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The Story

In 2022, I was presented with the unique challenge of refining the user experience for Hopper, North America's most downloaded travel app.

Tasked with elevating their primary user flow, the goal was to enhance the digital journey, seamlessly integrating their extensive range of services and add-ons beyond just hotel bookings. This project aimed to more effectively communicate Hopper's full value proposition to its users, ensuring a holistic and engaging online experience. Below, we delve into the journey of transforming Hopper's user interface to meet and exceed these objectives.

Metrics and Goals

Armed with initial high-level data highlighting Hopper's growth and the existing user experience constraints, I distilled these insights into a comprehensive framework. This framework, structured around product strategy, business opportunities, customer pain points, and key performance indicators (KPIs), served as the blueprint for our approach. It guided the meticulous crafting of solutions aimed at enhancing Hopper's digital ecosystem, setting the stage for the strategic enhancements detailed below.

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1. Product Strategy:

  • Integrate new financial products and inventory lanes (car rentals, price freezing, insurance) more seamlessly into the user journey.

  • Redesign the user experience to support not just flight deal searches but also the discovery and use of additional services.

  • Utilize data on user interactions to personalize the offering of high-value products at strategic points in the app.

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2. Customer Pain Points:

  • Difficulty in discovering or understanding the value of new financial products and inventory lanes due to the current UX model.

  • Frustration from active users who may be missing out on beneficial services due to a lack of personalized recommendations.

  • The current model's inadequacy in promoting additional services beyond flight deals, leading to a potential underutilization of the app’s full capabilities.

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3. Business Opportunity:

  • Enhance user engagement and increase revenue per user by improving the visibility and appeal of high-value products.

  • Capitalize on the 54% of active users returning to the app for check-ins by offering relevant add-ons that complement their journey.

  • Leverage the 40% of users engaged with flight watches as a target audience for personalized up-selling of additional services.

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4. Corresponding KPIs with Realistically Achievable Number Values:

  • Increase the percentage of users purchasing car rentals from 1.5% to 3%, aiming to boost the Net Revenue LTV from $96 to $120.

  • Grow hotel booking from 21% to 25% of users, with a goal to increase the Net Revenue LTV from $37 to $45.

  • Elevate the percentage of users booking flights and adding insurance products from 39% to 45%, enhancing the Net Revenue LTV from $48 to $55.

  • Reduce the percentage of users booking just a flight ticket from 38% to 35%, while increasing the engagement with additional products to raise the Net Revenue LTV from $2 to $5.

  • Aim for 60% of active users to engage with personalized notifications or recommendations for add-on services, enhancing cross-sell opportunities.

01

Discovery

To effectively illustrate the data and craft a compelling narrative for my proposal, I created the following charts. These visualizations highlight key distinctions in service utilization among different customer segments, enabling a clear, story-driven presentation of our findings.

02

HMW?

There are numerous strategies to navigate through challenges uncovered during research and competitive analysis. One effective method is transforming these challenges into "How Might We" (HMW) statements. This technique not only reframes our perspective towards a more solution-oriented mindset but also primes the team for innovative problem-solving. It's a practice that encourages looking beyond the immediate hurdles to uncover opportunities for creative and impactful solutions.

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Converting challenges into "How Might We" (HMWs) questions is a deliberate strategy to shift our perspective from problem-centric to opportunity-centric thinking. This approach fosters a mindset of possibility, encouraging creative exploration and innovative solution-finding. By framing challenges as HMWs, we open the door to a broader range of solutions, facilitating brainstorming sessions that are more inclusive and forward-thinking. It transforms obstacles into launchpads for improvement, prompting us to consider diverse angles and stakeholder needs. This method not only amplifies our problem-solving capabilities but also aligns our efforts towards more user-centric, impactful outcomes. In essence, HMWs serve as a catalyst for ideation, guiding us from understanding the current state to envisioning a future where those challenges are effectively addressed.

How might we motivate users to watch a flight after browsing?

How might we reassure users to purchase flight insurance?

How might we identify user archetypes early in the journey?

How might we engage them with tailored notifications?

To gain a comprehensive understanding of Hopper's booking journey and its competitive standing, a benchmarking analysis was conducted against five leading competitors. This comparison not only illuminates Hopper's position within the market but also uncovers pivotal differences and opportunities for enhancement. By systematically evaluating each competitor's booking process, we identify industry best practices and areas where Hopper can innovate or refine its approach, ensuring a more intuitive and user-centric booking experience. This benchmarking effort lays the groundwork for strategic improvements and differentiation in the crowded travel booking space.

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Benchmarking

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Journey Mapping

After the initial discovery phase and comprehensive competitive analysis, it's essential to revisit the full user journey, mapping out identified pain points and opportunities for enhancement. Journey mapping allows us to visualize the entire experience from the user's perspective, highlighting areas where users may encounter friction or feel unfulfilled. This process not only helps in pinpointing specific moments that detract from the overall experience but also in identifying opportunities where we can integrate solutions that add value, improve engagement, and enhance satisfaction. By systematically laying out the user journey, we ensure that our strategic interventions are precisely targeted and fully aligned with user needs, ultimately leading to a more cohesive and satisfying user experience.

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This approach will allow us to:

  1. Identify Key Interactions: By dividing the journey into stages like 'Browse & Compare' and 'Product Selection', you can focus on the nuances of user behavior and preferences during these crucial decision-making phases.

  2. Highlight Opportunities for Improvement: Each subsection, such as 'Search', 'Calendar', and 'Listings', allows for a granular analysis of the interface and functionality, helping pinpoint where enhancements could significantly impact user satisfaction and conversion rates.

  3. Enhance the Checkout Experience: Breaking down the 'Post Purchase' phase into detailed payment options provides clear insight into the checkout process's flexibility and user-friendliness. This can reveal opportunities to streamline transactions and increase payment security and convenience, which are vital for user trust and loyalty.

  4. Inform Strategic Enhancements: This detailed mapping serves as a foundation for strategic decisions on feature improvements, prioritization of development efforts, and identification of areas for innovative solutions like integrating new payment methods or enhancing the price freeze feature for better user retention.

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In-Depth User Flow Analysis

Following the journey mapping, where we pinpointed specific pain points across different sections, we proceeded to an In-Depth User Flow Analysis. This comprehensive evaluation delved into each critical part of the user journey through detailed screenshots, focusing on key areas of impact and interaction within the app, such as information architecture, placement of CTAs, and design of information cards. This approach allowed us to:

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  • Conduct a Detailed Interaction Review, emphasizing a close examination of user interactions with the app's interface, including CTA placement and information architecture.

  • Perform a User Journey Dissection, highlighting the methodical breakdown and examination of each step in the user journey, focusing on key areas of impact.

  • Execute a UI/UX Audit, offering a comprehensive evaluation of user interface and user experience elements, tailored to the specifics of the user flow.

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This in-depth analysis is pivotal in uncovering actionable insights, guiding us toward targeted improvements that enhance the overall user experience.

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Strategic Insights: Key Takeaways from Journey Analysis

This section distills the critical insights derived from our comprehensive journey analysis, spotlighting notable observations and suggestions made during the in-depth review of the user flow. These key takeaways serve as the cornerstone for our ideation process, guiding the development of innovative design solutions aimed at enhancing the user experience. By addressing these identified pain points and opportunities, we aim to create a more intuitive, engaging, and efficient user journey, ultimately driving improved user satisfaction and business outcomes. The following bullet points encapsulate our major findings and the strategic directions they inspire for our upcoming design iterations.

  1. Calendar Integration: Integrate hotel deals fetching based on the user's selected destination and dates right at the calendar step.
     

  2. Price-Freeze Clarity: Enhance visibility on what is being price-frozen to ensure users are aware of critical flight details like duration (e.g. 35hr flight vs 12hr one).
     

  3. Favorites Feature: Introduce a “heart” icon on the flight list for users to easily add flights to favorites, similar to Kayak’s functionality.
     

  4. Gesture-Based Price Freeze: Implement gesture controls (e.g., swipe left/right) on the flight list to select price freeze options, with final confirmation at journey's end.
     

  5. Visual Hierarchy Optimization: On the flight list, emphasize crucial information (like flight duration) over less critical details to aid decision-making, especially for flyers with specific needs.
     

  6. Cross-Promotion of Services: Display hotel deals during flight searches and vice versa to boost engagement and conversions, potentially through a carousel feature.
     

  7. Early Hotel Deals Introduction: Present hotel deals early in the flight booking process to encourage users to complete their booking, opt for insurance, and consider additional extras and add-ons.

Gradient Backdrop

07

Final Design

In the final design proposal crafted for Hopper, strategic enhancements were seamlessly woven into the user journey, guided by insights from thorough user analysis and competitive benchmarking. The design introduced intuitive calendar integration for hotel deals, clear visibility for price-freeze options emphasizing flight duration, and a user-friendly favorites system inspired by successful practices in the industry. Further enriching the experience, gesture-based controls for price freezing and a reimagined visual hierarchy on the flight list aimed to streamline decision-making. The proposal also cleverly leveraged cross-promotion of services and early introduction of hotel deals to encourage comprehensive booking experiences.

 

To cap off the booking journey with a memorable and shareable moment, the proposal includes a novel social aspect: an animated world map showcasing the user’s flight path. Upon completing a booking, users are treated to a captivating 10-second animation depicting their upcoming journey, complete with destination photos as the plane lands. This unique feature, designed to be shared across social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, aims not only to inspire users but also to leverage social sharing to enhance user engagement and promote Hopper's service through increased Net Promoter Score (NPS), Emotional Engagement, Social Connectivity, Increased Visibility, and an overall Higher User Engagement

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The Outcome

Although Hopper decided not to implement the proposed user experience enhancements, the project's insights and design strategies found a different path to recognition. The innovative ideas generated during this project laid the groundwork for a new initiative, named 'Hopper Insights.' This venture aims to offer consultancy and data-driven design solutions to travel platforms seeking to optimize their user engagement and conversion rates. This turn of events not only underscores the flexibility and broader applicability of the UX and UI concepts I developed but also illuminates the broader industry impact such strategies can have. While Hopper's preference to retain their current setup was fully respected, the inception of 'Hopper Insights' exemplifies the transformative potential of well-considered design thinking, expanding its influence beyond the original project boundaries.

Key takeaways

  • Innovative Solutions Recognized: Despite Hopper's decision to not implement the proposed designs, the creative and strategic work was acknowledged and evolved into a new opportunity, demonstrating the inherent value of innovative UX/UI thinking.

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  • Foundation for New Ventures: The project's insights became the cornerstone for "Hopper Insights," a consultancy aimed at enhancing user experience for travel platforms, showcasing the adaptability and applicability of the proposed design strategies to broader markets.

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  • Highlighting Design Thinking's Impact: The transition of project ideas to a consultancy highlights the significant, transformative potential of thoughtful design thinking, proving that good ideas can find relevance and create impact beyond their initial scope.

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  • Learning and Growth: The experience underscores the importance of every design opportunity as a learning moment, offering growth and understanding, regardless of the direct adoption of proposed solutions.

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  • Broad Industry Influence: The development and conceptualization of "Hopper Insights" reflect the broader applicability and demand for strategic UX/UI expertise in the travel industry and beyond, affirming the value of such work in shaping user-centric digital experiences.

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