My Role
Senior Product Designer (iOS Mobile App Consultant)
Team
Designer (Myself), 1 Product Manager, 3 Front-End Devs, 3 Back-End Devs, 1 Content Strategist, Supporting Designer
Project Timeline
3.5 Months
Stakeholders
Design Director, Director of Product, VP of American Express Partnerships
Overview
American Express, a leader in premium financial services, positions itself as a lifestyle brand, with luxury travel as a core member benefit. Renowned for its Platinum Card—a symbol of luxury, offering members exclusive travel perks and unmatched rewards.
____
NDA Disclaimer
NDA Disclaimer
Due to confidentiality agreements, this case study presents only a high-level overview of the project. For more details or a deeper discussion about my contributions, feel free to reach out directly.
Background
Hired by Expedia as a senior product design consultant to redesign the outdated Amex Travel mobile web experience. With Expedia already a key partner of Amex, the team was able to leverage their API to integrate seamless functionality while focusing on creating a cutting-edge, native iOS app.
This was a surprise pitch... American Express did not yet know what our team was building for them.
The Challenge
American Express has an outdated Travel web experience that has fallen short of modern user expectations, frustrating members and obscuring the true value of its benefits.
Amex cardholders struggled with frustrating booking flows, unintuitive navigation, and hidden perks, leading to underutilization and a diminished sense of value. This lack of seamlessness has done a disservice to the premium experience expected by Platinum members.
Current Amex Travel Web Experience:
The mobile web experience is hindered by:
•Extremely slow performance,
•Confusing navigation, therefore not knowing how to utilize benefits
•Frustrating booking flows and unintuitive navigation.
•Limited accessibility, losing where they left off
•Account management challenges,
•Inconsistent optimization across devices
•Users having to move to a desktop to complete a medium to large task or booking
•Confusing navigation, therefore not knowing how to utilize benefits
•Frustrating booking flows and unintuitive navigation.
•Limited accessibility, losing where they left off
•Account management challenges,
•Inconsistent optimization across devices
•Users having to move to a desktop to complete a medium to large task or booking
These issues collectively diminish user satisfaction and hinder the platform’s ability to meet modern traveler expectations. Addressing these pain points through a dedicated iOS app design would significantly elevate the user experience and reestablish trust in the brand.
Solution
Design the new Amex Travel, a fully native iOS app designed from the ground up to provide Platinum American Express cardholders with a seamless and luxurious travel experience. This bespoke app seamlessly combines Amex's premium branding with the robust functionality of Expedia's APIs to deliver an elevated travel solution.
I created this video to highlight the luxurious, seamless experience we designed and developed, supporting the pitch and conveying our vision.
Approach
Leveraging Expedia's expertise and extensive design research, as well as conduct our research studies of the current Amex Travel Web experience as a baseline.
Discover and redesign the pain points in the Web experience. Due to the confidential nature of the project, we only had Amex's standard web brand guidelines and live site assets as references; we couldn't request additional brand guidelines or creative assets.
Adapting the web design system to a native app environment was challenging, requiring us to design and develop everything bespoke and tailored specifically for this app.
Adapting the web design system to a native app environment was challenging, requiring us to design and develop everything bespoke and tailored specifically for this app.
Outcome
The team built a fully functional mobile app that looked and felt like a luxury iOS experience, surpassing the current Amex Travel experience.
•Personalized Home Page: Offers tailored trip suggestions and quick links to frequent actions.
•Personalized Home Page: Offers tailored trip suggestions and quick links to frequent actions.
•Seamless Booking Flow: Intuitive and flexible options for flights, hotels, and activities.
•Benefits Page: Consolidates all Amex perks, enhancing discoverability and usability.
•Profile Page: A robust dashboard for points management, trip history, and preferences.
•Interactive Trip History: A map-based travel log, is visually engaging and functional.
________________________________
