Rainbow

UI/UX audit of tour configurator

The Rainbow Company is one of the largest and fastest growing tour operators in Poland, helping to fulfill the holiday dreams of Polish people for almost 27 years.

In August 2017 we did help Rainbow to increase the work efficiency of the tour sellers who use their in-house trip planning system, by conducting an UX / UI audit of the tool.

The task

Our initial task was to develop a business concept and analyze the needs of the customer. At this stage, the most important thing for us was to define the tool's information architecture, understand and describe all key business processes.

Improving the entire UX / UI for better usability of the tool by the Rainbow salespeople was the second stage of our work.

The challenge

Initial state of the project

One of the biggest challenges we faced was modifying an existing tool with a relatively short time frame to introduce the desired changes. Our audit required certain restrictions, resulting from the specifics of the configurator tool itself and the time remaining to implement additional visual modifications.

Workshop sessions with client sales and development teams were very important for us. These meetings allowed us to prepare the most important recommendations and improvements for the tool.

The (non)standard UX / UI audit

The standard steps we go through in the auditing process involves:

defining business objectives
analysis of the tool in terms of its usability, accessibility – among other things: navigation , intuitiveness of the tool, clarity of the tool, lucidity of texts, localization of elements, guiding the user in the preferred path, or utilising the so-called "Good practices” (having the predefined goals in regard)
preparation of the text-and-graphic report from the audit.

The aforementioned workshop sessions with the Rainbow team had a huge impact on the course of the entire audit process, letting us approach it in a less trite manner. After defining the client's needs and objectives, we started working on improving the trip configurator. The whole process of analysis and proposed changes was carried out in stages. Each stage (new view of the trip configurator component) was consulted with the Rainbow team and adjusted to the current needs of the customer.

The course of works

First of all, we did present the configurator as a certain path that the tour seller working with it has to walk through to find the optimal trip offer. The specificity of the configurator and the very high dependence of its individual components made it a demanding task.

The first element that we separated visually from the rest of the tool were the filters. User can set the display mode (left column or entire page content) of filters according to his or her preferences.

An important assumption of the configurator is that it should work live and in the responsive manner. Subsequent lists in the app are narrowed down live, depending on the user's choice. In addition, we had to keep in mind that the final search results should provide all the information necessary to book the reservation. By pressing the "Book" button the seller is redirected to a separate section of the reservation process, where he must input the customer data. All things related to travel dates, departures, arrivals, available promotions, meals and room standards are already determined at the configurator stage.

The new graphic design of the trip configurator

Rainbow set a clear goal for us: to make the search options user friendly, so that despite the large number of variables, it would still be intuitive for the sales team. In the process of developing the changes, we focused primarily on creating mockups and diagrams according to which the tool works. The graphic design, based on material design principles, assumed a visual separation of working space, proper colours matching and use of simple, intuitive icons. One of the most important elements we emphasised was the appropriately selected typography, which visually has a great importance for the legibility of the entire tool. The search engine tool is intended primarily for desktop use. The solutions designed by us are easily adaptable to different screen resolutions, as well as to mobile devices (such as tablets).

The design and appearance of our new search engine in cooperation with eEngine has been extremely fast and effective. I particularly appreciate the quality of communication between our teams. Frequent and direct communication combined with flexibility and good understanding of our business needs allowed us to quickly achieve the desired effect.

SŁAWOMIR RAŻNIEWSKI ,
IT Director Rainbow Tours S.A.

The final result

After less than a month of intense collaboration with Rainbow, we have created a new look for the trip configurator. In the latest version we have put special emphasis on the usability and functionality of the tool. Simplicity and the use of material design principles made it possible to create a clear and transparent trip configuration path. Having the needs and experience of salespeople in minds, we have equipped the trip configurator with additional features such as attribute icons, ratings display, photo galleries, itineraries and maps of the region.