Google Flights
Adding a feature to help individuals coordinating a group trip find a common flight that meets everyones needs and preferences
Project Overview
Problem
Google Flights is one of the most popular flight search engines that is used today. At the start of this project, I set out to speak with users and delve into their firsthand experience using this platform. Through this process, I discovered that many users travel with a group and it is often times challenging to coordinate on a flight that works for all group members. The current process requires a lot of back and forth communication among group members which results in a great amount of time and effort spent searching for flights.
Solution
Implementing a Group Flight Planning feature that allows all group members to submit their flight preferences and Google Flights will take into account everyone’s answers to find the best flight for the group to take.
My Role
UX Researcher, UX/UI Designer
Project Duration
September-October 2023 (80 hours)
Tools
Figma, Zoom
RESEARCH
Survey
I first started by sending out a survey in which I received 10 responses. I wanted to gain a better understanding of Google Flights’ user patterns as well as users’ motivations and any challenges that they may experience.
What were the results?
60%
of participants opt for Google Flights because it is the most convenient flight search engine to use
Motivations
participants highlighted that Google Flights tends to show the most affordable flights and allows users to choose multiple flight destinations when planning a multi-city trip
Pain Points
a participant mentioned that when searching for flights for more than 1 person, the default always resets back to 1 traveler. Finds this unhelpful when trying to find flights for multiple people
User Interviews
Having some common themes from the survey to further explore, I recruited 4 participants to take part in my user interview. All were between the ages of 24-34 with each participant having different levels of experience using Google Flights.
“Sometimes I’ll find a great deal on a flight and send it to my friends but by the time they get back to me like the next day, the discount is no longer available and the price of the flight has raised.” - Chantle, 26
“My first place to search for flights is Google Flights. I look at the pricing on there and whatever airline has the best price I’ll then go to the airline website to actually purchase the flight.” -Valerie, 26
Affinity Mapping
An affinity map was used to better understand all the information gathered from the user interviews. A major theme that emerged was group traveling. To view the full affinity map, click here.
Competitive Analysis
During my user interviews, some participants mentioned using other flight searching sites so I decided to do a competitive analysis. I took a look at Skyscanner, Kayak and Expedia. I was able to gain valuable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each site.
DEFINE
POV and HMW
With a solid foundation built from the research that I conducted, I generated a POV statement that describes the problem/need that was uncovered. HMW questions helped guide me through the beginning process of generating ideas and solutions.
User Persona
Meet our user persona, Brooklyn. She is a seasoned traveler who goes on at least one international trip a year with friends. Her needs are to find affordable flights, be in communication with her friends when planning a trip and staying organized during the planning process.
IDEATE
Low Fidelity Sketches
I began generating multiple ideas based on my user persona’s needs and ultimately landed on the idea to create a Group Flight Planner feature. I roughly sketched out how this feature would look during each stage before moving into a mid fidelity mockup on Figma.
User Flows
The Group Flight Planner feature would need to be started by a trip leader and all the group members would join on. Since there was a difference between the role of the trip leader and group member, I created user flows to help me visualize the path that each user would take.
DESIGN
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
Referencing both the low fidelity sketches and user flows, I started digitalizing my wireframes on Figma. The main goal of the mid fidelity wireframes were to add more detail to both the trip leader and the group member screen. These mid fidelity wireframes would later be shown to users during concept testing.
Concept Testing
I conducted concept testing with 3 participants where I presented them the mid fidelity wireframes and asked them to complete 2 tasks: start a new trip on the Group Flight Planner as a trip leader and join trip on the Group Flight Planner as a group member.
What were the results?
2/3 participants were unsure of which dates to input when asked about their available dates. The wording was changed to “proposed dates” to make it clear to users that these are the dates that the trip leader is suggesting for the trip.
Participants noted that they prefer to have a visual of a calendar with the trip leader proposed dates so they can cross reference with their own schedule to see what dates they are available to travel.
2/3 participants brought to attention that there isn’t a need for the flight search filters in the results page because the group flight planner is already intended to find the best flight for all group members
3/3 participants preferred that the edit trip button be made into a secondary button which eliminates the need for the kabob icon. This takes away the need for an extra click when users want to make an edit to their flight preferences.
UI Kit
Google applications use Material Design UI so I also adopted this into my feature. By keeping the UI the same, this feature would fit into the existing Google Flights infrastructure seamlessly.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Using the UI kit, I brought the Google Flight Planner feature to life. I made sure to connect the screens to form a functioning prototype that can be shown to users during usability testing.
TEST
Usability Test
I conducted usability testing in person as well as through Zoom and Google Meet. 5 participants were given the same tasks that were asked during the concept testing. The usability test results showed that all 5 participants were able to complete the tasks that were asked of them however, there were a few factors that could be sharpened to help limit confusion and increase efficiency.
What improvements can be made?
2/5 participants noted that the visual hierarchy could be improved because the tagline text (No trips planned…yet) was bigger than the “Group Flight Planner” text. 1 participants had trouble locating the Group Flight Planner at first because he overlooked the text.
2/5 participants suggested that changing the “add flight” button to “add destination” would indicate to the user that if they are planning a multi-city trip then they can click on the button to add another travel destination.
3/5 participants skipped over the text that explained what the blue indicators meant on the calendar. 1 participant mentioned that the asterisk was misleading because no asterisk is actually found within the calendar. Suggested taking out the asterisk to limit confusion.
Final Prototype
Conducting usability testing helped me validate the efficacy of the Group Flight Planner feature. Click around the prototype below and try out the two tasks:
Go on the Group Flight Planner as a trip leader and fill it out
Open the Group Flight Planner as a group member and fill out your flight preferences
Conclusion
Previous
What’s next?
If given more time on this project, I would gather more participants to conduct usability testing and get their feedback. Perhaps there are more preferences that users would like to see being asked within the Group Flight Planner so conducting another round of testing might reveal more answers.
Personal Takeaways
I wanted to design a feature for Google Flights because I am a frequent user however, I didn’t want my own experience to drive this project. This led me to spend a good amount of time on research and speaking with users of not only Google Flights but also other flight searching sites to gain an understanding of multiple perspectives. I gathered a lot of data and used it to generate numerous ideas before finally landing on this feature that you see here.
Through the course of this project, I also learned to design within a constraint which in this case is Google Flight’s existing UI. Google uses Material Design so I had to follow these guidelines when creating my feature. I strived to make this feature fit as cohesively into the existing Google Flights site as possible.
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