Booking flow for tour and activity websites
OVERVIEW
How I helped
Collaborated with product managers and UX designer to create succinct copy throughout the booking and checkout flow.
Developed new copy for the booking widget.
Challenge
Guide users through TrekkSoft’s Booking Widget 3.0
Solution
Create simple and easy-to-understand copy.
THE PROJECT
TrekkSoft is a booking system used by tour and activity operators around the world. Just like how you can book a hotel room from a hotel’s official website, we offer the same tools to tour companies, transfer companies, rental companies and activity providers as well.
We wanted to update our booking widget so that experience providers using TrekkSoft on their websites could provide a seamless booking and payment flow, increasing their direct website bookings in the long-run.
We specifically wanted to improve the way we upsold travellers with add-ons and extras, and the way we asked end-customers for their information to complete a booking.
CHALLENGES
The project was challenging as the same booking widget would be used by tour operators, rental companies and activity providers - each company providing very different services to travellers. The booking flow needed to accommodate all the different ways different service providers would talk about their types of service.
Similarly, the booking widget is also embedded to different operator websites, each with its own unique brand, tone of voice and end-customer. Therefore, the widget needed to blend in seamlessly with all the different brands using TrekkSoft, offering a cohesive booking and checkout experience for every single company using TrekkSoft.
When booking a tour, operators often need to provide information about certain schedules, ticket types, additional options to enhance a tour and so on. All this content is then added to the booking and checkout flow. Therefore, when writing for the widget, every word had to fit in with the information tour operators would later add on to the booking flow.
TrekkSoft also offers the booking widget in German, Spanish and Italian which means that the copy I produced had to be easily translated into different languages and cultures.
THE PROCESS
USER RESEARCH
I reviewed user recordings of the booking flow with the Product Manager responsible for this project. Together, we found the bottlenecks in the booking and checkout flow, and brainstormed with the UX Designer to come up with a clearer user flow.
Once a prototype for the new widget was created, the product manager (PM) conducted multiple rounds of interviews with tour and activity providers who offered more insight into how their customers found the booking experience.
As I am also in regular contact with TrekkSoft’s users, I was able to combine my own understanding of our users with the user recordings and feedback from the PM’s interview to create simple guidelines for this project.
INDUSTRY RESEARCH
I also conducted my own research, looking at how competitor booking systems had designed their booking and checkout flows.
To understand how industry leaders designed their booking flows, I looked at other travel tech companies like TripAdvisor, Expedia, Booking.com, GetYourGuide, Kayak and so on. I also reviewed consumer sites like Amazon to find best practices for designing checkout flows.
In my research, I paid particular attention to the use of language, error messages and tooltips in these user flows.
THE WRITING PROCESS
To bring the copy from prototype to the final product, I followed three simple rules:
Trust contextual cues and remove unnecessary text.
Always find a simpler way to convey the message.
The copy should always reflect the tour and activities industry.
At every step of the user flow, I came up with alternative ways to convey a message and questioned if it was more concise than before. I also made sure to run the copy by native German, Spanish and Italian speakers to make sure that it would translate well.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
Below are some examples of the changes I made to improve the booking and checkout flows. The examples were taken from different websites to demonstrate the versatility of the booking widget.
BOOKING FLOW
In this step, users need to select the number of tickets they would like to book. I simplified the “Back” button in the top left, and updated the header so that it reflects the way tour and activity operators talk about their services.
Booking widget used by a surf school in England.
Here, users can select additional equipment or services to enhance their booking. I changed the way we referred to the number of people booked for a trip from “seats” to “guests” in the top bar. The header was also updated to give users a better idea of what they’re being offered here.
Booking widget used by an adventure company in Norway.
NOTIFICATIONS
The booking system allows customers to book tours that require manual confirmations from operators. We wanted to notify bookers that finishing the booking process meant that they allowed us to withhold a pre-authorised sum until the booking was confirmed.
