Priceline Moments is a native app feature that allows users to see a summary of their bookings with Priceline.com and earn rewards for their loyalty. The feature also allows Priceline to learn more about user booking behaviors to better serve personalized content.
I was the lead product designer for both iOS and Android, working closely with a team of engineers and product managers. Moments started as a hackathon project, after which the Moments team iterated on the experience to create a production-ready MVP.
Research
Since Moments began as a week-long hackathon idea, spending sufficient time on user research was a challenge. So to inform the product, I leveraged a recent Priceline study of 20+ iOS power users. The findings included:
Users were proud of their savings with Priceline over time, but had no way to quantify or share this.
Users cared more about price than being brand loyalty if there was no additional incentive.
Shopping on Priceline or other OTAs (online travel agencies) was frequently prompted by coupons or freebies.
“I’ve been a Priceline customer for almost 15 years...I’ve saved hundreds of dollars I’m sure.” - Priceline app user, Jan 2017
“I’m loyal to the cheapest price, unless there’s some other incentive that I'll receive.” - Priceline app user, Jan 2017
“I earn free nights for booking on Hotels.com, so I usually start there...” - Priceline app user, Jan 2017
Design
Taking that research, I spent the first few days of the hackathon designing an MVP for both platforms, and worked closely with the iOS and Android engineers through the remainder of the week to make changes on the fly.
Our MVP included 4 feature areas:
Profile - A summary view of savings and other booking stats, and the ability to add a profile photo
Timeline - A list view of past bookings with Priceline.com
Map - A visual representation of past bookings
Badges - Goals that users can achieve based on different actions, such as booking 3 hotels, and resultantly earn coupons
By the end of the hackathon, our team had built functional prototypes using real user data, and we won second place! Our VP of Product decided to integrate the feature into both iOS and Android Priceline apps.
User Feedback
Using InVision and UserTesting.com we user tested the version of the app we created in the hackathon. We found that users:
Considered the list of their trips most useful
Moved trips to the first tab
Were delighted by the Map feature, but didn't find it as useful
Added "Book Again" functionality to the map
Cared most about their total accrued savings over other statistics
Highlighted total accrued savings on the users profile
Thought the "Me" section contained settings, like storing credit card information
renamed "Me" to "Achievements"
Android vs. iOS
The original idea for Moments came from the iOS engineers, so initially I started my designs on that platform. When the Android engineers joined as well, I quickly adapted the experience for Android. I found material design patterns easy and even inspiring to work with, and it was interesting to see how similar UX patterns translated across platforms.
Next Steps
Moments is currently being A/B tested in both iOS and Android apps. No guarantee you'll be enrolled in the variant :) but download the Priceline app and let us know what you think!
