I worked on a custom content web project for the chase.com Ultimate Rewards travel portal site, in partnership with travel media site afar.com. My role was to advise AFAR and Chase on how to:
Place Chase Ultimate Rewards top-of-mind for travel planning and bookings
Integrate AFAR travel content into the chase.com Ultimate Rewards travel portal
Align with AFAR’s trusted voice and engaging content to create a valuable experience for customers
Increase efficiencies in content usage and related workflows
I created user flows, site maps, and wireframes showing possible solutions for the project’s objectives. I worked closely with teammates in the editorial and marketing teams to identify the content we would be providing to Chase, and how to best package it for their cardmembers.
I did some usability testing of the existing travel rewards portal experience, and mapped the different paths that a user could take to use rewards points to book a hotel room in New York City. The following diagram shows all the different screens, clicks, user inputs needed in order to get from the initial homepage to booking a hotel room. This gave me an idea of how many steps it would take for a Chase cardmember to book travel services, and whether there might be any opportunities to make the experience simpler and more efficient (shorter funnel).
Next step was to map out all the possible paths for a Chase cardmember to use their Ultimate Rewards points to purchase travel-related services on Chase.com. My user testing showed that that there were too many different paths to somehow end up on a page where you could book something, but not an obvious or predictable way to do this easily.
In the existing travel portal, a Chase cardmember who wanted to book a hotel room using their rewards points would have to go through a lot of steps (see flow diagram below, left) to complete the task. After analyzing each screen and interaction, and taking into account the user insights I collected, I was able to identify redundant steps and screens along the way, and came up with a slightly more efficient and shorter flow for the same use case, which would create a shorter conversion funnel. My hypothesis was that this would be less frustrating for the user, and better for the business too.
Here are some of the initial sketches for mapping the existing paths to the desired result:
I cleaned up the paper flows into the following diagram (below, left), showing the flow of a Chase user booking a hotel room in New York City. Under the existing design, a user would have to navigate through 8 different screens and complete 12 clicks to get to the hotel booking.
I identified two screens as redundant and with limited functionality that could be incorporated into other pages, then put together a proposed flow (below, right) that eliminated those two screens (and 2 clicks), in an effort to make the process a bit more simpler.
In the diagrams below, I have marked each screen with a letter, and have indicated each user action (click or text entry) with an orange rectangle.
My next step was to scrutinize each screen and suggest design, content, and functionality changes that would improve the overall experience and increase conversions. Here are a few of the changes we suggested:
Our hypothesis was that the suggested changes would provide the following solutions:
More easy-to-find trip planning tools
Easy search by interest and/or destination
Intuitive navigation without dead ends
Informative detailed place pages
Showcased timely news and events listings
More travel inspiration
Prominently placed editorial articles and slideshows
Maximized photography that captivates and inspires
Enhanced copy to engage cardmembers
More opportunities to book travel
Strategic placement of booking widgets to help Chase cardmembers book travel
Here is a pulled back overview of the key wireframes we presented to the Chase team: