Improving Southwest Airlines’ Mishandled Baggage Experience
Southwest passengers are currently unable to track their bags and must report mishandled bags in person, frustrating ~500,000 passengers per year.
We introduced a baggage tracking and digital claim feature, giving passengers control to efficiently locate and recover their bags.
Role: Lead Product Designer
General Assembly Speculative Team Project
- Led the design and development of the mobile prototypes
- Co-led user interviews, including script preparation
About Southwest
Southwest Airlines is a low-cost US airline serving 121 airports in 11 countries. It aims to connect people through friendly, reliable air travel and is the leading airline for nonstop domestic US flights. Southwest announced they are investing in new technology for improved self-service capabilities.
Their target audience is typically young travelers and businessmen/women.
Understanding Our Users' Feelings
Losing your baggage is a terrible experience. If you’re wondering what it feels like, this is it.
We interviewed 8 individuals who had experienced lost or delayed baggage to understand their coping strategies, satisfaction levels, and expectations. Using the journey map above, we identified areas where we could intervene and improve the user experience.
Note: All quotes are directly from user interviews
Discovering Pain Points: Testing The Current Site
Based on our usability tests of the existing site, we discovered the following:
The process of finding help is not intuitive
The relevant information is too deeply nested, which can be frustrating for someone in distress
There is no actionable item provided; users are asked to report issues in person
The Problem: Lack of Information
How can we help frustrated passengers quickly locate their belongings and maintain a positive perception of the airline?
Proposed Design 1: Track Bags
Our initial wireflow proposal aimed to address the following issues:
Improve the ease and intuitiveness of accessing baggage help information
Provide the ability to track bags
Offer an online actionable claim form
User Tests: Original Site vs. Proposed Design 1
We conducted usability tests on both the existing mobile site and the proposed design, with 6 users each, tasking them with finding information on making a lost baggage claim. As highlighted in “Our Wins”, the new design was found to be significantly more user-friendly. Below is an example of the issues encountered on the existing site compared to the proposed design.
Adding To The Process: Claim & Recover Bags
We found through user tests that while the proposed design was successful in terms of usability, it did not fully address all of the users' concerns. Specifically, users still desired more information on how they could recover their lost bags.
Final Design Before & After: Responding to User Needs
“I don't want to dig to find that feature... the nature of it is that it's such an urgent thing that you want the fastest route”
“I want to know right now. If they make me wait or are really vague with me, them I'm going to be really upset”
“I wanted to know how they were gonna follow up”
Hi-Fi Prototype: Digital Bag Tracking & Claim Feature
Real-time updates on baggage location
Actionable steps
Streamlines customer service procedures
Increases satisfaction, contributing to a positive perception of the airline.
Our Wins: Intuitive Access To Baggage Help
We first conducted 6 user tests on the existing online baggage help center and discovered it is confusing and hard to access.
Our proposed design, tested with 6 additional users, proved to be more intuitive and efficient, enabling frustrated passengers to get help quickly.
Note: as a speculative project, our metrics for success are based on user test improvements and positive feedback.
In a real world scenario, I’d like to conduct customer satisfaction surveys to compare the experience of passengers who report mishandled baggage in person versus those who use the proposed digital claim form..
What Happens Next?
As a two-week speculative project for General Assembly, we created a list of next steps to address if given more time. These include:
Testing copywriting to ensure users feel reassured and it aligns with Southwest's hospitality
Continue testing the design
Optimizing the UI design
Implementing our design on both the desktop website and app
Conducting a design studio on how to encourage travelers to adopt the new program
Conclusion
As my first UX project with a team of designers, it was a fun and valuable learning experience. I learned the power of design studios, collaborative idea generation, and establishing clear goals and deliverables. Initially, we faced challenges with differing solutions, but we overcame this through objective voting using the MOSCOW method. Overall, it was great working with the team and learning from each other.
Shout-out to my team Daniel Karp, Hetal Ajmeri, Karielle Moe, and Samantha Tan!