PROJECT:How can brands utilize digital user experiences to creatively engage with their customers and drive sales?

A practical consultation project that focuses on new digital strategies being employed by the travel brand “lastminute.com”.

Huy Le (Harry) u1470783 Digital Media MAFinal Major Project

“Everything starts with the customer”– Louis XIV –

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements 1

Part A: The Research 21. The scale and scope of the project 2

2. The methodologies 2

3. User experience design; Inspiration and reading 4

4. Background research: What’s happening now in the travel booking industry

and why I chose this industry for my project?

5. Take away insights 12

6. But why Lastminute.com? 13

7. Current and past campaigns developed by Lastminute.com 16

8. Inspiration from the rising star Airbnb, one of Lastminute.com’s competitors 19

9. What I learnt from Lastminute.com’s current campaigns as well as Airbnb’s 20

10. The Big Idea 21

11. How does Make It Count work? 22

12. Similar campaigns 23

Part B: The Development 25

1. Persona 26

2. Storyboards 30

3. Task Flow 34

4. Wireframe 35

5. Visual design 45

6. Second review 49

7. Rapid Prototyping 55

8. User Testing 57

9. User feedback and how I solved the errors 59

Part C: Final Design 66

Part D: Campaign Extension 77

Part E: References 79

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The MA course is a long journey but finally it has come to an end. Looking back, I realise that the journey has been fulfilled with a lot of joys and happiness but also stress and even panic, occasionally. However, at the end they all have become valuable experiences that I had the opportunities to go through.

I would like to say thanks to my supervisor Anneke Pettican for all the excellent guidance, knowledge and support she has given me during the MA course and especially during the time I did my final major project. I would also like to thank Dr Rowan Bailey for her help, caring and all the wonderful support she has provided me and other MA students.

I would like to thank Stephen Hibbert and Matthew Pack, those who have given me so many valuable advices and recommendations for my project. Especially, the User Experience handbook which Stephen introduced to me has contributed a lot to my project development.

I also would like to thank all of my classmates in the Arts and Design MA courses for all your help and support, especially for those who were willing to participate in my interviews and user testing for my primary research. I will always remember and treasure all the memories that we’ve shared and all the fun we’ve had in the last twelve months.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my beloved family and all other friends in Huddersfield for supporting me spiritually throughout working on this project and my life in general.

I would never have been able to finish my MA journey without all your support.

Huddersfield, 29th Aug 2015

1. THE SCALE AND SCOPE OF THE PROJECT:

• I undertook this project mainly under the role of a digital strategist and UX designer/researcher. However, as the project required, there were some visual design tasks in relation to UI/UX design that needed to be done throughout the project. Although I tried my best to do the graphic design and motion graphic design tasks, I still had to acknowledge that these tasks could be done better by a specialised visual designer and animator.

• The project looks at the online travel agency industry as a whole, but in particular looking at lastminute.com as the main case study. The reason why I chose lastminute.com will be explained in the next session. (p.13)

• The project looks at the current marketing strategies of lastminute.com and uses research findings to develop a new digital campaign to help lastminute.com engage with their customers in the digital space as well as strengthen the core strategies that the company is executing at the moment.

• Also in the project, I look exclusively at mobile platforms and best practice in user experience. More details on why I chose the mobile platform will be explained in the next session. (p.12)

2. THE METHODOLOGIES:

I used different methodologies to conduct the research including:

1. For primary research:

• Interview: I conducted in-depth interviews with 4 people with questions about their awareness with lastminutes.com as well as their holiday booking behaviours. The purpose was to find out insights from real customers and define the challenges as well as opportunities. I also documented the interviews in a short documentary video clip.

PROJECT TITLE:

How can brands utilize digital user experiences to creatively engage with their customers and drive sales?

A practical consultation project that focuses on new digital strategies being employed by the travel brand “lastminute.com”.

PART A. THE RESEARCH

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• Persona: Based on the results from the interviews as well as looking at Lastminute.com’s current marketing strategies, I developed the personas of different target user groups and drafted out their daily routines to show how they would interact with the product/brand in their daily life.

• Scenario Based Methodology for User Testing: The outcome of the project (which was an mobile app in this case) was tested on real users on many different rounds to find out how users actually used the product. A questionnaire was used in conjunction with the testing process. More information about this methodology will be explained in the user testing session. (p.57)

• I also attempted to contact the marketing department as well as key management at lastminute.com to ask for an interview. I emailed them as well as tried to contact them directly via Linkedin but unfortunately I achieved no success in getting in touch with them. However this research process still helped me to understand more about the brand. It also helped me to know about the key management behind lastminute.com and acquire their strategic quotes from various interview articles.

2. For secondary research:

• Internet research: I used MINTEL Reports to find out statistics and analyses of the holiday booking industry as well as how lastminute.com performed in the market. Especially I found some valuable academic articles about the trend of using different technologies such as smartphones and tablets to book holidays online.

• I also used “blog analysis” and online newspaper articles to look at the business strategies being employed at lastminute.com as well as its direct and non-direct competitors in the market.

3. USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN; INSPIRATION AND READING

Here is the list of books and other resources that I’ve read recently in relation to the topic of user experience design (UXD). These resources provided me with lots of knowledge as well as handy and useful tips in the field of UXD which I used to apply on this project.

MOBILE APP UX PRINCIPLES

Written By: Stephen Griffiths Published: April 2015

This is a complete report written by

designer Stephen Griffiths at Google about user experience design for

mobile applications on IOS and Android.

This is a complete handbook about UXD, produced by the renowned

global digital agency: ustwo.

(A big thanks to Stephen who introduced me to this awesome book)

PIXEL PERFECT PRECISION

Version 3, 2014

65(Apart from the above books and experts’ websites, I also read a long list of other online articles about UX from awwwards.com, UXbooth, Smashingmagazine,..... I will reference them in the research and development sessions where appropriate)

Simon Pan is a new rock star in the UI/UX design community. He’s currently working with Uber in San

Francisco and previously worked with Amazon Music and various agencies in London and Sydney.

His portfolio website contains a few examples of his amazing works as well as his working development

process behind each project. His amazing talent has inspired and given me lots of insightful experience.

SIMONPAN.COM

Meng To is the author of the famous Design+Code book. He is probably the most well-known self-taught

UX designer in the world with so much experience in UI/UX design and mobile app development. He is often

known for the effort to bridge the gap between design and code for designers and developers. His website

provides lots of insightful tips and experience throughout his career that I find very useful for my project.

MENGTO.COM

THE DESIGN OF EVERYDAY THINGS

A Book by Don NormanPublished in 2013 by MIT Press

“Fully revised to keep the timeless principles of psychology up to date with ever-changing new technologies, The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful appeal for good design, and a reminder of how -- and why -- some products satisfy while

others only disappoint.” - The MIT Press

While this book is not written exclusively for the digital UX design, it is still one of the most popular books that every UX designer should read. For this particular project,

although I didn’t refer my research and development directly to this book, it still helped to give me inspiration and knowledge about cognitive science in relation

to user experience design.

4. BACKGROUND RESEARCH: WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW IN THE TRAVEL BOOKING INDUSTRY AND WHY I CHOSE THIS INDUSTRY FOR MY PROJECT?

1. How people are booking their holidays now?

MINTEL conducted a research in Nov 2013 to find out how holiday rental property was booked. The research was based on 786 Internet users aged 16+ who have stayed in holiday rental property in the past three years.

The pie chart shows that almost half of the bookings were made via some form of intermediary travel company. This could be high street agents, specialist rental club (such as Airbnb) or OTA (Online Travel Agency)

Among them, I noticed that about 12% of the bookings are made via OTA (such as lastminute.com)

(Data retrieved from the report: Holiday Rental Property - UK (MINTEL 2014))

Also, according to another MINTEL Report: The changing face of Technology in Travel and Tourism, published in August 2014, there was a steady rise in the number of people booking their holidays online in the UK from 2008 to 2012. (See table 1)

FIGURE 1: How last holiday rental property was booked, Nov 2013.

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TABLE 1: Online travel and holiday accommodation purchased in the EU (%), 2008 and 2012

The percentage of people purchased online travel and holiday accommodation in the UK increased by 45.7% from 2008 to 2012.

STATISTIC

2. Attitudes towards holiday planning and booking

TABLE 2: Attitudes towards holiday planning and booking, September 2013Data retrieved from the report Holiday Planning and Booking Process - UK, produced by MINTEL (2013)

“Mintel’s attitudinal research demonstrates

a powerful spirit of self-sufficiency

and adventure among overseas

holidaymakers, tinged with a sense of

restlessness: 68% of travellers agree with that ‘it would be great to go somewhere new for a change’, and 63% think ‘it is

exciting to research and plan a holiday’.”

3. Booking lead time

4. Influencers on hotel choice

Data retrieved from the report “Hotel - UK” produced by MINTEL (2014)

Data were based on 1,024 Internet users aged 16+ who booked their last hotel stay. During the research, respondents were asked: “Thinking about your last hotel stay, how far in advance of checking in did you book the room?”

“MINTEL finds that a quarter of guests booked their last stay in the UK less than a week before check-in. Under-25s are the most likely to have booked less than a week in advance” (MINTEL, 2014)

FIGURE 2: Booking lead time, August 2014

FIGURE 3: Influencers on hotel choice, August 2014

Price and location are seen to have the most influence on hotel choices by a significant margin.

MINTEL (2014)

MINTEL (2013)

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5. What devices people use to book their holidays now?

I was also curious about what device people usually use to book their holidays and accommodation online. In the Chapter: The Consumer - Research and booking methods from the same research article “Hotel - UK”, MINTEL (2014) have provided their research findings about this topic.

The results were described in Figure 4: Device used for research, August 2014. The research was conducted based on 1,097 Internet users aged 16+ who have stayed at hotels in the last 12 months. The question used to ask the respondents was “Which of the following, if any, did you use to research your last hotel stay?”

FIGURE 4: Device used for research, August 2014

• Laptop and desktop computers remain the most popular devices used to research hotels, but the use of mobile devices for research is growing. MINTEL find that 28% of smartphone or tablet owners used a mobile device to research their last hotel stay and also data from comScore MobiLens show that the use of travel apps and websites is growing. The number of unique visitors to travel websites through smartphones increased 28.5% between May 2013 and May 2014, and the use of travel apps on smartphones increased 24.5% over the same period.

• Under-35s, ABs (higher & intermediate managerial, administrative, professional occupations) and urbanites are the most likely to have used a mobile device for research and this is characteristic of the typically more tech savvy demographics.

FIGURE 5: Device used for online booking, August 2014

When it comes to booking, the report from MINTEL finds out that while laptop and desktop computers remain the favoured devices used for online hotel bookings, the share of mobile as a retail channel has increased to 19%. (Figure 5)

This is supported by data from comScore MobiLens that show the number of people who have purchased a hotel product using their smartphone increased 20.6% between May 2013 and May 2014, from 486,000 to 586,000.

52%

28%

19%

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WHAT’S INTERESTING?

Lastminute.com reported in April 2013 that half of its mobile bookings were on the same day as travel.

WHAT’S INTERESTING?

In terms of mobile booking behaviour, the research from MINTEL suggests some interesting insights about how customers actually book holidays on their smartphones or tablets:

• Impulsiveness is a key driver behind mobile sales, as holidaymakers who booked at a late notice are significantly more likely to have booked using a mobile device. Some 39% of people who booked less than one week in advance and 35% of people who booked one to two weeks in advance used a mobile device. This compares to a 21% average.

• Lastminute.com reported in April 2013 that half of its mobile bookings were on the same day as travel.

• Hotels.com announced that 60% of its mobile bookings during the first half of 2013 were made for same-day check-in.

Impulsiveness is a key driver behind mobile sales.

5. TAKE AWAY INSIGHTS:

After looking at the statistics and research findings given by MINTEL Reports, I start to connect the dots and group them into different strategic insights, which I think they have opportunities and potentials to trigger some creative ideas.

People now prefer booking their holidays online so the digital space is an opportunity for brands to engage with their customers and drive more sales. A friendly and engaging user experience for online booking process is essential to take advantage of this trend.

More people are familiar with booking holidays on mobile devices and the percentage of people using this method to book their holidays is increasing quickly. This opens a new opportunity but also a challenge for brands to connect with their customers from anywhere at anytime.

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5

3 4

Price and location are two most important factors that have influence on hotel choices. As a company that provides cheap price travel accommodation deals, lastminute.com should promote these two as main benefits that the company has to offer in any of their promotional campaigns.

One of the main reasons why I chose this industry for my final project was because I could see the existing challenges and opportunities in the market. The second reason was because I am myself a travel enthusiast so I can bring my personal experience as well as my passion to the project.

There are many opportunities to create flash sales right at the “point of research” on mobile platform. This is due to the “Impulsiveness” factor because people tend to book their holidays at a late notice when they research their holidays on a smartphone or tablet.

Young people under 25 years old tend to plan short before their travels. That’s the reason why this age group could become the main target for lastminute.com since their behaviours match the “spontaneous booking” strategy being employed by the company. (I will look more closely into this strategy in the next session (p.13))

MINTEL (2014)

MINTEL (2014)

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3. Interviews

I also conducted in-depth interviews with 4 people from 20 to 30 years old range. Two respondents were British, one was from another European country (Italy) and the last one was from Africa (Nigeria) but has been living in the UK for a few years. I chose these respondents because in one hand, they were in the target market of lastminute.com but on the other hand, a variety of demographic profiles would allow me to discover different opinions from different perspectives about the brand.

Here is the list of questions I asked respondents. These questions served as a guide to get people talking but I also encouraged them to be open and express their opinions freely without restricting to answer only these questions in the questionnaire.

6. BUT WHY LASTMINUTE.COM?

1. Background information:

Lastminute.com was founded by Lady Lane-Fox and Brent Hoberman in 1998 and was a part of the UK Internet boom of the late 1990s, part of the dot com bubble.

According to the MINTEL (2013), the website offers flights, hotel rooms, package holidays and car hire in the travel sector, as well as entertainment tickets, restaurant bookings and experiences. Founded in 1998, the company was acquired by online travel company Travelocity, part of Sabre Holdings, in 2005. The company claims to receive over 1.65 million visitors per week with a holiday being booked on the site every 15 minutes.

2. Past and current strategies

• In a review article on The Drum Marketing Magazine, Davies (2013) reported that Lastminute.com is aiming to capitalise on today’s “culture of immediacy” by centring its brand message around spontaneous bookings.

• In 2009, lastminute.com was among the first online players to offer limited inventory ‘flash’ sales which it branded ‘WIGIGs’ (When It’s Gone It’s Gone) (Cole, 2009). During this period the company also divested itself of its travel agent ‘bed booking bank’ for hotels, MedHotels, which it sold to Thomas Cook for an undisclosed sum.

• According to Sarah Bartlett (2013), chief marketing officer of lastminute.com, the company also focuses more on mobile online booking because “Trends have shown that people are increasingly booking in very last-minute windows with mobile devices bolstering this trend further”

"People don’t plan ahead and technology allows them to be more spontaneous. There is this ‘culture of nowism’ in which people want immediate gratification. It's about getting the most out of your time and that is what this campaign is aimed at."

Sarah Bartlett (2013)

Lastminute.com chief marketing officer

1. What does “spontaneous” mean to you? Are you a spontaneous person?

2. Are you spontaneous when you travel?

3. Describe one of your spontaneous moments?

4. Do you book your holidays in advance? How early do you usually book them before travelling?

5. How do you usually book your holidays?

6. What motivates you to go travel and what factor that influences you to make decisions about where to go for your holidays?

7. Have you ever heard of lastminute.com and if yes, what do you think about this brand?

9. If you found a very good holiday deal but hadn’t planned to go travelling, would you still be enticed by the offer?

Brad Brown

Jibike Adekunle

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4. So why I chose lastminute.com?

• Looking at my in-depth interviews as well as other researches, I notice that lastminute.com is not a brand that’s on top of customers’ minds when they want to travel despite the fact that many people want to do more spontaneous travelling. Some people have heard about the brand, but sill Lastminute.com is not their first choice when they think about an online travel agent. This is not right since Lastminute.com has a lot of benefits to offer their customers, from good price tags to a huge range of available deals. This is a problem but at the same time an opportunity for me to be creative and do something different to change the situation.

• Lastminute.com currently focuses on its “spontaneous booking” strategy, which totally matches the insights I found out about mobile online booking behaviours. This will create an opportunity for me to apply innovative idea and digital user experience to connect the dots and strengthen the company’s philosophy of offering last minute deals in the digital space.

7. CURRENT AND PAST DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS DEVELOPED BY LASTMINUTE.COM

1. Inspired Me Campaign

INSPIRED ME CAMPAIGN

Inspired Me is a campaign from lastminute.com that features different travel destinations. This includes several sub campaigns such as: 100 Things in London, 100 Things in Edinburgh, Weekends Breaks in the UK...etc

For example, the sub campaign 100 Things in London, intended to provide visitors to its website with an insight into parts of London that only locals and experienced travellers will have discovered.

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2. lastminute.com Spontaneity Champion

SPONTANEITY CHAMPION

Spontaneity Champion is a web-based competition from lastminute.com to find out their king/queen of spontaneity. The campaign was run in 2014 and achieved massive success.

Everyone could submit their 60-second video to explaining why they are the ideal “Spontaneity Champion”. Then the public voted to choose the 10 semi-finalists.

Ten semi-finalists will then be shortlisted by lastminute.com and then given a spontaneous challenge to complete within 48 hours. The results of this will then be voted on by the public. The final three will then face one last test, before the winner is selected by the lastminute.com panel of experts and author and TV presenter, Simon Reeve, one of the world’s most adventurous travellers.

The winner of the competition was Jamie Bezencenet and he received £50,000 worth of travel and experiences provided by lastminute.com.

2. Secret Hotel Deals

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SECRET HOTEL DEALS

Secret Hotel Deals is an interesting feature on lastminute.com website that allows customers to get a specified 4* or 5* hotel for a very good rate except they only know where they’ve booked until it’s been confirmed. This option encourages customers to do more spontaneous bookings and provide benefits for both customers and lastminute.com.

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8. INSPIRATION FROM THE RISING STAR AIRBNB, ONE OF LASTMINUTE.COM’S INDIRECT COMPETITORS

Airbnb is a young company but it is becoming one of the most popular specialist accommodation rental clubs worldwide. One of the key factors that make Airbnb successful is its excellent user experience and creativity in the digital world. Here are some of their recent digital campaigns that gave me inspiration:

Airbnb Neighbourhoods

Airbnb Neighbourhoods went live in late 2012

with the promise of delivering high-quality

content coupled with advice from hosts. The

seven-city collection has since expanded to

encompass neighbourhoods in almost two

dozen locales around the world.

Airbnb used local professional photographers

to capture a neighbourhood’s vibe in a

simple but user-friendly microsite.

Belong Anywhere - Wall and Chain Story

Wall and Chain recounts the story of an

Airbnb guest who travelled to Berlin for the

first time since working as a guard during the

Cold War.

The nicely-craft short film used beautiful

storytelling to express the Airbnb’s mantra

”Belong Anywhere”. The whole campaign

has further established Airbnb as a symbol

for life-alerting travel experiences, and

heightened the brand’s relevance.

Create Airbnb

Users can visit Create Airbnb to customize

the symbol by manipulating its colour and

shape, adding icons, and weaving patterns

into the Airbnb’s iconic logo.

This campaign is an excellent example of

how Airbnb interacts with their customers

and create a friendly user experience in the

digital space.

9. WHAT I LEARNT FROM LASTMINUTE.COM’S CURRENT CAMPAIGNS AS WELL AS AIRBNB’S

Based on the research about Lastminute.com’s current and past campaigns as well as looking at some successful campaigns from Airbnb, I found out a few insights:

Lastminute.com at the moment does not yet take full advantage of mobile platform to strengthen its “spontaneous booking” strategy. Most of the campaigns at the moment are executed on their main website and microsites but seem likes the brand still ignores the potential of mobile platform. Lastminute.com also has its own mobile app, but it only takes the role of a simple mobile version of its main website to help customers research, book and manage their bookings.

The successful campaigns from Airbnb have proven that a combination between creativity and good user experience will be a key factor to draw more users to connect and engage with the brands. A good use of storytelling and stunning photography is also important and it can make a very strong influence on the whole user experience.

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“Make It Count” is a mobile application that offers random good travel/holiday/entertainment deals for users. The special thing about this app is the deals only last for a short amount of time and users have to decide whether to accept the offers or leave them. If they skip the offers or run out of time, the deals will be gone forever. This will encourage people to live a spontaneous life and reinforce lastminute.com’s philosophy.

10. THE BIG IDEA

After brainstorming and taking into account all the research findings I’ve mentioned in the previous sessions, I came up with a mobile app idea that can help lastminute.com to connect with their customers in a creative and innovative way. The new mobile app will help to bridge the gap between the benefits lastminute.com has to offer its customers and the desire to do spontaneous travelling of many potential customers out there.

INTRODUCING “MAKE IT COUNT”

Make It Count does not attempt to replace the current lastminute.com mobile app but rather be a stand alone app in a separate campaign to help lastminute.com create a buzz in brand awareness and finally drive more quick sales in a short amount of time.

Make It Count app and the whole promotional campaign are expected to run only for 3 months or until lastminute.com decides to stop it.

11. HOW DOES “MAKE IT COUNT” WORK?

• Make It Count is a mobile app from Lastminute.com that allows users to register and receive random deals at very cheap prices that are generated by the app. The majority of the deals are last minute offers. The deals could be anything from a holiday trip to Europe to small things like theatre tickets.

• Users can pre-register by entering their preferences to help the app to find deals closer to what they want. However due to the limited offers available on the system, one user or one device is allowed to receive only 3 offers per day. This strategic rule also helps to create the excitement for users and encourage them to come back to use the app everyday.

• The deal being offered by Make It Count only lasts for a very short amount of time. Depending on the value of the deal, the allowed time remaining for users to choose whether to accept or decline the offer will differ. For small deals that value less than £10, users have less than 2 minutes to decide. For more expensive deal at higher value such as £100, users will have 10 minutes to think about it. The exact time remaining is calculated and decided by the app itself and within this project I am not going to go into details about how it calculates the time. The main idea of this countdown time is to create impulsive behaviours and finally lead to panic buying from lastminute.com’s customers.

• In order to minimise the risk for customers and in the context of this project, I will limit the maximum price-to-pay value of the deals to less than £500. Also the probability for users to receive high valued deals is a lot less than small valued deals.

• If users accept the deal within the timeframe, they will have to pay for it straight away. The money they pay is not refundable.

• If they decline the offers, skip it or run out of time, the deals will never come back.

Time (mins) 2 5 10 15 30 60

Offer value (Price to pay) £10 £50 £100 £150 £300 £500

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12. SIMILAR CAMPAIGNS=

In this session I will look at several campaigns that share the same characteristics and ideas with Make It Count

1. Shake and Win - Hungry Jack Australia

Hungry Jack Shake and Win mobile app is a creative campaign

made by the digital agency Clemenger BBDO Sydney for

Hungry Jack fastfood Australia. The app allows users to check

in at the nearest Hungry Jack restaurant and then shake their

phones to win free prizes. Then they have to bring their phone to

that store to claim the prizes before they expire. This campaign

has achieved a massive success in Australia.

Although the concept of this campaign is different from Make

It Count, I still think they both share some characteristics in

strategic thinking. Shake and Win is a good example of an

innovative idea using mobile platform to help the brand

connect with their customers and offer them benefits. This is also

a good example for me to look at how the app is designed in

terms of mobile user experience.

Amazon Lighting Deals work on the same idea with Make with Count. Although this is web-based campaign, I also learn a lot about

how a big company like Amazon executes and designs this campaign on their website.

1. Lighting Deals - Amazon

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PART B. THE DEVELOPMENTHaving done the initial research stage and come up with a solid idea (Make It Count), I went on to the second and also the most important part of the project: App development.

This phase started with user research as I tried to understand more about customers’ insights and how they would possibly use my product in their daily life. Based on the in-depth interviews I conducted in the previous session (A.6.3) as well as other secondary researches about lastminute.com’s target market, I was able to identify different personas that would be the main users for Make It Count. I was also able to understand more about how people define “spontaneity” as well as their behaviours in online travel booking.

After that I tried to map out storyboards of different personas. This step allowed me to understand why, when and where they used this app, which helped me to analyse and make the right design decisions. This was followed by creating user flow as a foundation for creating wireframes and prototyping later on.

User testing was the last step but also the most time-consuming stage in the process. However thanks to this process I was able to know what users thought about my design and eventually modified it to enhance their experience.

User experience design is a never-ending process and it’s hard to say when a product is completed. Everything needs to be reviewed and improved everyday to help users use the product better. As a result, having only 5 weeks working on this project was very intense and it became a real challenge for me.

A large amount of work within a short time period makes this project very challenging for me. However at the same time it is also very interesting and it helps me to learn and discover something new everyday.

One of the biggest challenges of the project was to find a combination between creativity and research. The reason was because I wanted the app easy to use for users but at the same time, it shouldn’t be just a normal working app in the app store. Instead, creativity and innovation are two things I wanted to deliver in “Make It Count” and the whole campaign in general.

1. PERSONA

What is persona?

According to Goltz (2014), a persona is a way to model, summarize and communicate research about people who have been observed or researched in some way. A persona is depicted as a specific person but is not a real individual; rather, it is synthesized from observations of many people. Each persona represents a significant portion of people in the real world and enables the designer to focus on a manageable and memorable cast of characters, instead of focusing on thousands of individuals.

For this project, I developed 3 personas including Tom, Laura and Ben. Laura’s persona was based on the interviews I conducted in part A.6.3 while Tom’s and Ben’s were based on personal observing and educated guess of whom I should be designing for. (Which is called “Proto—personas” as mentioned by Gothelf (2013) in his book: Lean UX. Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience).

Five sessions in each persona:

• Basic information: Some basic demographic information such as age, career, hobby.... etc.

• A day in life: This session describes the person’s typical day in life. This information will be helpful if we consider users’ moods and behaviours when they use the Make It Count app.

• Motivations: This session helps to explain why they would be my target users. This is very important in order to design the product that meets their needs and goals.

• My goal for him/her: A clear summary of the end goal we want users to achieve after using the Make It Count app.

• Rating: This session is interesting because it shows what attributes have more value to each persona. For example if a person doesn’t have much money then money will value a lot to them and it becomes the main benefit that they look for when using the app. This session also looks at how familiar this person is with mobile technology as well as how much time he/she spends on technology devices everyday.

I constantly used the information in personas throughout the project to make design decisions, prioritise different design elements as well as review the outcome.

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What I’ve learned throughout the development of persona?

There are many differences in both demographic and psychographic characteristics among three different personas in my research. Trying to satisfy them all at the same time could be a big mistake. However, I identify Laura and Tom as two types of people who will be using “Make It Count” the most. As a result, the app will try to prioritise to satisfy these two personas first, but at the same time taking into account other needs and painful points that Ben might have when he uses the app.

2. STORYBOARDS

• In this session I created storyboards in order to tell stories of a typical day in life of different personas. I tried to use sketch visuals to describe how they could possibly use “Make It Count” in their daily life.

• As a modelling tool, storyboarding helps me string together personas, user stories and various constraints. This also helps me to have a look at a whole picture of the person who I am designing for. Furthermore, it helps UX designers easier to communicate with other people and stakeholders in terms of project management.

• The storyboards in this project also help me to draft out the situations how users get to know about the “Make It Count” mobile application. They help me to draw a complete user journey from the time they know about this app until they complete their order.

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3. TASK FLOW

Home screen Register | Log in

User name Password

NameGenderDOBLocation (detected)

Enter details:Preferred time want to travelDurationLocation (city)Number of people (Number of adult/children)Male/femalePayment details

Offer

Count down time

Accept offer Do not accept offer

Next offer

Confirmation

USER JOURNEY• Task flow is a tool to help UX designers to think through the design before a feature is actually developed. For this

project, they allow me to build the basic structure of the app and map out users’ journey from the start to finish.• This was the first Make It Count’s task flow I designed. However, throughout further research and review in next stages

there will be some minor changes accordingly. However this still serves as a foundation for my design and it is a guide for me to check back every time to make sure the design follows the right structure.

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4. WIREFRAME

According to Mears (2013) from The UX Review, a wireframe is “a visual representation of a user interface, stripped of any visual design or branding elements”. It is used by UX Designers to define the hierarchy of items on a screen and communicate what the items on that page should be based on user needs.

• There are many tools out there that are built exclusively to create wireframes such as Balsamiq or Axure. These tools are used widely by many UX designers in the industry. However after some consideration, I decided to use Adobe Indesign to create wireframe mock-ups for “Make It Count”. The reason was because I felt more comfortable working in Indesign, as well as Indesign gave me more freedom to create high-fidelity wireframes.

• By using Indesign to create wireframes, I also skipped the low-fidelity wireframe stage and went straight to medium-fidelity wireframes. The medium-fidelity wireframe allows me to look at smaller details in the flow and different screens, which is very important for this app.

• During the process of creating wireframe, I kept referring back to the user flow map and personas in the previous session. Also, the guidebook Mobile App UX Principles written by Stephen Griffiths (2015) at Google was also a very useful resource for me to refer to at this stage.

• Personally I believe wireframing is one of the most important steps during the development of my project. This step allows me to build the skeleton of the app, which makes the foundation for more detailed design later on.

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

Email

Password

LOG IN

DON’T HAVE AN ACCOUNT?REGISTER NOW

FIND ME AN OFFER

MAKE IT COUNT

ACCEPT OFFER

NEXT OFFER

OFFER: Summer paradise in Greece

60% DISCOUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

ACCEPT OFFER

NEXT OFFER

Description: a 3 days hotel deal for 2 people in Santorini, Greece

Time: 22-26/6/2015

Original price: £600

Discount price: £240 (60% off)

More details: The hotel locates in the heart of Fira, the largest village in Santorini. Bancony with beach view. Free wifi and breakfasts included.

MAKE IT COUNT

14:10

MAKE IT COUNT

06:20

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

By clicking confirm, you accept the offer made by lastminute.com. You will be charged £240 in your bank account

CONFIRM

The offer will elapse if you close this screen

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

Username Day of Birth What activities you want to do?

What cities you want to travel to?

What’s your budget?What countries you want to travel to?

Address

Postcode

House number

Password

Full name

Email Address

Add more Add more

Add more

Less than £50

£50-£100

£101-£200

£201-£300

£301-£400

£401-£500

More than £500

MAKE IT COUNT

Secured payment info

Pay by

Name (as it appears on your card)

Card number

Expiration day

Security code ?My account

Settings

My deals

Invite friends

FIRST WIREFRAME:

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Splash screen and log in screens:

• The app’s logo and lastminute.com’s logo are used subtly and sparingly (because app screen space is limited and customers already know what the brand is).

• Allow users to log in immediately after they open the app and be able to find their offers by just tapping on one button.

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

Email

Password

LOG IN

DON’T HAVE AN ACCOUNT?REGISTER NOW

MAKE IT COUNT

FIND ME AN OFFER

MAKE IT COUNT

ACCEPT OFFER

NEXT OFFER

OFFER: Summer paradise in Greece

60% DISCOUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

ACCEPT OFFER

NEXT OFFER

Description: a 3 days hotel deal for 2 people in Santorini, Greece

Time: 22-26/6/2015

Original price: £600

Discount price: £240 (60% off)

More details: The hotel locates in the heart of Fira, the largest village in Santorini. Bancony with beach view. Free wifi and breakfasts included.

MAKE IT COUNT

14:10

Operation screens:

• Only primary content and functionality is on-screen by default (all secondary things are off-screen and available from a sandwich menu).

• Three main elements are included in three different screens: Countdown clock, images about the offer and offer description. Users can navigate between screens by scrolling up and down.

LOOKING AT DETAILS

MAKE IT COUNT

My account

Settings

My deals

Invite friends

Sign out

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

By clicking confirm, you accept the offer made by lastminute.com. You will be charged £240 in your bank account

CONFIRM

The offer will elapse if you close this screen

Security code ?

Sandwich menu:

• Menu list is short• Use icons• Menu list terminology is obvious to the target user

Payment confirmation:

• Only ask users to enter 3-digit security code to confirm payment• One-click confirmation

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Username Day of Birth

What activities you want to do?

What cities you want to travel to?

What’s your budget?What countries you want to travel to?

Address

Postcode

House number

Password

Full name

Email Address

Add more Add more

Add more

Less than £50

£50-£100

£101-£200

£201-£300

£301-£400

£401-£500

More than £500

Secured payment info

Pay by

Name (as it appears on your card)

Card number

Expiration day

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

MAKE IT COUNT

Register screens

• Asking questions one by one• Questions for users about their personal details, travel

preferences and secured payment details

REVIEWS

After showing this first wireframe to Anneke and having discussion with her in the first review session, I realise there are some problems that I need to find solutions for at this stage:

1. Unfamiliar with IOS User Interface. Initially I planned to design the app in IOS Interface. However one of the obvious problems I encountered was I am myself not an IOS user. I’ve used both IOS and Android before, but the fact is the user interface of each operation system changes over the time. Moreover, designing for Android UI enables me to test it quickly on my own personal device.

Solution: In order to keep it easy as well as taking advantage of my own resource, I decided to switch the design to Android operation system. The IOS version will be designed and developed in future stage.

2. During the review, Anneke suggested that a good mobile app design should enable users to quickly swipe horizontally to navigate laterally to the next screen, instead of being forced to hierarchically navigate - up and down. This is one of the problems with the current wireframes. The interactions between screens are still navigated hierarchically and may confuse users at some points.

Solution: I’ve done some further research and found a good reference from Shazam app

MAKE IT COUNT

14:10

ACCEPT OFFER

NEXT OFFER

TIME OFFER INFORMATION

• Using the tab switching menu• Using a series of dots to indicate a series of horizontal swipeable screens

and let users know where they are in the series.

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3. Anenke told me that she wanted to see more detailed information about how the app works.

Solutions: I will provide more detailed information about how the app works and how people can use the app in the second wireframe version.

4. More images: As this is all about travelling, using more images will help to catch people’s attention. This is what Airbnb is doing to improve their user experience as well.

Solution: According to Griffiths (2015) in the Mobile App UX Principles Google Guidebook, the hero image should be displayed above the fold and then being supported by other minor images.

I applied this theory to my design and put the big cover image on the “offer” tab. This image would be a stunning picture about the travel destination that the app is offering. It will give users a general idea about what’s the offer is about. The other supporting images, on the other hand, are about that specific offers. For example in this case, pictures of the specific hotel room in Greece that Make It Count is offering. These images will support to give more details of the offer and be displayed on the “information” screen. Users can tap on the picture they want to enlarge it and navigate through the images.

5. Registering pages: Budget preferences. There were questions about how to ask customers to enter their budget preference when they register for the app. However, the problem is for different type of activities/travel destinations the budget will vary a lot.

Solution: As the main idea of the app is to encourage people to take an acceptable risk and live their spontaneous life, the question about budget when users register for the app becomes unnecessary here. As a result, it will be removed and customers won’t get asked about budget anymore when they register for the app. Make It Count just needs to generate offers without thinking about users budget preferences.

6. Register pages: What’s on the list of activities that users can choose from?

Solution: Despite I remove the question about budget preference, first time users will still be asked to enter their preferred activities when they register for a Make It Count account. This information from users will be important for Make It Count to find deals that appeal to their customers. I’ve decided to narrow down the activities based on my research on Lastminute.com website. These activities are offers that Lastminute.com is currently listing on their website. I also add options for coupes or families to help filter the search results more relevantly.

+ Holiday deals

+ City breaks

+ Flights

+ Hotel

+ Flight + hotel

+ Spa

+ Theatre deals

+ Restaurants

+ Entertainment

+ Experiences

+ For couples

+ For families

MAKE IT COUNT

ACCEPT OFFER

NEXT OFFER

TIME OFFER INFORMATION

Description: a 3 nights hotel deal for 2 people in Santorini, Greece

MAKE IT COUNT

ACCEPT OFFER

NEXT OFFER

OFFER: Summer paradise in Greece

60% DISCOUNT

TIME OFFER INFORMATION

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SECOND WIREFRAME (WITH A LITTLE MORE DETAIL):

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Other changes in the second wireframe version:

• Allow users to share news about their offers to Facebook and Twitter after the booking is confirmed.

• Add a screen to ask users to check their email inbox to verify their account after they finish the registration.

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Visual research/Moodboard for countdown clock

After redesigning the second wireframe, It’s time for me to go forward and add some visual elements to the design.

One of the most important visual elements in Make It Count is the countdown clock. It defines the identity and represents for the whole “spontaneity” idea of the app. As a result, I started by looking at some examples of the countdown clocks from other designers and then created a moodboard to bring myself inspiration.

5. VISUAL DESIGN

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The next step was about adding some more visual elements including colours and images to the design. This was not the final design yet, but by adding more visual elements to the wireframe, I started to think more about the user interface design of the app and how it would help to enhance the whole user experience.

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Make It Count

6. SECOND REVIEW (with Anneke and Stephen)

I conducted another review session with Anneke and Stephen, who also had intensive experience in the user experience design field to review the whole development process so far as well as asked for opinions in both areas of UI and UX. There were some good insights I realised after the session. I realised that although I had tried to avoid my personal assumptions but at the end there were still a few things I accidentally overlooked. That’s why the review session and user testing are very important in order to receive objective feedback from real users about my product. Below is the list of problems I received from the review session as well as solutions I came up to solve those problems:

1. The app logo:

The initial reaction toward the logo was not really good. I was given some opinions that the logo didn’t do enough to deliver the look and feel of the “spontaneity” idea. The fact was this logo design was not the main focus of my project so I kept it very simple. However I still have to acknowledge that the logo design has some impact on the overall user experience of the app. As a result, I attempted to redesign the logo, this time by using the countdown clock as the main element instead of the “stick” in the first draft. The new logo still keeps the simplicity but at the same time adds more vibrancy to the look and feel in order to convey the idea of “spontaneous moments”.

OLD LOGO NEW LOGO

3. Negative Scenarios During the review session with Stephen, I was asked an important question: “What if users don’t have enough money in their bank account?”. Oops! These situations are not rare in real life and as an UX designer, I have to prepare to answer these questions when they arrive. For the mobile app design, I identify two areas that usually cause errors for users:

+ Log in screens - Include forgot passwords or usernames+ Payment screens - insufficient fund in card or wrong card details.

In the next few pages of this book I will present some further research about log in screens and payment screens, which can help to solve user errors.

“Users are not spherical. They are

irregular, lumpy beings who introduce

spin and resistance into your well-

planned happy paths.”

Mike (2011) - UXmatters.com

2. No-refundable Disclaimer

One of the main ideas behind the concept of this mobile app is I want users to act spontaneously. I want them to “just do it” and live

their life without thinking too much. That is the reason why I want users to act quickly to grab the deals and don’t have a chance for a second thought. That’s also the reason why I won’t give a refund once the deal had been confirmed. As this is an important detail, I was reminded during the review session that I should make this clear before asking users to pay. As a result, I had to add the no-refundable disclaimer at the payment confirmation screen to make this clear for users.

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3.1 Log in screens

Moodboard/Visual References:

The design for mobile app login screen is pretty standard over the year. However, the Mobile App UX Principles Guidebook written by Stephen Griffiths (2015) has suggested a few interesting insights:

• One of the main points of difference between mobile apps and mobile sites is that apps enable a user to be persistently logged-in (eliminating manual login effort and mistakes). As Make It Count is an app to encourage users to spontaneously book their holidays, a user friendly and quick log in process is very important. A block-free log in user experience is needed to make users actually decide to start using the app.

• Always put the user in control of their time and initial experience of the app. This insight I will explain in more details in the user testing session because it relates to some other feedback I received from users. At this moment the login screens are kept pretty standard that users can choose to log in using registered username/email and password or first time users can register for a new account. This information will be remembered and stored in the app to create persistently logged-in state for users.

• Touch screen security technology is now available on latest smartphone models however for the majority of Android mobile devices, it is still not widely available. As a result, for the timing and purpose of this project, I will ignore touch screen as a way to login to Make It Count. However in the future it could be integrated into the app to provide an alternative instant log in method.

• Today many designers and developers integrate Facebook and Twitter as a way to help users log in quicker. However, unfortunately Facebook and Twitter log in are not secured enough for an e-commerce app like Make It Count. Users also need to provide their payment details so manual log in and register are still necessary.

What if things go wrong?

If users enter wrong usernames or passwords, the app will prompt them which information they typed in wrong. Then users will have option to retry their log in details or reset their username/password by entering their email address. An auto email will be sent to that email address with instructions on how to reset username/password.

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The demo screens on the left are an example of the situation when users forget their password. A similar prompt will be used if users forget their username.

3.2 Payment screens - insufficient card or wrong card details.

There are instances when users accidentally type in their card details wrong or they don’t have enough money in their account to pay for the deal. These things can push people off as they cannot complete the transaction. As an UX designer, I don’t want there is any anything that can block user to finish their journey, especially when they have decided to be spontaneous by accepting offers from Make It Count.

As a result, when these negative scenarios happen, Make It Count will prompt users and provide them the opportunity to change their card details or using a different card to pay. The app allows sometime for users to change their payment details and complete the transaction. Only if users take too long (more than 5 minutes) to update their payment method, the screen will time out and the deal expires.

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7. RAPID PROTOTYPING

The next stage in the development process was prototyping. This stage took me quite a lot of time since I tried to use different new tools and methods to do this. However the results were worthwhile because they helped me to realise the problems and then made quick changes before the final refinement.

Why Prototyping?

Prototyping adds another level of interaction into the static mock-ups and it allows me to show this to other stakeholders as well as do user testing. This also helps me to experience the product myself and easily discover the UXD problems comparing with just static mock-ups on paper.

What type of prototyping I did?

“When it comes to showing an

app’s design to a team, a client

or a stakeholder, I’ve found that

an ugly-but-functional prototype

beats the static bitmap of one

state of a screen that I’d get from

Sketch, Photoshop or the like.”

Mauldin (2015) - UX Magazine

Prototyping in 3 stages of design (chart retrieved from STANFORD UNIVERSITY HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION GROUP)

There are many different types of prototype and each type is needed at different stages of the design process. Some people start with paper prototyping (rough) and it is usually a good idea to start a new project. However for “Make It Count”, since my wireframe has done a large amount of job to help build the main structure of the app, I didn’t really need to do the paper prototyping anymore. Instead, a rapid and medium-fidelity prototyping was needed the most in order to get the prototype out there and receive users feedback quickly.

As a result, my main goal for this prototype was to show the main interactions and working flow of the app as well as get people to test it on a native device. I didn’t want to put too much complex animation into the prototype but at the same time, basic animations such as transitions between screens were still included to satisfy the purpose of the prototyping.

What tools I used for prototyping?

There are many available tools out there that I could use for prototyping. Some of the notable names are Flinto, Marvel, Invision, Proto.io...etc. Each tool has different strengths and weaknesses and is suitable for different purposes. I’ve tried a few tools including Marvel, Invision and Proto.io and finally ended up using Invision for several reasons:

• I nvision allows me to build prototype quickly but at the same time fully supports basic animations, interactions and transitions.

• Invision allows me to build prototype on native mobile interface and this is very useful when it comes to user testing stage.

• In overall, Invision is easy to use and it satisfies all the requirements for this mobile app rapid prototyping.

The size of the app prototype was designed to fit on a Google Nexus 4 screen (1280 x 768 pixels). This was because I personally owned a Google Nexus 4 and this would allow me to conveniently test the app on my native device.

A digital copy of the prototype can be found from this link: http://bit.ly/1LJcdjL

(However please note that Invision doesn’t support Nexus 4 screen size in their library. As a result, the prototype only fits and looks good if you test it on a native Google Nexus 4 mobile screen. The prototype won’t fit on the screen when you check it on the webpage.

Tools for prototyping

1. Paper

2. Office Tools

3. Vector Drawing Tools

4. Web-based Tools

5. Purpose-built prototyping Tools

6. HTML

Stephen Denning,

User Experience Director at User Vision

“InVision is indispensable, be it for quick concepting, creating a believable prototype for studies, or for building out interactive specifications.”

Chad Thornton (2014),

UX Designer at AirBnB

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8. USER TESTING

One golden rule in user experience design is you always have to test the product on users to find out what they really think about your design. The more and the earlier you test, the better the product outcomes will be. I’ve mentioned that I already did two review sessions with Anneke and Stephen previously. However, they are people who have knowledge about UX design so their opinions came from the experts’ point of view.

This time I wanted to test the app on genuine users who do not have knowledge in UX design. They are clumsy and make mistakes, just like anyone else. I hoped this user testing round would give me insights about how people actually think about “Make It Count” and help me to find out their experience when using the app.

TESTING METHOD:

I managed to test the app on 4 people. These people were in the same persona category with Laura as I describe in session B.1. The testing session was one on one and followed these steps:

• To begin the test, I started by explaining briefly about the project and the idea of “Make It Count”.• I gave them my phone with the app prototype installed in Invision and also some tasks to do:

+ Register for an account+ Use the app to find a deal and offer from Make It Count+ Navigate between different tabs+ Accept the offer+ Complete the payment+ Share the news on Facebook

• After allowing sometime for users to complete the tasks and play around with the app, I gave them the feedback form to fill in. Questions in the form are:

+ What’s your experience with the app?+ What did you like the most about this app? Why?+ What didn’t you like about this app? Why?

OBSERVATION

Besides receiving feedback in the form that testers gave me, one of the main things that I looked for during the test was the opportunity to observe their behaviours. Being able to observe users’ interaction with the design helps a lot because sometimes what they do is not what they say. So by observing users’ behaviours, I would be able to identify the possible errors and the pain points in their journey with “Make It Count”.

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9. USER FEEDBACK AND HOW I SOLVED THE ERRORS?

POSITIVE FEEDBACK:

1. All of the testers were happy with the simplicity and straightforward of the app. 2. They were very appealed by the “spontaneity” idea of the app and told me they would accept the “two night hotel at 60% off in

London deal” that was offered from the prototype.3. In terms of user interface, three out of four testers mentioned they liked the “clean design” as well as the “clear counting down clock”

Based on my observation, I found all four users didn’t have much trouble finishing the tasks I gave them. Although there were some confusing moments that I will mention in the next session, all four out of four testers finished the tasks in less than 3 minutes.

“Easy to use, basic, good images + buttons”

Jordan Moorhouse Tester - 24 years old

“I like the tab where offers another available deal because it lets you know exactly how long you have until it expires”

Brad Brown Tester - 23 years old

“It is simple so it makes it easy to go through the options”

Ailen GomezTester - 24 years old

“It is a great idea”

NEGATIVE FEEDBACKS AND OTHER SUGGESTIONS:

1. Location

Matt, one of the testers mentioned that he wanted to see the full address of the hotel being offered in the app as well as asking if it’s possible to check its location on the Google Map. My initial intention was to keep minimal information about the hotel except the hotel’s name to encourage spontaneous booking behaviour. The response from this tester made me thinking and I had to look back the case of Top Secret Hotel Deals campaign on Lastminute.com website.

In the Top Secret Hotel Deals, Lastminute.com only gives out information about the general area that the hotel locates and this indeed has encouraged the spontaneous booking behaviour from customers. Having learned the experience from that example, I have finally decided that by knowing what the customers want, I instead give them the opposite things to strategically match the “spontaneity” strategy. In other words, It means the hotel name and location will be hidden, only the area surrounding along with essential information for booking are provided to users. Users will not know what hotel they have booked until the booking is already confirmed.

When users tap on “check on Google Map”, Google Map will show the area where the hotel locates but not the exact address.

All other information about the hotel including its name will be revealed after the booking is confirmed.

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2. Arrow buttons

One problem that I observed as well as received feedback from testers was the low visibility of the up and down arrows. Three out of four

testers didn’t touch on these buttons to see more description when I asked them to “navigate between different tabs”. Matt, one of the testers described it as “too small to notice”. This could be a small detail but I didn’t notice it before and assumed that people would see it clearly. HOW DID I FIX IT?

One easy way to fix this was to make the triangle button bigger and more dominant. However, as the smartphone screen size is small, increasing the button size can make the whole layout changed.

As a result, I decided to change the cover photo size at the top left from vertical rectangle to square. This gives more space for the buttons. Also, square pictures are easier to arrange the composition. Another reason why I change aspect ratio of the pictures is because square frames give users the look and feel of the famous Instagram pictures and moreover it helped to keep the pictures consistent.

I also decided that users could scroll down to see more information instead of tapping on the button. This provides more flexibility in case the amount of description is longer than expected. The size of the icon was remained but the design was changed to reflect the scrolling behaviour. I also added some drop shadow effect to make it more visible.

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Old design New Design

3. Countdown screen

During the test, another thing I observed was some testers got a little bit confused when they reached to the countdown clock because there wasn’t any detail about the offer at this screen. They only had more idea about the deal until they reached to the next screen (“offer” screen). As a result, I decided to add a short description of the deal at this screen. For example, in this case I put “Summer Vacation in London” right at the start of the countdown screen (see the screen on the right). This could help users to quickly decide to accept or skip the offer.

4. Non-signed-in pathway

Matt, one of the testers has given me his suggestion that he wanted to use the app straight away and register later after he has already found a deal. This brings back to the session B.4.3.1 when I researched about log in screen. According to the report written by Stephen Griffiths (2015) at Google, in order to provide a user experience with the least barriers to conversion, mobile apps should provide a non-signed-in journey. This also helps to create an easy pathway for users to be more spontaneous.

The solution for this was I added another option that allowed users to find their offers without signing in yet. If users choose this option, deals will be generated randomly without any filter applied. The deals being offers can be something not in their interested areas but the good side is it encourages them to try something new and different.

The user flow in this case is as the below:

Log in Find deals with/without pre-registered preferences PayRegister

Find deals randomly without any filter applied PayRegister with payment detailsSign in/register later

Spontaneous Journey

Standard Journey

Log in

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To provide a user experience with the least barriers to conversion, mobile apps should:

• Provide non-signed-in journey

• Request sign-up “only” when it is dependent on providing value, and then ...

– Request minimal data – Display clear benefit statements

Stephen Griffiths (2015), Google

5. Countdown time

There were also two changes I’ve made in the countdown clock:

• Display the remaining time on the top left hand corner to help users keep track of their remaining time at anytime instead of having to swipe back to the clock tab.

• Strategically add the millisecond to the countdown time. The millisecond counts down very fast and it creates the feeling of time running out to encourage users to act quickly and hopefully they will panic buy.

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6. Payment screens

One last thing I noticed during the user testing session was somehow users forgot some details about the offer and wanted to scroll back to recheck some information. This was not allowed since they’ve already accepted the offer and gone to the payment confirmation page.

As a solution for this, I added a short summary of the deal at the payment confirmation screen to help users double check the details before they actually pay.

Also, the security code (which is the 3 digits at the back of your bank card) is used to help users securely confirm the payment.

R: 227G: 2B: 123

R: 238 G: 104B: 176

PART C. FINAL DESIGN

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1. SPLASH SCREEN

The splash screen automaticly loads to the log in screen when users open the app.

A loading bar shows loading status to keep users waiting.

2. LOG IN SCREENS

Screen 1 Screen 2

Go to Screen 3

Go to Screen 8A

Go to Screen 8B

Screen 0

Go to Screen 1

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3. REGISTER SCREENS

Screen 3 Screen 4 Screen 5 Screen 6 Screen 7

Go back to Screen 2Go to Screen 7

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3. WORKING SCREENS

Screen 8A Screen 9 Screen 8B

4. TRANSITIONS OF LOADING SCREEN 9

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3. OFFER SCREENS

The Clock

Screen 10 Screen 11 Screen 12

Go to Screen 15

Screen 13 Screen 14

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3. OFFER ACCEPT/DECLINE SCREENS

Screen 15 Screen 16 Screen 17 Screen 18

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PART D. CAMPAIGN EXTENSION

In this session, I look at how “Make It Count” could be promoted and received attention from the public. This session is not a part of the digital experience design. However, this is still essential to look at because it is a chance to give customers their very first experience with “Make It Count”. It will determine whether users want to download the app and give it a try or not. Also, this part of the campaign will provide lots of room for creative ideas, which potentially helps Make It Count and Lastminute.com to go viral and draw attention from the media.

In order to promote “Make It Count”, I make pop up “spontaneous ticket vending machines” to encourage people to try the app and get to know about the campaign. These machines will be set up at major train stations as well as university campuses.

This is how the machine works:

• People insert their bank card. The machine will generate an offer for them to take or decline, just like the mobile app “Make It Count”. This will give customers an idea of the app.

• After the first trial, the machine will suggest people to download the mobile app to find more deals by scanning the QR code on the machine screen.

• The sample deals being offered by the machine are small deals such as concert tickets or cinema tickets, rather than big offers that have lot of value.

• These ticket machines will hopefully create viral effect to draw media attention and hopefully get people to start using “Make It Count”.

Examples of the Spontaneous Ticket Vending Machine displayed in an university campus and train station.

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PART E. REFERENCES1. Beacock, K. (2013). Congratulations To Jamie: The First lastminute.com Spontaneity Champion. Retrieved from http://www.

lastminute.com/blog/congratulations-jamie-lastminute-com-spontaneity-champion/2. Beacock, K. (2013). The Search For A Spontaneity Champion Has Now Been Launched. Retrieved from http://www.

lastminute.com/blog/search-spontaneity-champion-launched/3. Cerejo, L (2010). Design Better And Faster With Rapid Prototyping [image]. Retrieved from http://www.smashingmagazine.

com/2010/06/design-better-faster-with-rapid-prototyping/4. Cole, E (2009). Lastminute.com’s When It’s Gone It’s Gone. Retrieved from http://www.comparecarhire.co.uk/news/

lastminutecoms-when-its-gone-its-gone-5384719.html

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This is the ending of this book,

but only the beginning of your adventure!

MAKE IT COUNT