DISCOVERY - REASEARCH - UX/UI - PROTOTYPING

BRITISH AIRWAYS

British Airways is going through a digital transformation across all digital touch points. They are moving away from projects and transitioning to product streams. The current online proposition is cobbled together to support business requirements with legacy systems that need to interact with one another.

This has built up huge technical debt over time and an inconsistent user experience. As a result, the site lacks coherence: different sections have their own look and feel and unique set of features.

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WHAT I DID

To bridge the gap in design and development we worked alongside a digital agency to revisit the entire system using a new design language. The goal was to move away from thinking in terms of “pages” but rather customer needs and journeys.

My task was to set up the Loyalty product stream and give it direction using the new design language. I worked on the discovery phase to understand how the Executive Club was performing and could be improved.

I uncovered the biggest themes that caused friction for users and I created a phased approach to improve the onboarding experience all the way to account management.

PLAN OF ATTACK

  • Create a testing group
  • Interview users / senior stakeholders
  • Identify themes for improvement
  • Focus on 5 most critical pages
  • User journeys and goals
  • IA of navigation
  • UX Heart framework/metrics
  • New Executive Club Onboarding
  • New Account dashboard
  • Design concepts
  • Create clickable prototype for testing
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WHAT IS LOYALTY?

Restructuring the loyalty proposition is a significant project that spans across all the product streams. Loyalty is the connection users have with BA products and how it makes them feel. It is the outcome of a product - not a feature set or navigation pattern. To put it simply, customer loyalty is both an attitude and behaviour. Users perceive the brand to be familiar, dependable with consistently good experiences and easy to buy. The brand has become a comfortable habit and there is no reason to change.

Customer experience should be equally pleasant, fun and personal; both in-flight and online. Making sure customers enjoy a special curated journey, personal to them, will help build deeper connections that lead to gaining their loyalty. A good loyalty scheme provides real value to customers.

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VISION

“Loyalty is weaved throughout all BA.com and our 5 product streams.

We reward our customers for choosing us and our partners by making curated experiences that make spending and collecting Avios easy and fun.”

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RESULTS

Loyalty is not a simple concept; it has levels. It depends on delivering on the brand promise without frustration or disappointment.

I focused on experiences, engagement and convenience.

Even for complex products or in high-tech settings, it is not just about strategy and innovation; it is about execution, consistently satisfying customers.

We can also engender loyalty by rewarding behaviours beyond purchase. These behaviours include brand advocacy, friend referrals, social media shares and many more. Younger audiences are drawn in with smaller rewards and instant gratification. Over 65% of Executive Club members have less than 5000 Avios. It is imperative to consider softer benefits like lounge passes, Wi-Fi and priority boarding to help them unlock bigger rewards and adopt the loyalty program.

After taking apart the Executive Club and re-thinking the customer experience from the ground up, I was able to come up with a new concept that explains the loyalty proposition clearly and the value it creates for BA's customers. The new concept makes it easier to spend and collect points on experiences customers actually want. Account management and anything else that detracted from getting a user to their dream destination are secondary.

A new Executive Club is coming. Stay tuned.

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