CWT delivers efficient and innovative solutions to optimize business travel, meetings and events management.
CWT To Go is the mobile application that puts the traveler in control of his travel plans and helps respond quickly when things change. The app is focused on advanced business traveler, with ~20 business trips a year.
A business travelers’ needs are very different from your average leisure traveler, planning his weekend getaway, key differences being:
Time is money - spend the minimum time on the trip. Get to the destination the latest without being late, and leave as soon as possible.
Forced to book according to his company policy compliance
Loyalty to his favorite airline and hotel chain
###Research
Shortly after I joined the team, our lead UX researcher Oz Richter, has just finished a big usability study with 20 of CWT clients, gathering great feedback and insights.
Our hotel booking team had just finished a big redesign based on all the study’s conclusions, and it was time for the flight booking flow to get a makeover.
####Search Screen
The usability results indicated our users didn’t notice the main CTA search buttons, as they didn’t seem like actionable interface. We needed to make sure all the interface seems actionable and clear.
Another goal for this screen redesign is to align the flight search screen overall layout and components to the hotel search screen.
####Search Results
Most users felt current flight grouping didn’t answer their needs. Flights needed to be ungrouped in order to provide an easier way for users to locate a flight based on time.
Most users prefer to book departure and return flights separately. The departure flights needed to be separated from the return flights, so the user can select the departure flight, then see all the available return options. As departure and arrival flights are critical to the booking decision, time filters will be exposed on the search results.
###Visual design
The decision was to start this feature in our Android app, since overall the app desperately needed a makeover and the iOS team was finishing up the hotel booking sprints and could’nt spare time and resources.
I took the new look and feel we gave the iOS app, adapted to Android eco-system, Using native UI components with the CWT brand.
###Iterations
As the design mocks were coming together, I began building a prototype to use when trying to validate my design with users.
I used Framer to create a working prototype to put in the users’ hands quickly. Framer and Sketch work great together, and after each iteration, I reviewed the feedback, modified the design in Sketch, imported back to Framer, refactored the logic if needed and was ready for another round of user tests.
Finally, the results showed almost all our test users found their desired flights in no time, and the time filters feature got great feedback. SUCCESS!
###Closing
The new flight booking was released in CWT To Go latest Android app update, and is available in beta to some of our selected clients.
So far the feedback has been great, and we’re seeing a rise in flight bookings made through the app.
We still have a way to go, like improving the checkout flow and opening the feature for more clients , but the numbers look very positive so far and I’m sure we’ll soon have a great value proportion to offer our CWT To Go clients - both in iOS and Android.
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