Dalí
How we helped a luxury travel agency provide travellers the best experience for their trips
A personalized micro-site for each client, with detailed information to help them view and make changes before, during, and after their trips, all with a friendly interface to help the decision-making process, while reducing the burden on travel agents.
The challenge
When booking a trip, many people will go to a travel agency in person. With the assistance of an agent, they will build the trip of their dreams.
It usually means the traveler has to go to the agency many times during the different phases to view the proposal, make adjustments to the itinerary, and pay.
That also puts a burden on travel agents, who have to work hard and dedicate a lot of time to meeting and talking with potential clients – and only a percentage of them close the deal.
Since Dali Travel offers luxury experience travels, they wanted to offer a better service for their clients, so they looked for me to help.
The solution
We created a personalized micro-site for each client, for each trip.
There, the user would have the ability to view the itinerary and hotel room photos, make changes autonomously, mix & match items like rooms and flight tickets and see maps, vouchers, make and manage reservations, and more, all with a friendly interface to help the decision making process.
From the travel agency perspective, it would allow agents to auto-generate proposals pulling information from data sources. It also allowed them to create templates that could be replicated for different users, while allowing them to be easily customized. It also brought the opportunity for the agency to partner with restaurants, car rental companies and hotels.
The process
User journeys, flows, and storyboards
We interviewed end users and travel agents and designed Journey Maps for the different users to try to capture their experience during the interaction with the system.
We also created storyboards to understand and visualize the actions of users during the time they would be using the tool.
The creation of such maps gave us a lot of clarity and, alongside the interviews, a starting point for prioritizing features and creating a product roadmap.
Prioritization and road map
We interviewed end users and travel agents, and designed Journey Maps for the different users to try to capture their experience during the interaction with the system.
We also created storyboards to understand and visualize the actions of users during the time they would be using the tool.
The creation of such maps gave us a lot of clarity and, alongside the interviews, a starting point for prioritizing features and creating a product roadmap
Wireframing
After ideating, prioritizing, and creating the list of requirements and before jumping into high-fidelity designs, we started by creating wireframes.
During that phase, we made sure that every single requirement was captured by the mockups. They were then presented to users and developers, and adjustments were made to match what the developers were able to build, and what the users were expecting to see.
Development handoff
We created a clickable prototype on InVision, but also a comprehensive document covering all interactions. This document was a PDF with 30+ pages making it clear to the development team how the tool should behave, look and feel. This document was instrumental in reducing the amount of rework and going back and forth between team members.
This is an important part of the process, alongside the specs file, which was also created and provided to the team, which contained the pixel-perfect specifications of the screens.
Results and conclusion
The product provides a unique and streamlined experience for travelers. The personalized recommendations and user-friendly interface make it easy for users to plan their trips.
Dali Travel’s emphasis on customer satisfaction and innovative features set it apart from traditional travel planning tools, that caters to the modern traveler’s needs and preferences.