Introducing post-booking support: From boarding to baggage, live tracking

Introducing post-booking support: From boarding to baggage, live tracking

Live tracking at a glance

Introducing a post-booking support system at Cleartrip so flyers can see gate, delay and belt information for their upcoming flights. Through multiple touch points like live activity, live tracker on the app's homepage, and a dedicated tracking page, users can now stay updated and keep track of their flights in real time.

Impact

Retention grew by 6%, Uptick in GMV by +₹150–200 Cr, 14% click-through rate for the homepage widget.

Device

Mobile app ( iOS + Android)

Duration

4.5 weeks

My role

Product designer

Team

Kewal (PM), Apoorva (Fellow designer), Sujit (My manager)

Problem

Users struggle to find live updates of their upcoming flights, we wanted to find a way to support that need.

Solution

Enabling live flight tracking as a system across different surfaces on the app. Live Activity, a dedicated live tracking page, and status updates across multiple touch points.

Scope of work

  • Conducted product sprint with UXR for feature discovery

  • Designed the feature from 0->1

Live tracking at a glance

Introducing a post-booking support system at Cleartrip so flyers can see gate, delay and belt information for their upcoming flights. Through multiple touch points like live activity, live tracker on the app's homepage, and a dedicated tracking page, users can now stay updated and keep track of their flights in real time.

Problem

Users struggle to find live updates of their upcoming flights, we wanted to find a way to support that need.

Solution

Enabling live flight tracking as a system across different surfaces on the app. Live Activity, a dedicated live tracking page, and status updates across multiple touch points.

Impact

Retention grew by 6%, Uptick in GMV by +₹150–200 Cr, 14% click-through rate for the homepage widget.

Device

Mobile app

My role

Product designer

Team

Kewal (PM), Vaibhav Gupta (UI Eng), Apoorva (Visual design), Sujit (Manager)

Context

Search to book is stable, post-booking support was next.

Earlier, for any disruption customers would call the support. We thought the older system was working. However post-booking returns rates kept rising, and we noticed that need in time.

In the older system, trip details held the PNR and promised times. Getting there was three steps: My trips -> Active flights-> Trip Details.

Before post booking solutions

Pre design basics

The ticket in the app mattered more than the PDF on mail

UXR studies suggested a pattern, user footfall after booking was increasing: Some came for their PNR, some for flight support, or just to check times again.

So UXR and I conducted a sprint with PMs and tech to brainstorm solutions. Everyone shared their ideas and we turned those into 'Live flight tracking'.

How might we give flyers live status the moment they need it?

For that to work, we needed principles that opened the problem, not a feature list:

Help users reach the information they need in fewer steps.

Keep promised order details and live status both in sync and trustworthy.

Give a clear next step when the trip cannot be fixed in the app.

Strcutural decisions

Designing a system for visual communication

This project required a very strong and robust system for communication. Through multiple iterations we finalised ways to power high stakes communication, across the funnel.

We tried the obvious placement but it failed

During early explorations we hoped to put all information on trip details but it just made the screen overwhelming. So we decided to keep it as a separate page.

In case of disruption, seeing changes highlighted in two spots felt overhwhelming.

Trip details already has flight policies, PNR etc, we did not want to add any confusions.

Live status needs additional states and depth, so it deserved a page of its own.

Update information in sync

Whenever an airline changes schedule, the same live cues should be pushed across the funnel so users find updated information wherever they look.

Show updated information clearly and consistently across the funnel.

Adding contextual tags to support scanning on 'My Trips' page.

Main ticket updates whenever it needs to, wherever it needs to.

Visual importance > brand recall

While designing the homepage/liveactivity widget, we received feedback to keep it in sync with the brand. However I argued for a different visual treatment, and black won!

This strip is temporary and high stakes it should never become a blind spot.

Physical world recall: Airports use similar colour coding for sharing information.

Making the tracking card bullet proof

Since there could be N number of usecases when it comes to information being changed in a flight schedule, the tracking details card needed to be super solid and malleable.

The card is built with nested individual components to make it future proof.

Each element has its own states, helping designers and engg recreate cases easily.

Alongside the component, supporting usage guidelines was shared with engg as well.

Handing off to CX when urgent support is expected by users

A delay/cancellation of a connecting flight can cost an entire journey to the users. So we had to design to give clear communication and actionables to the user.

Journey specific callouts to support clarity of information and quicker action.

Disruption communication presented at all important touchpoints.

Upfront support to call Cleartrip or the concerned airline for resolution.

Impact

Retention moved, GMV followed

Since this information is highly important, we are carefully rolling this out to each sector after proper stress testing. However the widget still has a 75% interaction rate.

Early numbers suggest a 6% increase in user retention resulting in a rise of ~200Cr in the GMV.

This feature will bring goodness in the long term, so now we wait and improve things in the meanwhile.

My learnings

What Did I Learn?

This project had a lot os service design components, which I truly enjoyed. Making sure all possible usecases are covered, and accounted for needed strong attention to detail!

Return visits are a gift and we should treat them as such. People coming back builds loyalty. Delightful post-booking support is what pulls them into the funnel again

Promised information and live information need to stay in sync. Update both surfaces, or someone who misses the widget gets stale information.

For live activities: the first glance should inform, action can happen one step in.

Enjoy the bigger picture on a bigger screen :)