Turning a forced compliance project into a platform for improvement
Overview
I led a redesign that started as a compliance requirement and became something much more — rescuing a key partnership, resolving years of cross-vertical UX debt, and uncovering a revenue opportunity that drove a 1.6x increase in product attachment.
1.6x
Product attachment
18%
Easier to book (CES)
8 weeks
Design to launch
Challenge
Perk (ex-TravelPerk) is a B2B platform for booking company travel. Delta was enforcing new guidelines for how vendors display their flights. The guidelines conflicted with Perk's booking model and their business travelers' mental models.
Delta and Perk had different incentives. To avoid relitigating design decisions, I created a definition of done that both parties signed before any design work began.
Auditing across verticals
To align the design across verticals, I ran a heuristic review across flights, trains and cars with each vertical's designer.
Continuous testing
We usability-tested all critical flows before rollout. A phased release with live session observation let us iterate continuously.
Understanding the baseline
We ran a CES survey at the end of the booking flow before the redesign, so we could quantify any change in user effort.
Locking in scope
Agreeing the definition of done up-front saved us from any potential scope changes.
Evidence over opinion
Contested decisions went to customer data rather than to whoever argued hardest.
Shipping in slices
Weekly critique with engineering and incremental release rather than one big launch.
Resolving conflicts
Un-bookable fare tiers
The guidelines introduced six fare tiers. Perk users can only book within their price policy, meaning the higher-end tiers weren't relevant for the majority of users.
One Delta flight from CDG to JFK. 6 fare categories sit beside the itinerary. Bookable categories show from-prices; out-of-policy categories are labelled Out of policy. Selecting a premium category expands nested fare options, each marked out of policy with a red shield cross and an Out of policy button.
Delta
10:25CDG
13:00JFK
from$429
from$519
from$689
from$849
Out of policy
Out of policy
Delta One Classic
Delta One Suite
Most users cannot book higher-end flights
I negotiated reducing the tiers from six to four: combining higher-end fares into the fourth tier. This reduced the prominence of non-viable options.
One Delta flight from CDG to JFK. 4 fare categories sit beside the itinerary, all marked in policy. Selecting a category expands nested fare options that travellers can book.
Delta
10:25CDG
13:00JFK
from$429
from$519
from$689
from$849
Basic economy
Basic economy plus
Non-viable options are de-prioritised
Hiding journey visibility
Delta's guidelines hid return flights until after choosing an outbound flight. This meant users could unknowingly choose an outbound flight with no viable return options.
An outbound flight from JFK to LAX with four fare categories. The second category is open, showing nested fares. Selecting a fare transitions to return flight cards from LAX to JFK, each labelled Out of policy, the last of which is clipped by the frame. In-policy outbound does not mean in-policy return.
Outbound
10:25JFK
13:00LAX
from$429
from$519
from$689
from$849
Main cabin
Main cabin plus
Main cabin flexible
Return
16:20LAX
00:45JFK
Out of policy
Out of policy
Out of policy
Out of policy
Return
18:40LAX
03:05JFK
Out of policy
Out of policy
Out of policy
Out of policy
Return
21:15LAX
05:40JFK
Out of policy
Out of policy
Out of policy
Out of policy
A viable outbound flight doesn't mean viable return options
I negotiated for us to keep the round-trip flight view, rather than hiding return options. This let travellers keep the ability to see viable round-trip options at a glance.
One round-trip card in the four-column fare grid. Outbound and return legs sit together beside skeleton fare placeholders, so travellers can see the full journey and whether it is in policy.
Outbound
07:15LAX
08:35SFO
Return
18:40SFO
20:05LAX
from$429
from$519
from$689
from$849
Full-visibility of the round-trip journey
Conflicting with different markets
European carriers have fewer fares than American carriers, meaning almost every fare tier would be empty across most airlines.
A European round-trip card in the four-column fare grid. The first category has a fare; the remaining three columns are largely empty in the European market.
Ryanair
06:45DUB
08:15STN
Ryanair
19:30STN
21:00DUB
from$89
Delta's design didn't work in Europe
To avoid this, I designed a separate European search results view, based on the same design, but with a simplified card that didn't include the fare tiers.
One European round-trip result in a simplified single-fare column layout — one bookable fare instead of a four-column grid.
Outbound
07:15DUB
08:35STN
Return
18:40STN
20:05DUB
from$94
Simplified card for European searches
The final design
Search results and fares
As well as implementing the new expandable fare tiers, I redesigned the flight search result card with stronger content grouping and hierarchy.
Press the expand button to see the full image
Re-thinking the filtering experience
The new layout needed horizontal space that the old filters side panel was occupying. This meant we had to rethink where they lived.
Filters side panel didn't work with the new full-width results design
I ran a card sort to re-group filters around our users' mental models, then designed a horizontal filter experience, using progressive disclosure to reduce cognitive load .
Horizontal filter categories create more space and improve navigation
Making it easier to change parameters
Changing search terms was tucked behind an edit button. In live sessions, I noticed that users often missed the button and returned to the home page to adjust their search.
Changing search terms was hidden and cumbersome
To address this, I made the search parameters editable by default, tucking away when the user scrolls down, and re-appearing when they scroll up from anywhere on the page.
Changing search terms is now much easier
Scaling the new patterns
The new search experience, filters, and results cards were designed to scale across verticals, creating a unified design language.
The new patterns across Flights, Trains and Cars
A hidden opportunity
Introducing 'FlexiFare'
FlexiFare is Perk's flexible fare: a normal fare with a small markup for free changes and cancellation. Under the old design, it was only offered on the most basic fare.
Two fare cards sit side by side. Basic fare at $390 allows no changes and is not refundable. FlexiFare at $449 has changes at price difference and a minimum 80% refund. Both include underseat and carry-on bags, but no checked bag or seat selection.
Basic fare
No changes allowed
Not refundable
Underseat bag included
Carry-on bag included
No checked baggage
No seat selection
FlexiFare
Changes: price difference
Minimum 80% refundable
Underseat bag included
Carry-on bag included
No checked baggage
No seat selection
The new guidelines buried it
In the old flow, every traveller saw FlexiFare as the second option on a single fare screen. In the new design, only users who chose Basic would see it.
One round-trip result with outbound and return legs stacked beside the fare categories. 4 fare categories sit beside the itinerary, all marked in policy. Selecting a category expands nested fare options that travellers can book.
Outbound
07:15LAX
08:35SFO
Return
18:40SFO
20:05LAX
from$429
from$519
from$689
from$849
Basic economy
FlexiFare
FlexiFares would only show under the Basic tier
Expanding FlexiFares
I proposed extending FlexiFare across the fare tiers. This fixed the visibility problem and unlocked a major revenue opportunity that had been overlooked.
All fare tiers now have a FlexiFare variant
Impact
The redesign secured the Delta partnership, cleared years of UX debt, and grew FlexiFare revenue — all from a project that began as forced compliance.
The FlexiFare expansion drove a1.6x increase in attachment, representing a yearly revenue increase of several million dollars.
On top of this, overallflight booking CES improved 18%, from 3.9 to 4.6 out of 5.
Learnings
A written definition of done is a conflict resolution tool
The definition of done document became our most-valuable tool for alignment and decision-making. Having Delta sign off on success criteria early meant that when they pushed back later, we had something to point to.
Usability testing only tells us so much
Usability testing gave us confidence, but watching real users in Fullstory post-launch revealed behaviours we hadn't anticipated. Some of our assumptions about navigation were simply wrong, and we only caught them because observation was built into the plan from the start.
Opportunities often come from looking sideways
The FlexiFare expansion wasn't in scope. I spotted the revenue risk while solving an unrelated problem. This is a reminder that design exploration can lead to opportunities that aren't covered in PRDs. It's also a reminder that, if we look at them in the right way, constraints can sometimes open doors.
Perk