A research-led direction for ANA's global website

ANA was reconsidering its Japanese and English web experiences when I joined the IBM iX team. I worked in Chicago and Tokyo on the research and direction for the global website, with western business travelers as a focus.

I assessed the previous agency work and compared ANA's site with US and European airline experiences. Stakeholder interviews helped identify the strengths to preserve and the usability issues to address.

Customer research came from the previous agency. I reviewed it, added stakeholder interviews and an experience review, and helped the team agree on a direction.

I helped facilitate a two-day design-thinking session in Tokyo. We worked through breakdowns in the current experience and explored how a future service could respond to traveler needs.

My traveler persona focused the discussion on a North American business traveler. Self-service, booking friction, timely flight information, and arrival support sat alongside the chance to explore around a work trip.

I made desktop and mobile concepts to explore the direction. On desktop, flight search sits beside flexible-date destination ideas, supporting both a specific booking and an open-ended trip search.

The mobile concept explores a different moment: check-in and a boarding pass, with hotels, cars, flights, and trips alongside it. Its vivid color and night-time imagery explore how the travel experience could carry more character across screens.

I used these concepts to explore visual and interaction direction within the wider IBM iX engagement.

I turned the research and workshop findings into UX 2020 design principles and a feature roadmap for western business travelers. The roadmap connected ANA's priorities with the needs discussed in the workshop.

The roadmap belonged to a collaborative engagement with ANA and the IBM iX teams in Chicago and Tokyo. My contribution was research, facilitation, direction, and the concepts shown here.