My Role

Led product design for the cruise booking engine, shaping AI-assisted search, personalized cabin selection, and a streamlined checkout experience.

Key outcomes delivered

Redesigned core booking flows to reduce decision friction and improve task completion.

Standardized pricing and ticket details to make comparisons faster and more transparent.

Defined a guided user journey that supports discovery, selection, and checkout in fewer steps.

Problem

Before

The booking flow was fragmented across screens, making search and cabin selection difficult.
Users were unable to compare fares quickly, and pricing details were hard to understand.
The checkout process lacked clarity, which increased abandonment risk.

Solution

After

Led the product-level redesign of the cruise booking engine, reducing cognitive load, improving pricing clarity, and strengthening trust across search, selection, and checkout experiences.

Identity

What's Identified?

The booking product suffered from inconsistent visual language and interaction patterns, causing users to lose trust and add unnecessary effort to the search process.

User Research

Qualitative

  1. Which steps take the longest or feel unnecessary? Too many filters made the search feel heavy.
  2. What information is missing when comparing cruises?
  3. How do you search for cruises currently?
  4. What parts of the current booking flow feel confusing or difficult to use?
  5. Do you find the design and layout intuitive?

Quantitative

  1. Page scroll depth and click patterns to pinpoint friction points.
  2. Step-by-step completion rates across the search and booking flows.
  3. Time to complete cabin selection as a measure of decision efficiency.
  4. Page-by-page drop-off rate to identify abandonment triggers.

Actors & Personas

Katie

Scenario

Katie visits the booking site to plan a family cruise vacation. They want to compare different itineraries, check cabin availability, understand total pricing, and complete the booking confidently.

Pain Points

  • Struggles to find relevant cruises due to too many filters and no guided search.
  • Difficulty comparing itineraries and ship features across multiple tabs/pages.
  • Confusing fare breakdowns with unclear taxes, fees, or promotional details.
  • Slow decision-making due to scattered information and inconsistent layout

    • Jacob

    Scenario

    Jacob - an agency owner wants to use Travtech’s CBE as their branded booking website to serve their customers. They expect the platform to reflect their identity while maintaining functional consistency.

    Pain Points

  • Limited customization options make the website look outdated or off-brand.
  • Lack of modern features like AI recommendations reduces competitiveness
  • Difficulty managing frequent customer questions about pricing, policies, or itinerary details.

    • Approach and Use Cases

    Search & Discovery

    UC01 – Search by Destination/Date

    A user enters destination, embarkation port, or date range and views relevant cruise results instantly.

    UC02 – Filter & Sort Cruises

    Users apply filters like price, cruise line, ship, duration, or departure port to refine search results.

    UC03 – AI-Assisted Search

    User types natural language queries like “Caribbean cruise for 5 nights in June” and the AI suggests cruise lists.

    Cruise Details & Itinerary

    UC04 – View Detailed Itinerary

    The user checks the day-by-day itinerary, ports, and timings in a clean visual layout.

    UC05 – Explore Ship Details

    User views ship features, entertainment options, cabin categories, and deck plans.

    Cabin Selection

    UC06 – Choose Cabin Category

    The user selects the cabin type (Interior, Oceanview, Balcony, Suite).

    UC07 – Check Availability

    The user sees cabin availability in real-time with status indicators.

    UC08 – Upgrade or Change Cabin

    The user modifies the cabin choice before payment.

    Booking & Payment

    UC09 – Add Guest Details/Login to prefill data

    The user enters traveler information and special requests or gets prefilled traveler data using login

    UC10 – View Transparent Fare Breakdown

    Users see base fare, taxes, fees, add-ons, and discounts clearly itemized.

    UC11 – Choose Insurance, Payment Method and Payment Mode

    The user selects a credit card or other supported payment options like flex pay or by paying advance.

    UC12 – Complete Payment & Get Confirmation

    The user completes booking and receives confirmation with booking summary and invoice.

    Where can I reach you?

    What are you looking for?

    Give me a quick idea of what you need

    Received.

    You’ll hear from me soon.

    All works © Surya Narayanan 2026