Trip Templates Travel Booking Functionality
Sample wireframe (PDF, 1 mb)
Full-size screenshot (new window)
Objectives
The goal of this project was to help users save time when booking a trip identical or similar to a previous trip, by using the previous trip as a "template" for the new one. It also needed to offer smart recommendations if an exact match to their previous trip could not be found.

Challenges
This functionality was aimed at an audience of power users. It needed to be exposed to them where they could find it easily, while not cluttering the experience or confusing a novice user. In addition, these expert users, while wanting the simplicity of booking a clone of a previous trip, also needed the ability to customize it to accommodate variations in their travel, such as a different number of traveling companions or the need to upgrade a hotel room. For cases when an exact match to their previous trip could not be found, the product manager and I created a matrix to define the importance of every aspect of travel, in order to best provide an intelligent match (not shown to the user). In addition, corporate travel policies needed to be taken into account when booking the repeat trip, possibly suggesting alternatives based on user or group level permissions.

Solution
A simple link was added to the homepage trip management section, allowing the user to "book again." When clicked, a popup was launched which allowed the user to simply book a clone of the trip on a specified date with a single click, or they could choose to make modifications, which would take them down a separate (longer) path. When choosing to simply book again without modifications, the system would attempt to match all components of the trip as closely as possible to the original trip. In an ideal scenario, the next screen a user would see (after a waiting screen) would be a review screen where they could see the details of their trip and would be notified about any smart recommendations that were made. The user had the option to view the new and original trips side by side to compare any differences before confirming that they wanted to book the new trip. In effect, the duplicate travel booking provided a cloning system behind the scenes that was largely invisible to the user, insuring as simple and speedy an experience as possible, while allowing them to feel confident that the new booking was correct.