Transforming Travel: Booking Engine Revamp

Synopsis

• Client faced technical limitations within an old legacy system, impacting their training process and user’s performance during phone-based sales.
• Integration of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with the legacy system API presented technical constraints, affecting the user experience.
• A user-centric design approach for a new booking engine drastically improved the user experience, allowing increased revenue opportunities.

Article

The design of a new booking engine was replete with challenges that demanded strategic navigation. The client's vision was to integrate the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with their legacy system API. This integration introduced technical constraints that significantly affected user experience, requiring deployment of innovative solutions to ensure the new booking engine provided a business-class user experience. Our primary objectives were clear: reduce training times, minimize sales call times, and enhance overall the efficiency of use.

A critical aspect of our approach was building trust with the development team, essential for seamless collaboration. This process involved bridging communication gaps and fostering a mutual understanding of both the project goals and the API constraints.

Gathering user insights was another hurdle, necessitating thoughtful engagement strategies to maximize feedback while minimizing disruption. The tight project deadlines underscored the need for prioritized, quality-focused design solutions that balanced user needs with business objectives.

Our team's approach to this challenge required a comprehensive solution strategy, close collaboration, open communication with stakeholders, creativity, and quick adaptation to proposed designs. The result was a booking engine that encapsulated every necessary feature for efficient task completion and an enhanced user experience. In its latest iteration, new features were introduced to align with evolving business goals and further improve customer experience. User feedback during various usability testing stages was overwhelmingly positive:

“This saves you a lot of time. It gives you all the information you need without having to write down numbers or compare prices.”

“Pretty straightforward. User-friendly. Everything seems to be right there. I just need to get used to it.”

The success of this new booking engine was a testament to our team's technical expertise, adaptability, effective stakeholder engagement, and meticulous time management in every sprint.

Key achievements include:

• Transition of 40 internal beta users to the new booking engine, replacing the legacy system.
• Upcoming release to international internal and external users.
• High average satisfaction, efficiency, and ease of use ratings in usability tests.
• A tailored framework of user-centered metrics to evaluate the quality and ROI of the user experience.
• Notable reductions in training times and increased performance in sales calling times.

This project exemplifies BP3's commitment to driving innovation, showcasing our ability to turn complex challenges into efficient, user-centric solutions.