Fly anywhere, anytime

FlexTravel is a non-destination based flight search, tailored to people need of flexibility and budget, but also their personal holiday preferences.




Timeline
2019 - 3 days

Client
KLM / Air France

Tools
Overflow, Sketch, Invision, Origami

My role
Concept development, UX, UI design




Goal

KLM was willing to develop more flexible tools for booking flights.
My goal was to help passengers find a holiday destination tailored to their needs and preferences. The project was imagined for KLM innovation days.

How might we help our customers search for flights without having a particular destination in mind?


Constraints

The search functionality had to:
  • be unrelated to specific destinations
  • offer flexibility in terms of dates and timespan
  • take into account budget, travel lenght and destination highlights



    • Research

    Benchmarking

    To see how the problem had already been approached, I did a competitive analysis of other airlines, as well as of price aggregators and analogous businesses.

    Main insights

    • Flight search is almost always destination-based
    • Existing flexible search options are confusing
    • Time and/or duration options are very limited
    • It's rare to find a search by activities, interests and weather
    • When more options are offered, the search returned poor or no results

      • Secondary sources

      To understand travelers orientation behavior, I went through existing research and created a persona: Sara, a millennial looking for inspiration for a girls' trip.


      Click to zoom
      Persona
      Wireframes




      User jobs


      When looking for a trip on KLM, I want to be able to make a search without a particular destination in mind, so that I can be inspired


      When making a search, I want to be able to easily set my preferences, so that I can find what suits me best.




      Ideation

      Scoping the functionality

      Based on the assumptions that it's a round trip from/to the same airport, the destinations are connected to local information, activities and weather and the group agrees on the travel preferences, I defined the requirements for the MVP:
      • Departure airport
      • Dates (timespan, time of the week, flexibility)
      • Number of passengers
      • Max budget
      • Max travel lenght
      • Local highlights (vibe, activities, weather)


        • Design principles

        For a successful functionality, certain design principles seemed necessary:
        • reliability: getting accurate results based on users preferences
        • clarity: using unequivocal UI elements and UX writing
        • versatility: offering flexible combinations and destinations comparison
        • transparency on the trip (lenght, departure times, changes, prices)
        • user satisfaction: by always displaying results (even when not all requirements match), and abiding by the minimum budget



          • Click to zoom
          User flow
          Wire flow


          Design

          The Innovation days being timeboxed, I sketched an interface, quickly tested it with 3 colleagues, skipped the wireframing and delivered a high-fidelity prototype, using KLM design system.

          FlexTravel offers KLM potential passengers a non-destination based search with flexible dates. The search is also tailored to local highlights, budget and distance.





          Features


          Find a destination
          Don't know where to go? Find a destination tailored to your preferences

          Flexible timeframes
          Select a timeframe from date to date or on multiple weekends

          Flexible weekends
          Keep your options open to find the most convenient solutions




          Multiple options
          You can choose the number of passengers, the maximum budget and travel time

          Destination highlights
          Choose your destination based on the weather, the environment and the activities

          Here's your favorite destinations
          Choose your favorite destination in a selection based on your criteria




          Learnings

          Due to the nature of the project, I wasn't able to do any further tests, but I noted some ideas for future developments, like:
          • Already displaying the maximum flight lenght, based on passengers preferences
          • Show alternative airports
          • Let the users sort the results
          • Have a map with a price calendar
          • Offer the possibility to share the bill

            • Click here to try the prototype




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