Responsive web Check-in redesign
Exploratory, iterative and validation research
The Check-in product team was asked to redesign United’s web check-in experience into an improved responsive platform. Over 58 million people check in with United every year, and this platform serves 18% of those check-ins on desktops, tablets and mobile devices. While sitting within the check-in product suite, this flow called many services (seat map, payment, ancillary, etc), meaning there were many stakeholders and product groups to work with as the project progressed. Lead designer: James Niekamp
Methodologies:
Analytics and voice of customer data review
Competitive analysis diary study
Baseline usability testing
Iterative and validation usability testing (web and responsive mobile web)
My Role
The UX research team sat within a centralized UX core group, but acted as internal consultants to our product teams, business stakeholders and innovation groups. I conducted almost all of the work for day of travel needs, and worked with the check-in/flight status product team on all of their projects. I worked closely with the lead designer to provide research strategy and planning for this project, creating the test plan, screeners, moderator’s guides and executed all remote and in-person testing.
For this project I worked with the check-in/flight status product team to provide:
Expert and heuristic evaluations
Review quantitative and voice of customer data
Co-lead stakeholder workshops
Plan and conduct exploratory, iterative and validation research including:
writing and programing test plans, screeners, moderators guides, top-line and full reports
Continuous collaboration with lead designer
Research Plan
From the start this project was under a microscope from leadership and stakeholders because of the numerous impacted product teams and high customer visibility (over 10 million customers a year). We were on a tight deadline to provide final designs to developers with little time dedicated to iterative design updates based on research. Despite these time restrictions, the lead designer and I knew that we needed to know more about how our customers think about and use check-in in order to redesign the product effectively. What is interesting about check-in, is that it is a process that the airline uses, but is really just a barrier for customers to getting the main thing they need to initiate their trip, their boarding pass.
Foundational research
In order to learn more about what customers need and expect from check-in I planned the following foundational research:
Quantitative data and voice of the customer feedback review: Prior to kicking off our qualitative research, the lead designer and I evaluated the analytics, quantitative insights and voice of the customer feedback to understand usage and current pain points of the experience.
Competitive analysis diary study: I conducted a diary study (dscout) with 46 participants, flying on 8 airlines, including United. I did not dictate which platform they checked-in on and followed their journey from preparing to travel, through check-in and airport experience in order to understand the role of check-in within the travel journey. We gained a lot of insight into customers’ perception of check-in, the most important confirming one of our hypothesis that customers do not currently see the check-in process as adding value to their travel experience. Instead, they see it as a way for airlines to nickel and dime them.
Baseline usability testing: Consecutively with the diary study, I ran a baseline usability study with 10 customers on our existing website platform in order to uncover usability issues in addition to the function and perception of check-in overall.
Design explorations, iterations and validation testing
After uncovering these foundational insights, the lead designer and I workshopped the findings, allowing him to create the first MVP iteration. We then executed the next phase of research, iterative and validation testing.
Stakeholder workshops: We brought our findings and MVP design to stakeholders and workshoped our solutions. We iterated and adjusted to meet stakeholder needs and introduced new ways to add value to the process that is mostly perceived as a way for airlines to profit with little value to customers.
Iterative and validation usability testing: Working with the design team, I conducted multiple rounds of iterative testing in person and remote unmoderated to validate the responsive .com check-in experience. Both the desktop and mobile web flow were validated with stakeholders being updated and considered along the way.
The final MVP made the following updates to the web check-in experience:
Single payment purchasing
Contextual and personalized marketing
More ways to initiate check-in
Improved interactions and visual hierarchy
Increased transparency
Consolidation of pages and leading to quicker response times
Refreshed look and feel, meeting new brand and design system standards
Responsive design (desktop, mobile and tablet)
Improved copy and messaging
Old review reservation page
New responsive design
New review reservation page
Outcomes
The responsive check-in redesign was one of my favorite projects to work on because of the impact the design team and I were able to make. We were able to:
create added value for customers with more seamless integrations of other products.
change stakeholders’ understanding of the value of the product and establish new priorities for future road mapping.
transform the visual and interaction patterns of a the flow.
reduce back end load and response times with consolidated pages and flows.
The MVP check-in experience launched in June of 2020. Early metrics show significant:
increase in check-in completion rates.
increase in ancillary purchases.
This was great to see considering people felt nickeled and dimed by previous experiences. The new experience optimized up-sells.
quicker times for start transaction API response.
decrease in time to complete check-in.