Research & Design
at Virgin America
Designing the best UX in the airline industry.
VIRGIN AMERICA was an airline known for doing things differently, bucking industry standards at the time with free wifi, touch screen entertainment, and party-themed aircrafts. Their philosophy was simple: to provide the best customer experience possible.
In ~2011 Virgin decided to redesign their entire digital experience. I began consulting with their executive team early in the process to help develop a user-centered strategy for the project, but I ended up staying on in-house to lead the UX research and design of the web and mobile sites. We started from scratch with a deep dive into user research.
Much of our initial work came down to field research. I mentored and led a small UX team as we performed ethnography, observational studies, and interviews–usually on-site at airports and hotels around the country. We identified and personified the types of people who fly, fleshed out their demographics and behaviors, and discovered both the pain points and the opportunities in their booking and flight experiences.
FROM there we iterated through many versions of new digital experiences for web and mobile sites, physical booking kiosks, and in-flight touch screen experience. We tested each version rapidly with real customers, and our testing protocols increased in sophistication as our designs increased in fidelity. Instead of handing off to the product design and development teams, we invited them to join our iterative design and testing process as we neared the final architecture. We continued collaborating closely until well after product launch, running user tests and making adjustments even after it went live.
The results made a significant impact. Mobile conversions tripled and web-related support calls dropped dramatically. The redesign also generated significant positive media attention, and the new user experience won over a dozen awards–including multiple Webby Awards, Cannes Lions Awards, UX Design Awards, and others.
