When you fly with an airline, check-in can be a major step in your journey. The act of checking in provides you with your boarding pass. What you may not know is that it also triggers numerous behind-the-scenes operations for you to have a safe and smooth travel experience. The best airlines in the world make check-in seamless for guests.
At Alaska Airlines, I led the design for an overhaul of the legacy check-in system on the website. I created partnerships to overcome obstacles, and I defined a new process for holistic collaboration. This project is Part 1 of how to create a better check-in experience for airline guests.
New Check-in responsive website.
Alaska Airlines needed a new check-in solution to replace its legacy system on its website.
The business request included:
Guests may now review their info and check in with just one step to get their boarding passes.
No more traversal through six or more screens in the simplest of scenarios.
The new Check-in uses Alaska's modern brand styles from its design system. This retired the legacy system's outdated styles, ensuring that guests receive a holistic user experience across all webpages.
I partnered with a UX Researcher, who moderated interviews via UserTesting.com. I created high-fidelity prototypes, allowing users to test either the Desktop or Mobile Web experience. At the same time, I taught junior designers how to create Figma prototypes and oversaw their work.
Our new system was named "Express Check-in" to differentiate from the legacy one. The research results yielded successful outcomes. Testers encountered no problems with completing tasks all the way to the end. We made sure to include scenarios where testers entered incorrect or incomplete info, and our error messaging and alerts clearly led testers to the correct solutions.
User testing helped us discover a potentially confusing issue as well as recommend improvements to the related fee payment system.
The new Check-in system was rolled out in spring of 2023, just in time for the busy summer travel season.
We hit the sweet spot of meeting the needs of our guests, of our business, and of our engineering teams.
