Expedia Homepage Redesign
UX Director
June-Nov 2020
Expedia Homepage Redesign
UX Director
June-Nov 2020
Expedia Homepage Redesign
UX Director
June-Nov 2020
Expedia Homepage Redesign
UX Director
June-Nov 2020
Expedia Homepage Redesign
UX Director
June-Nov 2020
Accountable for the UX effort to redesign several of Expedia Group's homepages, resulting in increasing user signups by 30%. Improved visual and interaction design while strategically shifting more emphasis towards users' trips.
Accountable for the UX effort to redesign several of Expedia Group's homepages, resulting in increasing user signups by 30%. Improved visual and interaction design while strategically shifting more emphasis towards users' trips.
Accountable for the UX effort to redesign several of Expedia Group's homepages, resulting in increasing user signups by 30%. Improved visual and interaction design while strategically shifting more emphasis towards users' trips.
Accountable for the UX effort to redesign several of Expedia Group's homepages, resulting in increasing user signups by 30%. Improved visual and interaction design while strategically shifting more emphasis towards users' trips.
Accountable for the UX effort to redesign several of Expedia Group's homepages, resulting in increasing user signups by 30%. Improved visual and interaction design while strategically shifting more emphasis towards users' trips.
Role
In my role as UX Director, Expedia's Homepage UX team was one of five teams reporting up to me. This case study is a glimpse into how I lead my teams towards positive outcomes.
Expedia's homepages are the "face" of the company and a key driver for the company's revenue. They are the first thing that many of our customers go to when they think about travel.
However, the homepages were designed in a way that the company's top executives wanted to be improved on. Their most frequent comment was that there was too much white space; that there wasn't a good use of space or a strong logic to the page layout. Here's the old design that we were tasked with redesigning:
Role
In my role as UX Director, Expedia's Homepage UX team was one of five teams reporting up to me. This case study is a glimpse into how I lead my teams towards positive outcomes.
Expedia's homepages are the "face" of the company and a key driver for the company's revenue. They are the first thing that many of our customers go to when they think about travel.
The problem
The homepages were designed in a way that the company's top executives wanted to be improved on. Their most frequent comment was that there was too much white space; that there wasn't a good use of space or a strong logic to the page layout. Here's the old design that we were tasked with redesigning:
As UX director, I was brought in to lead a high-visibility and high-pressure effort to redesign the homepages for several of Expedia Group's top brands including flagship Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. A senior UX manager, four UX designers, and a content strategist executed the day to day work under my guidance. My team's starting objective: increase the design quality of Expedia's homepages while not disrupting the massive revenue they generate.
My primary role was to define the initial roadmap with product management and engineering, guide the UX team with feedback, staff the effort with the right amount of UX support, include user research properly, align the team's goals with key stakeholders, integrate the UX team efforts with those of cross-functional partners', and ensure the homepage evolved to meet our changing strategic needs. In short, to set the team up for success in this design-led effort.
User research
The UX team's cross-functional partners in product and engineering wanted to move quickly with the assumption that they didn't have the time for user research. Yet, I consulted with the Sr. Director of User Research, and it turned out that the previous homepage redesign did not properly conduct new user research, and mis-interpreted past user research. So I ensured that we followed the right product development process, from the get go, by bringing in a Lead User Researcher to conduct quick user research, to finally set us on the right path.
Design grid
One of the first things I noticed was that that there were no strong vertical lines to provide some visual continuity to the page, and that padding was not uniform amongst different content modules. So the design team created an initial grid for our homepages that worked within the existing constraints of the content. It wasn't perfect, but was a vast improvement:
As a UX director, I was brought in to lead a high-visibility and high-pressure effort to redesign the homepages for several of Expedia Group's top brands including flagship Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. A senior UX manager, four UX designers, and a content strategist executed the day to day work under my guidance. My team's starting objective: increase the design quality of Expedia's homepages while not disrupting the massive revenue they generate.
My primary role was to define the initial roadmap with product management and engineering, guide the UX team with feedback, staff the effort with the right amount of UX support, include user research properly, align the team's goals with key stakeholders, integrate the UX team efforts with those of cross-functional partners', and ensure the homepage evolved to meet our changing strategic needs. In short, to set the team up for success in this design-led effort.
User research: The UX team's cross-functional partners in product and engineering wanted to move quickly with the assumption that they didn't have the time for user research. Yet, I consulted with the Sr. Director of User Research, and it turned out that the previous homepage redesign did not properly conduct new user research, and mis-interpreted past user research. So I ensured that we followed the right product development process, from the get go, by bringing in a Lead User Researcher to conduct quick user research, to finally set us on the right path.
Design grid: One of the first things I noticed was that that there were no strong vertical lines to provide some visual continuity to the page, and that padding was not uniform amongst different content modules. So the design team created an initial grid for our homepages that worked within the existing constraints of the content. It wasn't perfect, but was a vast improvement:
As a UX director, I was brought in to lead a high-visibility and high-pressure effort to redesign the homepages for several of Expedia Group's top brands including flagship Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. A senior UX manager, four UX designers, and a content strategist executed the day to day work under my guidance. My team's starting objective: increase the design quality of Expedia's homepages while not disrupting the massive revenue they generate.
My primary role was to define the initial roadmap with product management and engineering, guide the UX team with feedback, staff the effort with the right amount of UX support, include user research properly, align the team's goals with key stakeholders, integrate the UX team efforts with those of cross-functional partners', and ensure the homepage evolved to meet our changing strategic needs. In short, to set the team up for success in this design-led effort.
User research: The UX team's cross-functional partners in product and engineering wanted to move quickly with the assumption that they didn't have the time for user research. Yet, I consulted with the Sr. Director of User Research, and it turned out that the previous homepage redesign did not properly conduct new user research, and mis-interpreted past user research. So I ensured that we followed the right product development process, from the get go, by bringing in a Lead User Researcher to conduct quick user research, to finally set us on the right path.
Design grid: One of the first things I noticed was that that there were no strong vertical lines to provide some visual continuity to the page, and that padding was not uniform amongst different content modules. So the design team created an initial grid for our homepages that worked within the existing constraints of the content. It wasn't perfect, but was a vast improvement:
As a UX director, I was brought in to lead a high-visibility and high-pressure effort to redesign the homepages for several of Expedia Group's top brands including flagship Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. A senior UX manager, four UX designers, and a content strategist executed the day to day work under my guidance. My team's starting objective: increase the design quality of Expedia's homepages while not disrupting the massive revenue they generate.
My primary role was to define the initial roadmap with product management and engineering, guide the UX team with feedback, staff the effort with the right amount of UX support, include user research properly, align the team's goals with key stakeholders, integrate the UX team efforts with those of cross-functional partners', and ensure the homepage evolved to meet our changing strategic needs. In short, to set the team up for success in this design-led effort.
User research: The UX team's cross-functional partners in product and engineering wanted to move quickly with the assumption that they didn't have the time for user research. Yet, I consulted with the Sr. Director of User Research, and it turned out that the previous homepage redesign did not properly conduct new user research, and mis-interpreted past user research. So I ensured that we followed the right product development process, from the get go, by bringing in a Lead User Researcher to conduct quick user research, to finally set us on the right path.
Design grid: One of the first things I noticed was that that there were no strong vertical lines to provide some visual continuity to the page, and that padding was not uniform amongst different content modules. So the design team created an initial grid for our homepages that worked within the existing constraints of the content. It wasn't perfect, but was a vast improvement:
As UX director, I was brought in to lead a high-visibility and high-pressure effort to redesign the homepages for several of Expedia Group's top brands including flagship Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. A senior UX manager, four UX designers, and a content strategist executed the day to day work under my guidance. My team's starting objective: increase the design quality of Expedia's homepages while not disrupting the massive revenue they generate.
My primary role was to define the initial roadmap with product management and engineering, guide the UX team with feedback, staff the effort with the right amount of UX support, include user research properly, align the team's goals with key stakeholders, integrate the UX team efforts with those of cross-functional partners', and ensure the homepage evolved to meet our changing strategic needs. In short, to set the team up for success in this design-led effort.
User research
The UX team's cross-functional partners in product and engineering wanted to move quickly with the assumption that they didn't have the time for user research. Yet, I consulted with the Sr. Director of User Research, and it turned out that the previous homepage redesign did not properly conduct new user research, and mis-interpreted past user research. So I ensured that we followed the right product development process, from the get go, by bringing in a Lead User Researcher to conduct quick user research, to finally set us on the right path.
Design grid
One of the first things I noticed was that that there were no strong vertical lines to provide some visual continuity to the page, and that padding was not uniform amongst different content modules. So the design team created an initial grid for our homepages that worked within the existing constraints of the content. It wasn't perfect, but was a vast improvement:
Story of page
The homepage has many stakeholders and competing needs, so we needed to take a content strategy approach to ensuring the homepage told a compelling story. One of our top concerns was ensuring traveler confidence and safety with regards to COVID-19, so we had to incorporate that carefully.
Our content strategist factored in the traveler goals, brand story, and user state, and came up with content concepts that could be included in the content modules:
Story of page
The homepage has many stakeholders and competing needs, so we needed to take a content strategy approach to ensuring the homepage told a compelling story. One of our top concerns was ensuring traveler confidence and safety with regards to COVID-19, so we had to incorporate that carefully.
Our content strategist factored in the traveler goals, brand story, and user state, and came up with content concepts that could be included in the content modules:
Job of page
We created many versions of what the job of the homepage would start out as being, and how it would need to evolve over time. This was key for ensuring the homepage adhered to a large number of technical constraints while it evolved to support our team's strategic goals.
Job of page
We created many versions of what the job of the homepage would start out as being, and how it would need to evolve over time. This was key for ensuring the homepage adhered to a large number of technical constraints while it evolved to support our team's strategic goals.
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.
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Visual design
The team came up with a systematized approach to visual hierarchy that was compatible with our design system.
Visual design
The team came up with a systematized approach to visual hierarchy that was compatible with our design system.
Here's what the visual design components look like all together on the page layout:
Here's what the visual design components look like all together on the page layout:
One of the most visually impactful design elements is the hero image header that is meant to evoke the excitement of travel. We considered many images so we could strike the right color and mood, in a way that felt on brand.
One of the most visually impactful design elements is the hero image header that is meant to evoke the excitement of travel. We considered many images so we could strike the right color and mood, in a way that felt on brand.
Search wizard
The search wizard is a white search module that is the key place where Expedia customers initiate their travel searches. The module started out as overly complex, so we simplified the layout in a way that considered user research inputs, internationalization constraints, and more. Our initial design had search boxes spanning two lines:
Search wizard
The search wizard is a white search module that is the key place where Expedia customers initiate their travel searches. The module started out as overly complex, so we simplified the layout in a way that considered user research inputs, internationalization constraints, and more. Our initial design had search boxes spanning two lines:
Our team was able to simplify the layout of the search boxes so that they only spanned one row. This saved precious real estate above the fold, which enabled all the content below the search wizard to be more visible on the page.
Our team was able to simplify the layout of the search boxes so that they only spanned one row. This saved precious real estate above the fold, which enabled all the content below the search wizard to be more visible on the page.
Based on a variety of tests, the team kept iterating on the search wizard layout, and the content below it. We had many late nights doing user acceptance testing (UAT) to ensure that the engineering builds matched the designs, so that our products were ready to be shipped.
The project was under a lot of executive and stakeholder scrutiny for several months straight, which caused some burnout on the team. I was able to help manage the stress levels of the team by collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders to re-calibrate expectations, and ensured 100% retention of our UX team members.
Based on a variety of tests, the team kept iterating on the search wizard layout, and the content below it. We had many late nights doing user acceptance testing (UAT) to ensure that the engineering builds matched the designs, so that our products were ready to be shipped.
The project was under a lot of executive and stakeholder scrutiny for several months straight, which caused some burnout on the team. I was able to help manage the stress levels of the team by collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders to re-calibrate expectations, and ensured 100% retention of our UX team members.
We were happy with the results our redesigned homepage achieved in our initial tests. It was a conversion winner across all the international markets we needed it to succeed in, and we felt in confident in adapting the design across more of Expedia's brands. We had to take into account the brand goals of each brand we applied the design to. Here's the design for Orbitz:
We were happy with the results our redesigned homepage achieved in our initial tests. It was a conversion winner across all the international markets we needed it to succeed in, and we felt in confident in adapting the design across more of Expedia's brands. We had to take into account the brand goals of each brand we applied the design to. Here's the design for Orbitz:
Here's what the redesign looked like for Travelocity:
Here's what the redesign looked like for Travelocity:
Executive praise
The redesign has received praise from the company's top executives. The homepage became a strategic asset that everyone felt proud to have as the "face" of the Expedia experience.
By improving the quality of the visual and interaction design, we also saw a marked increase in user signups (+30%), authenticated users (+10%), return visits (+5%), and packages conversion (+7%). This showed that we improved user engagement and retention.
Elevating the impact
During the redesign, I ensured that the team synced with other CX teams across Expedia Group, to ensure that we shared learnings and aimed for better consistency across our many homepages.
After the successful redesign, the team is using machine learning to show content based on user preferences, which has resulted in lifting the click-thru rate (CTR) on content modules across our homepages. They are also continuing to ensure key technical constraints get addressed so that they can keep improving the visual polish.
Executive praise
The redesign has received praise from the company's top executives. The homepage became a strategic asset that everyone felt proud to have as the "face" of the Expedia experience.
By improving the quality of the visual and interaction design, we also saw a marked increase in user signups (+30%), authenticated users (+10%), return visits (+5%), and packages conversion (+7%). This showed that we improved user engagement and retention.
Elevating the impact
During the redesign, I ensured that the team synced with other CX teams across Expedia Group, to ensure that we shared learnings and aimed for better consistency across our many homepages.
After the successful redesign, the team is using machine learning to show content based on user preferences, which has resulted in lifting the click-thru rate (CTR) on content modules across our homepages. They are also continuing to ensure key technical constraints get addressed so that they can keep improving the visual polish.
User Signups
User Signups
+30%
+30%
+30%
Authenticated
Authenticated
+10%
+10%
+10%
+10%
Return Visits
Return Visits
+5%
+5%
+5%
Packages CVR
Packages CVR
+7%
+7%
+7%
Module CTR
Module CTR
+2%
+2%
+2%
+2%
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