Global agency Fi imagine what booking a flight would be like if the airlines cared about user experience.
In Fi's vision of a more user-friendly airline website, checking in includes real-time options offering upgrades and upsell choices.
Ever had a bad experience trying to book a flight online? Of course you have. According to JD Power, 87% of travelers used the web to book travel tickets in 2012, yet most sites are still stuck in the 90s. So international design agency Fi decided to do something about it.
The agency reviewed all major airline websites, and graded them against design and usability criteria including information architecture, interaction design and visual design. Disheartened by the results, they decided to present an alternative view of how a travel website might look and function.
Fi believes the interface should be infinitely flexible, and tailored to each specific user
The designs they came up with were centred around the user-centred propositions including:
Syatic text and form fields replaced with relevant, attractive imagery and simple, intuitive toolsets.
Icon-driven navigation to say more in less space.
The best possible deals in real-time, based on the user’s location and preferences.
Smart filtering options so the interface is infinitely flexible, and tailored to each specific user.
A site that plays travel agent by offering intelligent options based on a small amount of information you provide
You can easily click through to find information about the city, hotel and flight information
To expand on these and other principles, Fi has created a micro site that shows exactly how they would be put into practice, with mocked-up page examples and an array of thoughtful detail.
A visually represented set of complex options is much easier to comprehend and navigate
This is exactly that kind of disruption the online travel industry needs - and we hope there's a big player who's forward-looking enough to commission Fi to develop these intriguing designs.
A few clicks should provide quick and relevant details based on your current itinerary. Once you’re a customer in the system, the site becomes your concierge.
You can check out the designs, and the thinking behind them, in full here.
Most bookings are round trips. Fi's design offers that as the default, including origination data, based on the user’s current location.
The interactive map comes with a flight booking tool as well as highlighting special offers
