SAS App

Subscription on flights?

School project / Berghs
My Role: UX: team member 1/2, UI: alone
Challenges: Short time span, no budget, limited access to company data.

Subscription economy
We're in a pivotal moment in business history, one not seen since the Industrial Revolution. Simply put, the world is moving from products to services
– Tien Tzuo, author to "Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It”

With the simple brief to the right (plus an article) and Scandinavian Airlines as a fictive client, me and one more student started researching and benchmarking about airlines (and other industries), subscription models and loyalty programs. We studied how they choose to segment their clients, business or pleasure, how frequency was rewarded, bonuses etc.

SAS vision is "To make life easier for Scandinavia's frequent flyers". Frequency has a crucial role for the airline to be successful. SAS currently has a loyalty program where you can earn points for each booking that can be used to buy flights and to get offerings.

Three steps

Target group - 3 step strategy

To define a target group and to get a hunch if a subscrintion service would fill a need, we followed a three step strategy.
1. Interview travellers at the central station to get a vague hypothesis of a target group.
2. Interview with refined questions based on learnings from the first session.
3. In depth interviews with the defined target group.
Step 1

On the first session we asked general questions to travelers at the central station, Stockholm.
Keyfindings
• People had to have the time to travel often
• People who travel trough work didn't always book themself and/or were happy with the current loyalty programs.
• Younger people who travel often were not loyal to an airline. They only searched for the best/cheapest ticket.
• Some of the younger people studied och worked at a distance with made their schedule more flexible.
– A vague hypothesis regarding the target group started to take shape.
Step 2

On the second session we asked more in depth questions and gave scenarious. We have learned from the first session about a younger target group that traveled more often, had more time (due to no family) and wasn't always locked to a schedule in the same way (could study or work on a distance). We asked younger people about their travelling habits, and also if a subscription could be interesting.
Keyfindings
• Subscription is interesting but has to have different levels of fees
• Some kind of search-function that suggested a destination based on experiences, for example shopping or culture was interesting.
• Very spontanoius and open regarding meeting new people and following recommendations from other travellers.
Step 3

On the third session we had in depth inteviews with four young people that fit the hypothesis. They travelled between 15 to 35 times per year, were students and had family or friends abroad. The main reason to travel was to experience new cultures, food and to meet new people. They were often flexible with both time and destination.
Keyfindings
• Younger with no children or houseloans
• lonely travellers
• would like to travel more
• Had a flexible schedule due to possibilities to study or work on a distance.
• Low budget, Private bookings
• Not loyal to one airline
• Habit of downloading and using the airlines app
• Only travelling with handluggage
• Was inspired to travel by friends, social media and influencers.

"I usually travel alone but meet up friends along the way. Sometimes I book my staying on location."
– User, 23 years old, distance studies

Why an app?

In short the target group are young, social and spontanious. And they travel frequently. We wanted to make travelling easier for the target group and decided that the most accessible service was an app. An app that can cover a range of needs can replace serveral other apps from other distributors. We also wanted to create a beneficial loyalty-relationship for both the subscribers and SAS.

Persona

A persona was created with data from the inteviews which helped me stay on track on who I was designing for. The most important characteristics such as ”extroverts”, ”spontanious” and ”techy” are mapped up on a scale.

User journey

A user journey was made to map up "pain points", when the user needs the app and their overall traveling habits. This also helped me suggest new features that could solve issues for travelers.

Hypothesis

SAS + Targetgroup

Connect unsold seats with a target group that carries a wish to travel more through a subscription service. This will help the target group fulfill their traveldreams.

We will know that the hypothesis is true if the target group still subscribes after one year and travel as much as desired.

About the Hypothesis

Every day planes lift with empty seats, which is a financial issue for SAS. By creating an app service that provides last minutes tickets for a fixed sum every month, the target group can travel more due to lower costs. For a target group that are spontanious about destination and flexible in time it's a good match. This is a way of creating loyalty with a group that flies frequently but are usually not loyal to one airline.

MVP and Prototype testing

A prototype was tested from low fidelity wireframes to final product (MVP). This helped when creating the feautres but also gave me tons of insights on what affect the users. Follow along with some key findings in the app below.

Onboarding

The onboarding was tested both with a "sign in" option and without. In tests the users prefered to try the service before signing up. They wanted to search for journeys and to learn by navigating. The onboardning contained 3 swipe-screens. The first two screens where inspirational with short copy that summed up what the service was about, and on the third the user could start searching for a journey/s.

Navigation info

To meet up with neccessary information after the onboarding, small lightboxes with instructions were added. Whenever a person is trying to book a flight, a light box pops up with a sign in request. These instructions only shows the first time using the app.

Destination suggestions

A filter where you can get suggestions of destinations based on what you want to experience. This was an appreciated feature on the usability test. I came up with the idea after creating the user journey and the persona.

Network

To create opportunity to network, subscribers can get in touch with each other if they are on the same flight. The reciever can always choose to decline or accept contact in the app.

Time period instead of date

Instead of setting a specific date, the user can set a timeperiod when he/she might be available to travel. When a ticket to the desired destination/s is available the user get a text with a link to direct booking of the seat.

Guides, packinglist and more

Inspiration, save a packlist, read advices and stay connected with other subscribers. The app is not only a tool for booking, is is meant to ease everything around the journey. In that way the SAS app i satisfying and relevant both before flight and after landing.

Ticket, Boardingpass & Check in

All neccesary information around the booking such as tickets, boardingpass and check in function was included in the MVP prototype.

Three Price levels

The user testings clearly indicated that there had to be pricelevels that were divided in to "travel within Europe", "travel the whole world" or "Domestic flights"

Prototype

Watch the film to see the MVP prototype. It was also introduced on the final presentation to SAS who were very positive about the hypothesis, target group and especially the search filter.