Native Mobile App - Emirates

New Loyalty Section

The problem: The current experience on the Emirate native apps was not informing its users about the benefits of Emirates loyalty program and their status within the program. To solve this problem, the business owners had already decided to make a separate companion loyalty app to inform Skywards members about their status and benefits.

The approach: I challenged the need of having a separate app specifically dedicated to the Skywards program, therefore I started by understanding if there was a real need to create a companion app or if the content could be integrated within the Emirates flagship app. This required extensive competitor & user research and a very detailed content audit of both apps.

Throughout the research I gathered 2 main insights: (1) there was a clear need to provide users with the Skywards program information, users wanted to know and interact with it; and (2) this content could be presented in the main Emirates flagship app, there was no need to create a separate companion app specifically for the Skywards program.

The outcome: A new section was introduced within the Emirates flagship app called Skywards. Through this section, people now are able to:
1. Quickly access their current Miles balance.
2. Quickly check their current loyalty status and benefits.
3. Understand how to achieve the next level within the Skywards program and which new benefits they will have.
4. Learn about different ways to earn and spend their Skywards Miles.
5. Access their Miles statement.

On Board Entertainment

The problem: ice (the Emirates on-board entertainment system), is an award winning service, and the only way people could access this content before their flights was through the Emirates website, an experience that made the content hard to find and hard to interact with. There was an opportunity to present this content to users in an engaging way that would get people excited and allow them to interact with ice before their flight.

The approach: I started by doing research on existing media platforms to understand how they delivered content to their users. I then studied the on-board technology to identified any challenges that we might face when creating the experience, and finally I performed user research to understand the key tasks and features that needed to be reflected throughout the experience.

The outcome: by introducing the ice experience to the app, people are now able to:
1. Browse through the on-board entertainment available in their flight.
2. Select content and create playlists.
3. Pair their devices with the on-board entertainment system and control their previously created playlists.

UX and UI Uplift

The problem: The app had recently experienced an uplift, and there were sections of the app that had not been updated and still reflected the former UX and UI. Furthermore, there were new features that needed to be introduced to the experience.

The approach: I started by aligning with the business owners, to prioritise the sections/features that needed to be addressed first. Once I had a clear roadmap, I performed data analysis and user research to identify existing pain points and opportunities for the current experience.

The outcome: Introduced new sections and features to the native apps that would enhance the experience and solve user pain points:
1. View the in-flight dining menu and add any dietary requirements .
2. Check their baggage allowance for their upcoming trips.

Emirates Mobile Design System

The Emirates app had been on-going work by different people for several years, and still had no design system. This meant a time consuming process with a lot of manual work that did not guarantee alignment throughout the experience.

I took the first step into creating the Emirates mobile design system and created guidelines through which everyone (designers, developers, business owners) had now access to:
1. Navigation structure.
2. Behaviour principles.
3. Communication principles
4. UI principles and best practices.