Alaska Airlines
Product Design Manager
Guest Mobile App (iOS & Android)
Nov 2020 - Aug 2021
Gained buy in and led the redesign of the guest facing mobile apps – advocating for new app information Architecture (IA) to support company strategies, expand team's scope, and foster team product thinking and appreciation for scalability.
Background
Alaska's mobile app was a shiny beacon during its last refresh in 2015, but years later, it was riddled with tech & design debt.
Opportunity
Unlock the ability for guests to continuously engage with our app by expanding our experiences & offerings to go beyond the day of travel.
What did this document do?
Allowed the "Serve" pillar to understand how all of the pieces fit together (and laddered up) while identifying where there were clearly gaps and opportunities.
Enabled prioritization and surfaced the need for further investment in the guest mobile app.
Experience Vision
To inspire, welcome, care for, and re-inspire our guests on an ongoing journey.
Foundational Research
Our vision and strategy was grounded on UX research and focused on guest needs.
Team:
Product Design Manager (me)
2 Product Designers
1 UI Designer
In 2019, I led a mobile IA study to identify guest expectations and narrow our assumptions in three key areas related to how guests interact with an airline mobile app.
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Navigation
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Trips/Flights
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Events (timing)
We hypothesized that matching our concepts to a comprehensive set of guest expectations would assist us in designing a mobile architecture that is both intuitive and helpful for the guest during their journey.
This study was a multi-city study including Seattle, WA, San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA; with the intent of understanding our newly acquired target market in California (after purchasing Virgin America).
Navigation & Feature Updates
Setting the foundation of our app based on insights from UX research (mobile IA study).
Team:
Product Design Manager (me)
1 Product Designer
1 UI Designer
1 UX Writer / Content Designer
Product Manager
8-10 Engineers
Supporting our guests and the business
When guests didn't have trips, they were shown duplicative actions with limited visual appeal. By iteratively updating the navigation and features on the mobile app, we created a stage for merchandising and acquisition offerings.
Homescreen & Dynamic Content
Designing a "home" based on an intelligent, efficient, needs-driven framework.
Team:
Product Design Manager (me)
2 Product Designer
2 UI Designer
1 UX Writer / Content Designer
2 Product Managers
12-14 Engineers
Content Strategy
Identified the categories of content along with the associated stakeholders. There were many of them so this required extensive stakeholder collaboration and engagement.
In parallel, we completed additional research to understand content desirability taking into account variable states.
Framework & Requirements
We created an intelligent, efficient, needs-driven framework grounded in research – giving us the ability to respond to business, market, and guest needs.
Lever pulling based on market conditions, business needs, and personalization for:
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Revenue generation
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Loyalty acquisition
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Credit card acquisition
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Focused and personalized marketing campaigns
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Ancillary product upsells and/or partnerships
Final Designs
Below are the final designs for the various states for both iOS and Android. These are only the final designs for the MVP. I left the company shortly after the release of these designs.
Continuous Learning & Iterating
The app made strides towards the experience vision, "To inspire, welcome, care for, and re-inspire our guests on an ongoing journey." And has the modular framework to progress further.
Takeaways & Results
The fundamental value & purpose of a product should continuously evolve to best suit guest & business needs...
(Note: percentages/points not noted but were tracked)
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App Ratings & Downloads: Maintained 4.9 out of 5 star app (iOS) with nearly double the reviews
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Revenue Generation: Upward trend in bookings on app
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Loyalty Acquisition & Credit Card Acquisition: homescreen iterations to target this - unknown results after departure
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Focused Marketing Campaigns: December 2020 BOGO Marketing campaign success - overall was best campaign for engagement and revenue to date
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Ancillary Product Upsells: Food pre-order on mobile app increased in first month (previously only seen from Flight Details)
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App Engagement: Increased time spent on app