Philippine Airlines is the flag carrier of the Philippines. It flies approximately 15 million passengers per year.
In 2018, PAL wanted to increase their online revenue by 20%. Their digital marketing team decided that improving the website can help achieve this.
I joined the project when the research was already completed. The project team needed support to complete the interaction and visual designs. I joined as the second designer but eventually took over as the lead designer.
The heuristic evaluation identified several issues, most of which were related to website navigation and accessibility. These issues affected how customers discovered content.
We also analyzed and benchmarked PAL's sitemap against those of other airlines. By analyzing the sitemap, we learned that:
In reconstructing PAL’s information architecture, we minimized redundancies—like About Us information—in both main and footer navigations.
We finalized a sitemap that focused in providing logical and intuitive paths to accomplishing user tasks.
In some cases, finding information still takes a user deeper into the site but, now, the website is structured to make it easier to locate information from the home page.
The new main navigation focuses on providing everything that a customer might need in a more intuitive location. Travel Information is also organized in a way that makes sense to customers. The new design provides quick access to previously underexposed self-service content.
Four key customer jobs-to-be-done when the user visits the website are:
These four key customer jobs-to-be-done are now accessible from a single location which is always visible above the fold.
We split the current design’s all-the-promos-are-here section into two distinct sections, Flight Promotions and Travel Extras.
Grouping information in this manner makes it easier for customers to identify and understand it.
Flight Promotions offers an easy way to discover cheap trips.
Travel Extras include promotions for travel insurance and lounges. These provide added revenue for the airlines.
The new design puts an emphasis on purchasing extra baggage allowance, getting seat upgrades, and buying travel insurances.
At the time, these three comprised about 20% of PAL's current online revenue.
By placing these options in an area that is consistently above the fold in most devices, we hope to increase its accessibility to customers who need it.
During the study, we learned that a huge percentage of customers viewed the website using their mobile phones.
The new design makes sure that the website is accessible—and beautiful —from a mobile view.
Key actions (booking a flight, checking in, etc) are within reach of the customers thumbs and provide a quick way to complete key tasks. And below these key actions are the revenue-generating content like baggage allowance, seat upgrades, and travel insurance.
Lastly, the navigation sticks to the top to provide quick access to more travel information.
Comparing 3 months before and after the redesign (n=2.9M):
And, according to Sitecore: