The Discover phase was focused on understanding the current landscape, user behaviors, needs, and pain points when booking flights online. This foundational research informed the direction of the design and helped ensure that user needs remained central throughout the project.

Competitive Benchmark

As part of the discovery phase for the airline booking project, I conducted a competitive benchmark analysis of four established airline websites: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Ryanair, and Vueling Airlines. The aim was to identify best practices and common usability issues in the flight booking experience. This evaluation focused on:

• Homepage design.
• Flight search and selection process.
• User input flow (e.g., passenger details).
• Booking summary.

The insights gained from this analysis informed key design decisions and helped establish a baseline for user expectations.

Online Survey

To better understand user behavior and frustrations when booking flights online, I conducted an online survey that received a total of 34 responses. After reviewing the submissions, I excluded incomplete or invalid entries to ensure data quality. This left 25 valid responses, which were used for analysis in this case study. The chart below illustrates the breakdown of total vs. analyzed responses.

Goals

• Understand how often and where users book flights.
• Identify the most valued features in booking platforms.
• Uncover pain points and reasons for booking abandonment.
• Discover unmet user needs and potential areas of innovation.

Participants

• Total responses: 25
• Demographic: Adults with varying travel frequency (from occasional to frequent flyers).
• Method: Google Forms.

Key Findings

Booking Behavior

• Most respondents book flights 2–10 times per year.
• The majority prefer booking through airline websites or aggregators like Skyscanner and Google Flights.
• Mobile websites and apps are widely used, especially on smartphones.

What Users Like

• Ease of use and navigation.
• Price visibility and comparison across airlines.
• Speed and simplicity in finding deals.

"Easy way to navigate."

"Just fast and straightforward."

Pain Points

• Too many upselling steps before payment (e.g., baggage, insurance, seat selection).
• Hidden fees or unclear costs
• Limited flexibility for multi-city or open-jaw flights.

"Too many options before payment, I just want to book."

"Hidden fees or unexpected costs made me quit."

"The process was confusing, and I didn’t trust the final price."

Booking Abandonment

• 36% of users have abandoned a booking due to website issues.
• Most common reason: lack of fee transparency.

Key User Priorities

When asked about the top 3 most important features, users selected:

• Price comparison across airlines.
• Clear and flexible date selection tools.
• Transparent fees.

Feature Opportunities

Respondents suggested features they wish were available:

• Saved personal preferences (seat, meal, passport info).
• More transparent pricing breakdowns.
• Simplified booking flows with fewer distractions.
• Auto-fill for frequent traveler details.

"Let me save all my details, and stop selling me stuff I don’t want."

"Be honest upfront with the price."

Summary

This survey provided clear direction for the next phase of the project:

• Simplify the booking flow to reduce cognitive load.