Flexible Dates Search

Priceline is an online travel company best knowns for its Name Your Own Price that allows customers to bid on hotels, flights, and rental cars at a lower price.

Role

iOS Designer

UX Deliverables

User flows, Wireframes, User testing, Visual designs

Problem

After tapping on a hotel deal in Apple's built-in search system, we were not deep linking users with the Priceline app to the native details screen.

Goals

Streamline the booking experience for the existing customers by implementing the deep linking feature.
Increase the iOS hotel booking conversion.

Pain Points

Phase 1

Goals

Reduce the number of steps to book a hotel
Increase the app download rate
Edge case – users should be able to update the dates if no rooms are available

UI Components

Top navigation – Reusing the existing Check-in, Check-out, and Choose Room component because users are already familiar with the functionalities and placement, but enhanced the clarity and visual by adding the Checkin and Checkout labels along with the calendar and room icons.
Bottom navigation – I learned that the back-end couldn't get the price without knowing the dates because prices change daily based on demand. So I proposed adding a microcopy "Select dates to see prices" to show customers why they couldn't see the hotel price and needed to choose dates.

Refined Flows

Recruit Usability Test Participants

Participants Profile

I created an interactive prototype and worked with my Sr. Product Manager on a user testing plan to validate that the refined flows were intuitive. And then launch the MVP and track the performance.

Results

All test participants thought the flows were clear and straightforward
Hotel bookings started trending up after the MVP launch.

Usability Testing Learnings

Customers compared our available hotel options and prices with our competitors
These customers were price-conscious and usually had a specific destination in mind but were flexible on the dates for their next vacation

Phase 2

Because of the positive performance in the MVP launch, the product team decided to invest more effort into turning the MVP into a full feature for the hotel products.

Competitive Analysis

Only a few of our smaller competitors had this feature implemented for their iOS customers, but the customers would only see the option in the calendar picker screen.

Home Screen

Based on Google Analytics, we saw that over 80% of hotel customers check-in today and check out the next day. This UI made it easy for users to check the box and start searching for hotels immediately and choose dates later.

Listing Screen

In phase 1, we had to hide the prices on the Details screen because it required the check-in and check-out dates.

With flexible dates, picking the dates became optional on the Home Screen. But, knowing the cost of each hotel would make trip planning easier for our price-sensitive customers.

Left - Prices are up-to-date when we know the check-in and check-out dates
Right - The From prices helped to budget for the next trip

Express Deals

Customers such as business travelers prioritized quality and location for their stays. Once the deal is confirmed, the user will receive a confirmation email with the hotel name and address.

Left image – Certain information was available to users.

Right image – Dates were required to generate the information.

Name Your Own Price

Prototype

4.97% booking increase after feature launch!

$X,000,000

Takeaways

Discover opportunity – Recognizing the right technology to solve the right problem is critical to creating a better product.
Adopt early – Being an early adapter is challenging because there are many unknowns with new things, but it could be rewarding if done right.
Data-driven – Getting data is the key to solving biased feedback, proving if a design is a success or failure, and validating assumptions.

Post-launched

UI Optimizations

Delivered a consistent experience across all supported iOS devices.

Optimized spacing so that all information would be visible even on the 320 x 480 resolution.

Follow Up

I also redesigned the home screen for Flights and Rental Cars. The new designs improved the visual consistency significantly.

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