The user experience (UX) plays a crucial role in travel search. How do hard data, commercial reality and an analytical approach inform (and become informed by) what matters to users - namely, having a ‘human’ experience in a digital environment?
NB This a viewpoint by Robert Kemp, chief technology officer for Momondo Group.
UX is, and has been for some time, central to not only our growth strategy but also the success of both the momondo and Cheapflights brands.
Give first-time users a lacklustre experience and chances are they won’t become a loyal, long-term repeat customer. Fail to inspire them, and they won’t recommend you to their friends.
For our business, UX is everything and our growth and product strategies are intrinsically linked.
In the years since we flipped and expanded our activities from pure deals publishing to the metasearch model, much of our product and business strategy has naturally evolved too. We are firmly grounded by three core anchors: delighting users (our primary company goal is building products users love); delivering them long-term value; and challenging the status quo.
With that in mind you can see how critical a world-class UX is to our brand.
As travel metasearch evolves and matures, personalisation is taking a central role, making optimal UX and personalisation increasingly intertwined.
Striking the right balance
Not everything in our metasearch UX and personalisation strategy is quite so symbiotic, however. Two related factors that do not always coexist comfortably are the commercial imperatives - driven by the bottom line and shareholders - and the maintenance of our brand values which put UX above all else.
We negotiate this healthy tension frequently, but maintain a longer-term perspective. For us UX, and the overall lifetime value proposition to the user, come before any short-term revenue stream temptations.
Our group model reinforces this — cost per acquisition rather than cost per click means that we must ensure our UX is as personalised as possible so that the intent of the user when they click is to act and not just to browse; it focuses us on anticipating and fulfilling their needs with timely, relevant and engaging interactions.
If we do that well, then we’re doing everything we can to persuade users to want to return to us – and our repeat user rate of more than 60% confirm the success of this approach. The value in the ‘human touch’ approach is that it maintains user focus and engagement during a single visit while encouraging loyalty over a longer period.
It might not be such a surprise, then, to learn that repeat usage is the most important indicator of success that we track. This approach is not without its day-to-day challenges however—when our commercial teams are pushing hard for revenues, it is my job to make sure the UX balance is maintained and that we find a common ground—but the results speak for themselves.
Behind the scenes
Our move to a human-focused metasearch model required us to create a seamless, inspiring and consistent UX across all platforms, while preserving the brand loyalty and trust that both momondo and Cheapflights had built up over the years.
A series of technology-led initiatives allowed us to address both challenges across all our brands: from our data team which has a tireless focus on the most accurate prices into momondo’s flight insights and fare alert products, to creative approaches that drive emotional engagement such as the ‘mood wheel’, where users can search for a city break depending on how they are feeling: romantic, social, cultural, etc.
Looking at Cheapflights, last year, we launched opt-in tailored personalised push notifications, and more recently, we introduced a Facebook Messenger chatbot within the Cheapflights feed, designed to further engender user engagement, while incorporating elements of inspiration such as weather data. This took search into an ecosystem our users tell us they’re happiest in, and which feels more ‘natural’ to them.
We’ve also been careful in considering how imagery and colour can bring an emotional power to data, and wherever it is appropriate to do so, put it front and centre in our UX to make the experience of the search a careful blend of style and substance.
There’s no reason why travel search can’t be pleasurable.
Another example of how we’ve adapted our technology to fit our users needs and preferences is the introduction of emoji to our mobile search capability—users can select from a range of destination-specific emoji figures instead of typing.
It’s an example of how we’re looking at how our users like to communicate, what feels ‘normal’ to them, and winning their loyalty by reflecting that in our product.
Mobile remains a crucial growth platform for us (nearly two-thirds of traffic to Cheapflights came from mobile devices by mid-2016), but it is all about maintaining the brand conversation with our customers in platform-relevant ways, so they feel comfortable. They can feel the human element in the design – it’s not all just mechanical sliders and sort tools.
Data-driven but human-focused
A great UX is underpinned by solid fundamentals. For us that means ensuring that the prices are accurate and the inventory is relevant, to ensure users get a consistent and positive experience across all group assets. The large volumes of data we generate every day interface with and power various commercial and web analytics. We also use this data to feed our continual product analysis and development process—identifying trends and patterns to inform possible improvements, then verifying them via multi-variant testing to ensure they function properly.
This is critical in safeguarding the future of our UX: we will only release products that we know work, and we will never stop working to create products that our users love.
We’re committed to making travel search inspirational, combining a human touch with data to deepen customer loyalty. The cornerstone of this approach remains the UX, and it supports any related personalisation initiatives that we already undertake as well as those we create in the future.
We’ve come a long way from just being the place you find the cheapest flight from A to B, where the ultimate commodity – price – is the driving relationship determinant, although I know some travellers will always see metas in this way.
We believe that an inspiring, seamless and relevant UX is the most powerful way to convey a human touch, and so establish the foundation of a deeper, more emotional, as well as ‘functionally’ frictionless, relationship with our users.
This is a journey, for us and our industry, so we love feedback, discussion and engagement: please do get involved in the comments below.
NB This a viewpoint by Robert Kemp, chief technology officer for Momondo Group. It appears here as part of Tnooz's sponsored content initiative.
Other articles in the series:
Personalisation in travel search: inspiration, the momondo way (Feb17)Personalised inspiration: empowering ultimate travel search (Jan17)
See also:Momondo Group – the role of personalisation in travel search (Nov16)