AI Driven Travel Companion for Smarter Flight Booking
01 Brief
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In the wake of GenAI breakthroughs, Alaska Airlines sought to explore an AI-driven solution to help people plan and book travel in smarter, more novel ways while increasing engagement and conversion. As the Monstarlab team, our goal was to rethink the booking process and explore a new product concept: How might we leverage AI to help Alaska passengers smartly plan and book their travels? My role was to be a strategic partner in the team of product and tech leads to understand user needs and create a novel product concept.
YEAR
2024
DURATION
3 Months
ROLE
Lead UX Designer
PRODUCT
MVP Concept
SKILLS
User Research, User Flows, Journey Maps, Prototyping, Testing
A glimpse from the Companion on Alaska Mobile App, where users can access key actions and conversations
02 The Problem
In today’s fast-paced world, travelers often struggle with booking complexities, losing time navigating sources and managing their schedules. To capture today's fast-paced traveler needs, Alaska team sought an AI-driven solution to help travelers plan and book on their platform more efficiently, while also increasing engagement and improving conversion rates.
03 Research
I gathered user insights from the Alaska team and conducted interviews with travelers. Then, I developed key personas to represent their booking challenges. A key challenge for users was balancing personal and professional schedules while booking flights. They frequently switched between tools—such as notes, calendars, itineraries, price comparison sites, and transportation apps—to find the best flight options, resulting in lost time.
I led a workshop with our cross-disciplinary team of product and engineering to understand business constraints and ensure feasibility. Considering the project timeline, we aligned on the design of a "Travel Companion" MVP concept. This AI-driven solution would integrate into Alaska’s mobile app, and leverage Google's ecosystem as a infrastructure partner.
We aligned on the goal for our feature concept.
04 The Design Phase
We formed our user stories for the Assistant, one of which focused on helping users book flights seamlessly through Google Calendar integration. Given that users' top challenge was balancing personal and professional schedules without needing to switch between apps, I started sketching interaction patterns to address this need.
I conducted usability tests to explore how users would prefer interacting with AI Assistant alongside traditional booking controls. I benchmarked common patterns in AI-driven applications and the travel industry. During testings, users consistently preferred having AI integrated into the familiar layout of the booking tab, rather than interacting with it in different interaction patterns like a a floating button assistant; which felt disjointed.
I read Google's People + AI Guidebook to ensure I followed responsible AI design practices. My key takeaways included setting clear expectations for AI capabilities to users and designing feedback mechanisms.
05 Solution
We validated our MVP concept through comprehensive data mapping and user feedback. Below, you can follow our persona David's journey to see how this feature could streamline the booking experience!
Based in Miami, David needs to book a flight for his upcoming meeting in New York.
He wants to schedule a flight that optimize his work and personal schedule.
Book with Guidance
David logs into Alaska App and discovers the AI Assistant. Tapping on it, a drawer pops out and highlights key benefits.
A Responsible UI
The chat includes guiding prompts while reminding David that the results are experimental. Intrigued, David taps his prompt.
Connect to Calendar
As the conversation progresses, Alaska AI prompts David to connect his calendar to schedule a flight that aligns with his availability to save him time.
Share a Feedback
When David links his calendar and taps "like," the AI prompts him to provide feedback on the response. This is a key practice in responsible AI to allow David to share his experience.
Ease of Scheduling
The Assistant helps David plan his flights around his meetings, saves him the hassle of checking his availability manually.
