Alaska Airlines
Interactive Route Map
product design / UI / interaction design
One of the biggest struggles Alaska Airlines was having with the acquisition of Virgin America was the confusion around where they flew. Since the airline is named after a far northern state but centrally located in the pacific northwest, there needed to be a clear and easy way for people to learn about Alaska’s expansive network. Until this time, the only way to tell that story was through static maps placed throughout the Alaska experience. This project was meant to bring awareness of the large Alaska network and let guests view all destinations in an interactive and engaging way.
Discovery and planning
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Competitive analysis
I wanted to start by understanding the industry standards for maps. Starting with other airlines and working into other travel sites I was able to understand the direction I wanted to go in with Alaska’s brand new interactive experience.
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Ideation sessions
I worked together with a product manager and engineers to start to layout our requirements for an MVP route map. We focused on creating something that filled the large gap with route awareness while also creating something delightful and innovative.
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Creating user flows
Next was to identify user flows that created all the different scenarios I would need to solve for.
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Wireframes
In the next round of work it was all about getting the layout right for desktop and mobile, which ended up being two different experiences. Working closely with engineering I was able to identify the MVP experience we were going to launch.
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Prototype and test
Creating an experience that we could put in front of guests told us a lot about their expectations with an interactive map. We were able to validate some of our assumptions while learning new information that we could use to build a solid MVP.
Launching and learning
In order to get this interactive route map built we had to make a lot of concessions around user experience, which was frustrating.
The tools we were using, and the information we had on hand to feed the experience was messy, disorganized and unreliable. The engineering team did a great job picking through the pieces to put together usable data, but it still left a lot of room for improvement.
Thankfully, the team was able to prioritize improvements very soon after launch, and within a few months of going live the map had already gone through more iterations and updates to get to a solid place.
The future
I believe the future for the Alaska Airlines’ route map is tied directly to how the company shows flight deals.
Being able to search on a map for prices, dates, destinations, types of experiences, etc. is now the industry standard for interactive maps.
Adding these features and including the map in the right place will inspire guests and allow them to plan future trips based on the most important factors - price and date.