Ukraine International Airlines

A research project aimed at improving the customer experience in the Fly UIA application

ABOUT FLY UIA

Ukraine International Airlines is the largest airline in Ukraine and the country's flag carrier. Founded in 1992, it operates from a hub at Boryspil International Airport (KBP), just outside Kyiv. Before the war in Ukraine, the airline connected Ukraine with countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

MY ROLE

UX research

UX design

SCOPE OF WORK

RESEARCH

Problem Framing
Heuristic analysis
In-depth Interviews
Competitor analysis
Kano Model
Business Model
Canvas Value
Proposition Canvas
User testing

IDEATION

Design question

DESIGN

Prototyping

IMPACT

Interface problems fixed
Improved UX

PROTOTYPE

RESEARCH / THE CHALLENGE

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Fly UIA stakeholders identified the following main problems:
- People prefer aggregator sites for booking plane tickets rather than the company's official website
- Users have problems logging in and entering the account
- Most people leave the app at the last steps of ordering a ticket. At the payment step

I delved into research to study the problems and understand the reasons for their occurrence.

RESEARCH / THE GOAL

MY CONTRIBUTION

While researching, I found critical problems in booking and returning a ticket. I found ways to improve the user experience of the Fly UIA mobile application by creating a more explicit and comprehensive flow in the app.

RESEARCH / THE CHALLENGE

HOW MIGHT WE?

I used the framework "How could we?" and formulated the following theses:

- How could we make the registration process more straightforward and clearer?
- How could we reduce the cognitive load on users?
- How could we make the interface more intuitive?

RESEARCH / ANALYSIS

COMPETITOR
ANALYSIS USING KANO MODEL

I identified four major airline competitors and compared them using the Kano model. I have divided all the benefits into the following categories:

primary data,
must-have features,
nice-to-have, and delights.

In the table, I marked the presence of the function with the number 1 or the absence of the function with the sign 0.

The method allowed me to analyze the company's product and the service as a whole. The goal is to understand what services users need to improve in Fly UIA and what the company can improve to attract customers.

RESEARCH / ANALYSIS

HEURISTIC
EVALUATION

I analyzed the product using Jacob Nielsen's ten heuristics and found 23 problems. I composed a detailed report to describe each issue.

Here are just a few examples of all the problems found:

The calendar UI does not have a function to display dates available for booking tickets.
When filling in fields and entering data, situations often arise when the user selects some option and loses progress with all the previous data.
Inconsistency in the type of interface elements is widespread in the product.
The interface often forces the user to repeat the same actions instead of helping to save time by pre-filling already known data.
The phone number input field is divided into two separate fields: the country code and the phone number itself.

RESEARCH / INTERVIEWS

UNDERSTANDING THE USER. IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

The in-depth interviews aimed to learn about the interaction experience between customers and the company.

Taras

The last time I flew to Turkey was UIA Ukrainian Airlines. Everything could have gone better. It's more about the service issues.

Diana

I have filled out a request in my account to get discounted tickets. After waiting two days, the manager contacted me and said the discount would be 20 euros. After that, I asked: "Why?". She said: "Well, because we have such a discount for this flight." I asked: "And what is the reason for this?". She answered: "Internal policies." I spent two days on this process.

Julia

I prefer the website for choosing and buying a ticket. Getting acquainted with all the terms of purchasing a ticket in the application is complex. The information needs to be more accessible.

TAKEAWAYS FROM IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS

There are inconsistencies between user actions and system operation

User testing confirmed that the application is unreliable and contains many bugs, preventing a person from successful operation. For example, the user selected the city of Barcelona (Spain), but the application showed Almaty (Kazakhstan).

There are difficulties while filling registration data

Heuristic analysis and testing have shown that the registration form is complicated, and the sequence of fields needs to be more logical. There are not enough valuable tips, such as: "Use English and fill in the data as in the passport."

Cancellation procedure is too complicated

During the testing, only one user out of four could cancel a ticket booking. This statistic suggests that cancellation procedure should be simplified. It would be better to let users manage reservations through their accounts.

People avoid using UIA due to poor service

My interviewers mentioned several unpleasant situations with UIA ticket booking and during the flights. For example, sometimes, UIA staff behaved impolitely or demonstrated indifference to the passenger’s needs.

The Panorama Club Bonus Program is very unfriendly in use

It is not possible to manage bonus miles through the user account. To collect bonuses, the user must always call support. In addition, the miles usage rules are very complex and only applicable to some flights.

SELECTED TAKEAWAYS FROM USER TESTING SESSIONS

LESSONS LEARNED

Conducting such researches, it is important not to focus only on the product, but to pay much attention to the user experience and needs.

Since Fly UIA is considered as Ukrainian national airline, it is important to maintain and improve the company's prestige level. Many foreigners flying UIA start evaluating our country through the quality of national airline service. Thus, just improving the company's website and mobile application is not enough, because general image matter even much and require complex approach. Although we had quite short time for such a project, we managed to do a lot. My conclusions and recommendations were comprehensive and related to the whole range of UIA company services.

Considering the tough international and domestic competition, UIA should offer the customer good service and position itself as a modern reliable airline. It would be good for the company to remember that they are Ukrainian national operator and make travelling with them prestigious, pleasant and patriotic.