The development of the flight self-editing feature was expedited substantially due to the disruption caused by COVID-19 in the travel industry. The team had to move fast, be agile, trust each other's decisions, make many assumptions, and most importantly, work closely as a team. As a result, the outcome of implementing this new feature was astonishing, as it reduced the person-to-person interactions for the Wombat team by nearly 20%.
However, to meet such a demanding deadline, our team was forced to take several shortcuts, moving into high-fidelity prototypes sooner than ideal, and conducting less comprehensive testing than desired. Nonetheless, we managed to launch the feature in record time, and subsequently monitor and refine it through post-launch iterations.
Lola's motto was to be "snappy and scrappy", which meant to be agile, decisive, and resourceful, and to always get to the end goal as a team. And that's exactly how this project was achieved.
