NOVEMBER 2016
The goal of this project was to make the region search flow better and more prominent on KAYAK, so upper funnel users are more likely to convert and to use KAYAK. Success was measured upon the amount of region searches executed as well as conversion.
One of the risks of this was distracting user from converting by sending too much traffic to upper-funnel type searches. We tested two different flows to try to see which worked best. The Flights flow had a new intermediary page between the front door and the flights results page, while Hotels continue to take user straight to hotels results page.
initial sketched wireframes
Flight flow
Upon selection of a region or country in smarty, we built a new card-driven flow that showed most popular cities in searched area, ranked by popularity. In these cards, we provided data, such as average flight and 3-star hotel price to let user differentiate their options. Options were also flagged if they were nonstop or a popular option to help the user.
In the future, we could also show 3-4 points of interest and/or more information about the country or city.
Hotel flow
Upon selection of a region or country in smarty, we built a new card hierarchy on the results page showcasing the most popular destinations within a particular region (i.e. Germany -> Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, etc. and Puerto Rico -> San Juan, Vieques, Rincon). We also showed most popular cities in searched area, ranked by popularity. These cards could eventually be a carousel that allows users to view multiple cities, countries, etc. Clicking on a top level card would act as a sort/filter that pulls up relevant hotel results. By providing data around average hotel prices and most popular locations, we were able to let the user differentiate their options. In the future, we could also show 3-4 points of interest and/or more information about the country or city.
