Case studies
Legacy: The Future of Airline Websites
Arlanda
Stockholm
Drag to your
Destination

Is This

The Future of
The Airline Website?

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What If There Was A Better
Way to Book A Flight?

According to J.D. Power, eighty-seven percent of travelers used the Internet for the bulk of their travel planning in 2012, yet the online booking experience being offered by modern airlines is still stuck in the 90s. Inspired by the opportunity to bring progressive disruption to this huge marketplace, we reviewed all major airline websites, and graded them against

design and usability criteria including: information architecture, interaction design and visual design. The results were disheartening. We believe that unless the airlines take drastic measures to improve their digital experiences, third-party sites like Kayak and Expedia will continue to eat into their profits. So we launched an experiment to explore, “what if?”

What If Airlines Valued
Digital User Experience?

In today’s digital world we value speed and simplicity. This is what enables one-click shopping and real-time updates on everything from world news to what your friend had for lunch. But somehow the potentially engaging activity of booking a flight is actually quite the opposite. What would an engaging airline site look like?

  • Utility

    Imagine a simple search function that is flexible based on your specific needs.

  • Presentation

    Imagine static text and form fields replaced with relevant, attractive imagery and simple, intuitive toolsets.

  • Navigation

    Our ideal airline website would offer icon-driven navigation to say more in less space.

  • Discovery

    Beyond utility, imagine an experience that encourages exploration and discovery of limitless options.

What If an Airline’s Website Enhanced Their Brand?

An innovative and useful online experience can directly and positively impact the bottom line. Faced with a delightful user experience, brand value grows exponentially in the mind of the customer. Increased brand value equates to greater brand loyalty,
leading to increased repeat and referral business.

  • Click on Page Curl
  • Animation to Map
  • Find great deals & trips near you

  • Intelligent

    It’s easy to know where the user is located. Why not offer them intelligent options that save them time and needless steps?

  • Aware

    Deals happen. Let’s offer the best possible prices in real-time, based on the user’s location and preferences.

    Paris Berlin

  • Suggestive

    Users likely arrive with a particular intention. Along the way let’s encourage exploration by suggesting relevant options they may not have considered.

    Vienna Sicily

What If an Airline Website
Played Travel Agent?

The days of walking into a brick-and-mortar travel agency, and increasing the cost of your trip with related fees, are long gone. But that role of helpful advisor is now missing in the online travel space. What if an airline site offered me intelligent options to consider based on a small amount of information I provided?

1Map with Flight
Booking Tool

2Promotions and
Special Offers

3Interactive Grid
with Inspiring offers

Partnerships

Hotels are key to almost any journey where flight is required. Let’s embrace the hotel industry and offer a more cohesive booking experience.

Find a Hotel for your Trip
Find a Hotel for your Trip
Enter Location

Expand the Vision

Imagine the airline site’s role evolving into trusted advisor, incorporating all sorts of information related to the trip at hand.

City Guides

Discover hidden spots
with our City Guides

City Guides

Discover hidden spots
with our City Guides

  • Customized Experience

    Let’s offer smart filtering options so the interface is infinitely flexible, and tailored to each specific user.

  • Endless Inspiration

    It should be way easier to imagine the possibilities, without requiring extra effort from the user.

  • Intelligent Assistance

    Answer a few quick questions and you get a customized list of options to choose from.

Can You Picture It?

Imagine stunning high-definition images paired with insightful, useful information about the various destinations you’re considering.

About the Trip and the City
All about the Hotel
The Flight Information

Can We Make the Booking
Process More Pleasant?

Airline bookings evolved from paper and fax machines to online website containers. Unfortunately that is how they remain to this day – essentially clunky and disjointed design that never progressed beyond basic utility.

Round Trips

Most bookings are round trips. Let’s offer that as the default, including origination data, based on the user’s current location.

1Choose
Route

2Select
a date

3Enter
Passenger

4Search
 

1

Choose flight type

1

Choose your destination

1

Easily change to a one way flight

2

Configure your schedule

2

Convenient Calendar

2

Confirm the date

3

Configure travelers

3

Easily add new passengers

3

Confirm your choice

4

Get your results

Multi-City Flights

Globetrotting customers represent the highest value to an airline. Let’s give them an intelligent, interactive experience for plotting multi-city itineraries worthy of the 21st century.

Maximum Flexibility

Imagine clicking on Barcelona, dragging it to Rome and seeing flight times and weather reports update accordingly.

Smooth Interactions

A site’s interactions should be as easy to use as they are easy on the eyes.

Clear Options

A visually represented set of complicated options becomes much easier to comprehend and navigate.

Interactive Flight Map

Flight times, number of stops, departure and destination weather, offered at a glance.

Intuitive Filters

Easily filter your results by various criteria with visual feedback.

Comparative Pricing

Quickly sort, compare, decide and buy.

Simplicity is key.

What If Utility Was
Beautiful, and Timely?

Third-party independent applications represent the current cutting-edge of time-based travel information feeds. For airlines to carve their own niche in this massive space they need to push the industry forward by setting an example based on beautiful utility. Agile, responsive interfaces offer quick and timely access to the most pertinent information at exactly the right time. This is what today’s traveler wants, needs, and expects.

Timely Assistance

When flight delays threaten connections, travelers need fast, reliable flight information. Let’s present that information in a clean, clear way for maximum utility.

Informed Interface

A few clicks should provide quick and relevant details based on your current itinerary. Once you’re a customer in the system, the site becomes your concierge.

Breezy Check-In

Checking in to your flight is more than just stating your arrival. Real-time options should offer upgrades and upsell choices that serve both the customer’s and the airline’s interests.

Is Responsive Design Necessary?

In our modern digital world, it’s a simple necessity – and user expectation – that a website’s experience
is consistent, regardless which device is being used. Let’s offer a smooth, familiar experience
across all platforms.

Desktop

The core experience is built for the desktop, the primary vehicle for most travel bookings.

Tablet

The tablet environment offers a touch-based experience that should closely mirror the desktop.

Mobile

On-the-go access to all features and functions is critical to pleasing the modern traveler.

What Do You Think?

This has been a pro-active exercise rooted in our pervasive passion for improved human experience in the digital space. We’ve built our reputation on the concept of progressive disruption – the idea that the digital medium offers opportunities for positive change that benefits all involved. This case study is our humble plea to airlines, and the travel industry in general. Let’s work together, take the lead, and chart the course that others will follow. The time is now, and savvy world travelers are not prone to waiting. Let’s collaboratively build the future of online websites… We’re ready to fly.

We Are Fi

We’re passionate about solving big problems and progressively disrupting industries in the greatest need.
Check out this informative case study, which details how we progressively disrupted the online news space
by completely redesigning usatoday.com.

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