Background
Expedia Group branded customer care support agents (located throughout Philippines, San Salvador, Egypt, North America) face the challenge of having to use different tools and applications (GDS, Classic Voyager, Voyager Flights, Eureka, Brand Site for Agents, etc.) to exchange customer flight bookings. On the Voyager Flights tool, agents have to manually determine penalty, change fee policy, and booking class rules which if done inaccurately lead to airline debit memos that adversely impact the business.
Incomprehensible system errors due to issues in downstream services and the inability to display information due to out of sync booking information when backend systems pull from different data stores also add to the pain points agents experience. When the agents don't know what their next step should be to resolve their customer's problems it leads to dissatisfaction. Tier 2 and Tier 3 agents have to memorize 15+ key commands for the different GDS systems they use to service flight bookings. There existed an opportunity to make a more user friendly interface that could quickly give the agents the information they need and reduce their average handling time.
Design Process
My Role
As the main designer on the project, I worked with the business owner, creative director, product managers, program managers, content strategist, testers, developers, service & delivery, and learning development teams to alleviate the customer pain points and improve the experience faced by the phone agents on complex flight exchange cases. I was a mentor to the designer working on customer self-service flight change. I drafted a design schedule for both our areas and reviewed the other designer's work. I designed around the constraints of an existing visual and interaction style guide and took into consideration the agent's current work flow for how they exchange flights in their current tool. I looked at their mental model for how other products were exchanged in the tool that I'd be building upon. I made design prioritization tradeoffs due to technical and resource limitations and followed design principles around simplicity, focus, clarity and efficiency in the user experience.
Customer Needs
• Improve user experience and increase user confidence. Make it easy and efficient for call center agents to service US and Canadian point of sale flight booking exchanges.
• Improve CSAT (customer satisfaction) for high volume and high effort calls.
• Reduce the customer effort required for 31% of flight exchanges
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Business Goals
• Reduce operating costs and optimize the business by increasing the customer's ability to self-service.
• Reduce AHT (average handling time) and agent error costs.
• Reduce call propensity by at least 1% (target: 20%).
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Understanding the user: Call Center Agents
When I interviewed and observed call agents at the different customer care centers, I saw they were on the phone with the customer an average of 5 to 15 minutes for simple cases and 30 minutes for complex ones. And, in extreme cases, like those due to weather related schedule changes, an agent could spend 1.5 hours on the phone with the customer and airlines. Customer call time increases for cases that need higher tier level agents/supervisors access and approval.
Call center agents are able to exchange flights for customers.
Call center agents are able to exchange flights for customers.
Design Planning
• Participated in Project Inceptions to gain a shared vision of business priorities, strategy and project scope from Product Management, Line of Business, Development, and additional cross-functional teams. Met with Learning & Development to understand agent workflows and flight exchange and cancel policies and Content Strategists on the Eureka Knowledge Base Tool that agents depend on.
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• Drafted and presented design schedule to product management and development/test teams based on dev milestones and the scope of the project.
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• Participated in working sessions with PM/DEV/TEST to discuss project scope and technical constraints. Group white boarding sessions to agree on user experience and user flow with shared understanding of data model, and business requirements.
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• Created an html design index and Confluence page for the project that displayed the task flow diagrams and links to prototype, mockups deliverables, and redlines/annotations.
Understanding the problem space
Met with my PM/Business owner to gain more background on the flight business and strategy on why the project was important. I learned about the tools the agents use and training they go through.
Research
• Observed and interviewed call center agents to understand their workflow and escalation process for the different agent types: Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 (Complex Air Agents).
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• Consulted with subject matter expert from the service delivery team and the line of business product managers on knowledge collected from past survey results and call center agent visits. The goal was to understand the issues that had the biggest impact on the business and the user experience pain points.
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• Competitive analysis and heuristic evaluation of airline websites (United, Alaska, etc.).
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• Task analysis and evaluation of the current user experience (Voyager Flights tool) that was being used to exchange, cancel, and void flights by Tier 1 agents in US/CANADA.
• Researched how the GDS is being used by Tier 2 agents and Complex Air agents.
User Scenarios
Identified key scenarios and use cases. Created wireframe screens in Sketch. Built out multiple prototypes in Axure for usability testing.
User Task Flow Diagram
I delivered scenario flows for the different use cases and handed off design for the following screen deliverables: Select Flights/Travelers, Search, Search Results, Review, Confirmation, and confirmation email template. I contributed to the style guide by introducing a new layout pattern on the Review screen for displaying the amount due for a flight exchange.
For the customer self-service portion, I delivered on the review, checkout, and confirmation user experience and ensured the end to end self-service flow worked for responsive web.
Design Deliverables
Created an html index page for the designs. Planned for a design schedule that took into consideration the multiple design iterations with usability testing as well as feedback from reviews with business owners.
Drafted a schedule and worked with dev team on alignment of the design deliverable dates would work with the dev milestones.
Drafted a schedule and worked with dev team on alignment of the design deliverable dates would work with the dev milestones.
Focus Group Session
Agents prioritized most common used tasks they use in Voyager Flights.
Background
Expedia Group branded customer care support agents (located throughout Philippines, San Salvador, Egypt, North America) face the challenge of having to use different tools and applications (GDS, Classic Voyager, Voyager Flights, Eureka, Brand Site for Agents, etc.) to exchange customer flight bookings. On the Voyager Flights tool, agents have to manually determine penalty, change fee policy, and booking class rules which if done inaccurately lead to airline debit memos that adversely impact the business.
Incomprehensible system errors due to issues in downstream services and the inability to display information due to out of sync booking information when backend systems pull from different data stores also add to the pain points agents experience. When the agents don't know what their next step should be to resolve their customer's problems it leads to dissatisfaction. Tier 2 and Tier 3 agents have to memorize 15+ key commands for the different GDS systems they use to service flight bookings. There existed an opportunity to make a more user friendly interface that could quickly give the agents the information they need and reduce their average handling time.
Design Process
Resume
Customer-focused designer, Created user interfaces, mobile and web applications, and visual, interaction design experiences for both enterprise and consumer spaces for: Microsoft, Amazon, AT&T, Expedia Group, and Smartsheet.
Experience designing across devices and platforms. Creating connected experiences, social sharing, collaboration, productivity, communications, online shopping, user identity, and account management.
Experience
SEPT 2020 – AUG 2022
Smartsheet
NOV 2016 – SEPT 2020
EXPEDIA, INC.
FEB 2013 – AUG 2016
AT&T Mobility
APR 2005 – FEB 2013
Microsoft Corp.
SEP 1999 – DEC 2004
AMAZON.COM
Education
1990 - 1994
University of Washington
Senior UX Designer III
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Design lead on Control Plane (Travel Connect). Platform as a service company initiative. Project was foundational to the strategy for how Expedia products and services would be offered to partners. Product ideation followed user-centered design process. Designed how partners launch Expedia Group branded websites into other countries and designed vision for future payments platform initiative. Through design workshops and user testing, I communicated and influenced product design strategy. Work resulted in the formation of two new teams (Platform tools and Payments). My team won the Quarterly Platform Award and Overall Company Impact Award 2018.
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For Global Customer Operations, I designed web and mobile user interface experiences for self-service customers and call center agents to use for airline flight exchanges and cancellations.
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For the Conversation Platform team, I designed conversational bot experiences in the areas of payments and loyalty-rewards points. Contributed Payments widget to common control library.
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Delivered agent profiles, customer research results, surveys, journey maps, task flows, wireframes, mockups, prototype, and detailed UI specs for desktop (agent-facing) and mobile (customer-facing). Worked closely with product/program managers, business owners, content strategists, researchers, developers, test, service delivery, and learning/development teams to identify user needs, business requirements, technical limitations, scenarios, use cases, for alignment on design vision.
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Conducted online and in-person usability tests and focus group sessions in Bellevue, WA, Manila, Philippines, San Sal, EL Salvador, and Lisbon, Portugal.
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Design accessibility Champion for the Conversation Platform team. I onboarded designers on accessibility best practices and design specs for hand-off to developers. Side projects: voice design and platform developer experience documentation website.
Senior UX/UI Designer - Interaction Design // Senior Product Marketing Manager
Designed digital products and experiences for AT&T branded services. Created user interface design for apps on different platforms (Android, iOS and Windows), and screen sizes for phones and tablets. Concept development and art direction of vendors. Worked closely with business owners, directors, designers, researchers and developers to solve customer needs and pain points. Delivered visual and interaction design solutions that were based on human-centered design principles and customer feedback.
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Championed and communicated user experience and design best practices to stakeholders.
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Created effective user experiences through user scenarios, visual mock-ups, conceptual diagrams, wireframes, and interaction flows. Final deliverables included style guide, redlines, assets and quality reviews of development builds.
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Remained up to date on latest design trends, mobile user interface conventions, digital trends, accessibility, and technologies, regularly sharing and exchanging knowledge with team members.
Job Titles held during tenure at AT&T: ​
-- Senior UX/UI Designer - Interaction Design (June 2014 - Aug 2016),
-- Senior Product Marketing Manager (Feb 2013 - June 2014).
Product Designer II
User experience design for both consumer and enterprise customers. Collaborated with project managers, researchers, developers, vendors, and other designers to identify user goals, business requirements, and project scope. Prototyped key scenarios through multiple iterations using user research data and feedback from usability testing. Presented desired user experience to the project team and business owners. Delivered visual and interaction design solutions, information architecture, task flows, user interface wireframes and final mockups. Improved designs through knowledge of user experience issues, customer feedback, and industry trends.
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Designed identity presence status icons that appear across Microsoft Office Suite. Managed the Microsoft Office’s Lync 2013 visual style guide. Art directed vendors and reviewed designs for production and launch of image assets for Lync 2013 desktop, web, and server apps.
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Designed user experiences that led to design innovation contributions for the following patents:
— Windows 8 Calendar App
— Blogging Software: Windows Live Writer (Wave 4)
— Photo sharing and email file attachment experiences scalable to both Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Mail, and MSN Hotmail
— Messaging Concepts for content insertion into email message/doc.
— Windows Live Account & Windows Live Help Communities Message Board: “Me too/pile-on”
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Designed the social sharing experiences for the Profile Page on the Windows Live website (Wave 3). Live Favorites integration with Amazon products.
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Designed the parental controls cloud experience for Windows Live Family Safety Settings (Wave 3).
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Designed the transaction summaries for credit card and xbox points payments for Microsoft Billing and Account Management (MSN & Wave 1) website.
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Designed the identity access and Linked ID experience for shared accounts on the Windows Live Account website and integration with Xbox.
Senior Designer / Senior Design Manager
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Design manager for new product store tab launches. Launched Computers tab, Cell Phones & Service tab, and Software tab on the Amazon.com website. Defined user goals, synthesized business requirements and design principles to create appropriate shopping experiences for these products on amazon.com. Introduced image request form into design process.
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Drove cross-site design consistency (visual and interaction) for Amazon’s International Order Pipeline Migration. Design manager on the project. Created designs in partnership and collaboration with designers in Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, and the United States.
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Delivered designs for Amazon’s “Seller Central” website that enabled small to medium businesses to list new products, monitor sales activity, manage order fulfillment, and monitor customer satisfaction.
Titles held during tenure at Amazon:
-- Senior Designer (Sep 1999 - Jan 2000),
-- Senior Design Manager (2000-2003), Senior Designer (2004 - Jan 2005).
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design, Graphic Design 1994
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SKILLS
â–ª User Experience & Interface Design
â–ª Visual & Interaction Design
â–ª Information Architecture
â–ª Concept Development
â–ª Project Management
â–ª Mobile & Web Design Guidelines
â–ª Art Direction, Branding & Visual Identity
â–ª User Research & Usability Testing
â–ª Accessibility
â–ª Localization considerations (Designing for Intl. markets)
â–ª Design workshops, problem framing
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TECHNICAL
â–ª Adobe CC (Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver)
â–ª Sketch
â–ª Figma
â–ª Axure
â–ª Invision
â–ª Protopie
â–ª Omnigraffle
â–ª MS Office (Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint)
â–ª HTML, CSS, Javascript
UX Product Design Manager
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From January 2022 to August 2022, I was Design Manager for Project Management Views and Marketing Experiences (Content Core Experiences, Content Creation, Content Solutions)
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From January 2021 to December 2021, I was Design Manager for Enterprise Admin and Data Flows. My team launched Admin Center Enterprise Plan Manager, Smartsheet Regions (Smartsheet Europe).
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Partnered with User Experience, Product, Engineering to create project vision for product roadmap: Admin Insights, Data Governance Controls (Data Retention, Data Egress and Data Classification), and Data Flows (uploads, offloads, cross-sheet transfers, connectors).
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Facilitated design checkpoints and working sessions with my design team, product, and engineering teams that helped identify, create, and prioritize future customer experiences.
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People manager responsibilities fluctuated between 2-5 reports. As a hiring manager, I evaluated design portfolios, screened candidates, and was part of interview loops. Hiring interviews resulted in 5+ hires in the overall design org. Grew Admin Center+Data Flows Design Team from 2 to 5 people. Promoted 2 people to leadership roles. Grew Views+Content Experiences from 2 to 7 designers with an additional 2 designers on Brandfolder as matrix dotted-line reports.
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Provided UX vision for project roadmap for Data Flows (Central destination for uploads, offloads, and cross-sheet transfers), Admin Insights, Data Governance Controls (Data Retention, Data Egress and Data Classification).
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Inclusive Design Approach: Led my reports to design for accessibility in their product areas. Provided accessibility specs for the Data Shuttle, Connectors, and Admin Center. Collaborated with my content strategist for screen-reader specs and partnered with engineering team for integration.
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Raised the quality bar of product design in the company. My design team contributed the table-grid pattern to central design systems that will be used across multiple pillars and product experiences. Created prototypes, usability script, and partnered with user researchers to conduct usability sessions and customer interviews to validate hypothesis and gather customer insights.
