WestJet - Early Access to Upgrade
Provide WestJet Gold and Premium members with the opportunity to upgrade their cabin 48 hours in advance of their scheduled flight for a better fee rather than 24 hours in advance.
2.5 min read • 2020 • WestJet.com
Overview
In order to improve the efficiency of our work at WestJet, we utilized the Scrum framework.
As a result of using "Jira", we were able to plan, track, and manage all of our user stories, tasks, sprints, software channels, and platform development projects in one place.
The sprints I worked on were two weeks long. In order to make sure we were aware of what had to be completed in each sprint and to ensure that the sprint goal and work could be achieved, we did sprint planning together as a team. In order to identify what worked well, what needed to be improved, and what improvements/changes we intended to commit to as a team in the next sprint, we held a sprint retrospective at the end of each sprint. Transparency and team communication were front and center of our daily work as we followed the Scrum framework.
As a result of our collaboration with Product Owners, we were able to break down complex user stories (epics) into smaller pieces of work that could be completed in our sprints, define the "definition of done" and use our research and testing to pivot as needed to ensure that our project outcomes were achieved.
Target audience
The only guests who will have access to this feature will be gold and premium members (Older public).
As a result, they have already been through the Responsive Booking Flow (RBF).
As a result of multiple conversations with the team, we decided to follow the current RBF design system and take the same approach with the step bar as well.
The guests were already familiar with the RBF flow and it simplified their journey.
The “early access to upgrade” feature appears in the “Manage Trip” section which has a similar feature called “Change Flight”.
Based on the data, we decided to follow the same logic/flow and run a happy-path usability testing later on in the process to see how our guests react.
Understandings & Key Questions
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What steps should be included in the step bar for this flow?
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Should this experience mirror the existing Change Flight logic?
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What payment details is the guest expecting to review before confirming?
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If no upgrade options are available, should Compare Cabin still be displayed?
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Should we surface all available payment configurations to the user?
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How can a guest upgrade only one segment of a multi-segment (layover) trip?
Requirements
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The payment page must present upgraded and more relevant information than what is currently shown in the RBF flow.
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Use existing design system components wherever possible to reduce both design and development effort.
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Provide a clear path back to Manage Trip, as previous UXR indicates many guests enter this flow simply to compare cabin options rather than complete a purchase.
“Provide more details on the home page, show me what I get with the upgrade.”
“Make it take one less step if possible. It felt like a long process”
“I would have the ability to upgrade all flights at once to Premium or Business.”
Testing on real users
Each design iteration was tested with a minimum of 30 users. Participants were asked to move through the full flow while verbally sharing their thoughts and reactions. At the end of each session, we followed up with targeted questions to better understand their experience.
One of the key questions we asked was:
“What do you think about the flow and page layout, and what would you change if you could?”
Beyond direct feedback, we also analyzed voice cues and mouse-movement patterns to identify hidden friction points, signals of frustration that users may not openly express in a questionnaire.
Outcomes:
Original Design
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Average task-completion time: 2:12 minutes
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Average number of clicks: 21 clicks
New Design
Average task-completion time: 0:45 seconds
Average number of clicks: 11 clicks
Overall, the updated design is significantly more efficient, reducing task time by 1 minute and 27 seconds and requiring 10 fewer clicks on average.
UI Style Guide & Reusable Components
I created an interim design system built on the foundations of the existing one. At the time, the design leadership team was developing a much more extensive, long-term system scheduled for release in about two years.
This interim system ensured our team could still work with consistent guidelines, avoid custom one-off solutions, and maintain alignment across design and development while the full design system was still in progress.
