Designing a fun companion app to improve the Carnival Cruises experience

Senior UX Designer
2016

Led the UX effort to redesign the onboard app for Carnival Cruises by working with SapientNitro. Improved visual, content, and interaction design to give cruisers a fun-filled memorable experience.

Context

Carnival Cruises approached SapientNitro for a revamp of their existing onboard mobile application, which at the time was considered obsolete with limited functionality and static content. This resulted in low user engagement, which was the primary driver behind the redesign.

The project moved swiftly, and for the first release, it was primarily about redesigning the app's home page and itinerary views.

Designing between agency and client

My time was split between working on-site with the client and collaborating with a creative team that was based at the agency. This made it possible for me to maintain communication with the client, collect all of the pertinent information and data, conduct interviews with stakeholders, and then begin the design process together with them. Then, once the fundamental components had been identified and agreed upon, I would take these back to my peers at the agency and start refining concepts with them.

Ideating

Personalization, social connection, eliminating lines, and making it entertaining were the team's four guiding principles. The goal was to create a memorable and enjoyable cruise experience that would drive engagement and on-ship purchases.

Content strategy was the most contentious topic with the client, and after several conversations on establishing what was primary and secondary content, we agreed on a hierarchy that we felt reflected the primary business objectives and user needs.

Testing the experience on a three-day Caribbean cruise

To test our ideas, we built a rudimentary prototype of the key app screens and took it on a three-day Caribbean cruise with real customers. We set up a mini-research laboratory on the ship and observed how customers interacted with the prototype.

Refining the experience based on customer feedback

After conducting a usability test on the prototype, the team analyzed and discussed the findings with the client, and we then adjusted the experience.