Let’s use consensus-building exercises that involve stakeholders throughout the entire process, to holistically tackle serious issues in usability, SEO, content, layout, and brand.
Orbitz.com was the biggest ecommerce launch in 2001, but there were many opportunities for improvement across the board, from general heuristics to SEO strategies to layout and CSS efficiencies. Product paths, like most everything on Orbitz at launch, had grown organically and desperately needed consistency.
Orbitz 2.0 was an opportunity to fully and holistically evolve the site’s interactions, brand voice, look and feel, and accessibility – which were all inflexible and underdeveloped. Using consensus-building exercises, creatives and stakeholders found a shared vision of the look and feel and the brand voice. Modules and templates were designed to be morph-able, with specs that were applicable in a range of proportions and placements.
Unfortunately, executive decisions melted several concepts into one and hacked away at scope in the eleventh hour, leaving large swaths of the redesigned site unbuilt or coded inelegantly.
twohundredtwelve° · 2002-2003
Creative direction: Syndy Ziegenfuss, Andrew Day · Design direction: Andrew Day, Yanni Lolis · Design: Andrew Day, Yanni Lolis, Michael Forsythe, Jef Lear, Betty Jo Moore · Information architecture: Mark Hines, Garrick Van Buren · Engineering: Shawn Hampton, Zack Frazier, Jason Slade, Brian Leach, et al.
Design development
Screen designsDesign spectrum workshop
The first collaboration exercise with stakeholders involves gathering visual reference, all of which is considered appropriate to evolving the brand online. Creatives and stakeholders collectively discuss topics and which images are most appropriate. This dialogue results in a shared visual vocabulary, so everyone knows exactly what visuals have merit when we say “playful” or “cool.” This is the best chance to tackle assumptions and settle differences of opinion up front.
Design concept boards
Learnings from the design spectrum workshop inform the directions proposed in the design concept boards. Designers apply appropriate tone and visuals to multiple concepts, each a viable direction. These boards are the early DNA of the look and feel – the color palette, supporting shapes, photography/illustration, typography. This is the best opportunity to develop a unique visual system; simply diving straight into screen designs typically results in a more pedestrian design and takes conversations into distracting lower-level details.
“Lush”: Andrew Day
“Simple 1”: Michael Forsythe
“Fun”: Brent Riley
“Simple 2”: Jef Lear
Screen designs
Top of pageInitial homepage concepts
“Hybrid” look and feel
Eleventh-hour executive decisions short-circuited the design/IA/engineering process. Senior leadership mandated melting two different concepts into one and leaving large swaths of the redesigned site unbuilt at launch. An efficient, simplified visual system emerged from the resulting last-minute design effort, but it lacked the spark and originality of the original concepts.
Quick-search homepage
Flights matrix and results
Hotel map matrix and results
Merchandising standards
Travel Watch section page
Custom deals maps
Flex-search calendar of flights and prices
Flights seat selection
My Stuff confirmation