Kayak.com enables their users to find and reserve flights, hotels, and rental vehicles in addition to much more when it comes to booking a trip. They are constantly seeking out additional features or services that will bring value to both their users and their business.
For this project, I was tasked with creating a new feature to integrate into the existing product. After reviewing the prompt, I conducted competitive analyses and analyzed user interview transcripts, which provided valuable insights that helped me design a potential solution.
In a saturated travel market, Kayak.com wants to stay ahead of the competition and provide their users with an additional feature or service that would bring them value. Based on the project brief, Kayak.com’s goals for the new feature was aimed at helping people make more informed choices of what to do at their destination and making the product experience feel more personalized to each user.
I was provided with user interview transcripts. I read through and transcoded each interview with the intention of understanding what travelers prioritize and consider when booking their travels.
When analyzing the competitive landscape and auditing the existing Kayak.com product, the following features were important observations to help understand how Kayak compares to others in the industry.
I noticed a gap on Kayak.com. Users were restricted in their ability to discover destinations if they are unsure of where they’d like to travel. The existing Kayak.com product allows users to “explore” but limits their filter options within the feature.
With this discovery, I realized potential opportunities for Kayak.com.
I began to identify what jobs a traveler tries to get done when planning a trip, to better understand the potential perspective of people who use online travel search platforms. I considered common steps people go through from the preparation, research, and booking stages, and ultimately noticed that in order to begin planning, users must know which destination they want to go.
Travelers needed a way to find destination recommendations, apply their interests, and review destinations in order to know what is available before they go and maximize their time at the destination.
I developed some rough ideas about how a new feature could provide travelers more flexibility while they search. I looked at examples that allowed travelers different ways to retrieve recommendations when they are unsure of where to go, and kept them in mind when moving forward. These examples include:
Considering Kayak.com's existing “Explore” feature only provides users the ability to explore destinations using filters for the amount of flight stops, budget amount, flight duration, and preselected options for the type of trip
How might we allow users of Kayak.com to find destination recommendations in an alternative way from what exists?
I imagined how I might expand on the current capabilities to help users have more input on what they're looking for on their next trip, allowing travelers to discover destinations that may have not been considered.
I pursued the feature of a "discovery quiz" where users can answer questions related to their desires for their next trip, and receive destination recommendations based on their selections. Based on the competitive analysis, this feature was not present within direct competitor sites and could potentially assist Kayak.com in staying ahead of the competition.
I conducted a usability test with 5 travelers who utilize online travel sites. To better understand the journey of my target users I asked them to perform a task.
Find recommendations for travel destinations based on what you’re interested in.
This was a major insight that shifted the location of the Discovery Quiz. Initially the new discovery quiz feature was placed within the main navigation.
As participants completed the quiz, they called out that questions on the vibe of the trip, accommodation, and food options were either too specific or restrictive based on the inability to multi select options.
Overall participants found the potential feature to be helpful for those who are interested in going places and having their interest taken into account, but not interested in spending hours doing research in different places.
Based on the insights, the next iteration considered the following design goals:
This project was a great exercise for me to apply UX research methods and analyze interviews to uncover insights to drive the design process. I was able to write a usability testing script and set up virtual testing sessions to help evaluate the user flow and understand user sentiments towards the new feature.
Of course, there is a lot that could be improved. With 9 days to deliver a mid-fidelity prototype, there was limited testing done and iterations on the concept. If I had additional time I would’ve liked to continue user tests for feedback. I also think creating some user flows early in the process may have helped me ideate further on possible solutions for travelers.
