Hotel booking with Aeroplan
Aeroplan became part of Air Canada, and AC’s goal was to extend the earning and redeeming of Aeroplan points to hotel bookings. I was one of the designers of a cross-functional team that worked on the strategy and execution of non-air loyalty product integration in the Air Canada ecosystem.
After several iterations and user testings, the UX/UI guide and the exploratory mocks were presented to the third party team. They were based on user flows that the platform could provide (technical requirements) and user feedback (user research and usability testing). The mocks provided tools to promote the earn and use of points while booking hotels with Aeroplan (AC requirements). The payment methods’ accessibility and inclusivity were given particular consideration in order to accommodate users with different Aeroplan balances (UX vision).
My Role: In close collaboration with the members of the AC Non-Air Loyalty Products cross-functional team, I participated in defining the UX strategy and vision, created UI guidelines, and the exploratory designs for hotel booking flow pages with a special focus on payment methods.
The project was realised in close collaboration with the members of the AC Non-Air Loyalty Products cross-functional team. A series of workshops were held with the third-party partner team to ensure the main steps and specifications of the booking flow support the AC business goal and UX strategy.
Building foundation – UI specifications
To offer a good base for unified language and structured framework that will guide the teams through the whole process of creating hotel booking platform, I started with outlining a design UI kit (based on AC Design System) that help keep the look and feel of the product and experiences consistent. Colour palette, as well as systems typography, and different components of the site were established. Figma variables, tokens and styles are used to effectively manage design properties of UI components and to make UI guidelines flexible and scalable.
Exploring the flow
First task was to map the user flow based on the third-party requirements and capacities and to propose explorative UX mocks for the main hotel booking pages. These designs would serve as a direction for further iterations and refinements of various design components and sections.
Designing for inclusivity and usability of price points
My second task was to focus was on the pricing section for hotels and rooms cards. The first approach was to show all three prices to allow users to evaluate and choose the payment method. It was more about presenting what is possible rather than what users would need to book a hotel efficiently. Having three payment methods represented a lot of information and we needed special treatment for hotel and room cards.
To get more insights for the second solution, we collected stats on users balances, and I conducted a
15-second usability test with 7 participants. The participants were Aeroplan members with different amounts of points accumulated.
The results showed that users already have a payment method in mind when they start booking! They might change their minds later, but when they start selecting a room, they needed information about the method they have in mind rather than an overview of all payment methods.
The second important finding – more than 85% of bookings are paid in dollars and earn points. From another side, different payment options and redeeming promotions were a good value proposition for about 20% of users with high point balances.
