The unboxing experience
Core teams: Octafiandri Hodir (Visual Designer), Sebastian Rühl (Supervisor)
The "Tourlane Travel Box" was my very first project at Tourlane. It was a critical factor in my hiring. This initiative was designed with the user in mind. Its goal was to increase our customers' pre-trip excitement and impact our NPS score. I championed the user-centric design process, navigating the journey from ideation and prototyping to budgeting and working with third-party printers, under the supervision of the Chief Design Officer (CDO).
From the very beginning, I was aware of potential user concerns, particularly regarding the extremely detailed level of personalization that we were embedding. However, with a user-first mindset, the company launched the travel box in October 2018, just three months into my tenure.
The unboxing experience was composed of two user-focused stages:
Travel Confirmation:
After booking, customers receive an envelope that is thoughtfully curated to include their booking confirmation, a destination-specific postcard, the business card of their travel expert, and a tea that resonates with the continent they're about to explore.
The Travel Box:
Our customers are presented with another tangible experience approximately three weeks before departure. This box contains their travel documents and Tourlane merchandise, each chosen for its potential relevance to their trip.
After the launch, I engaged in a feedback loop with the Document Handling Department, the internal users responsible for assembling these boxes. Their insights were invaluable. They highlighted the challenges of detailed personalization, especially with the range of over 16 destination postcards. They raised a user-centric question: was this level of personalization really an improvement in the user experience? To validate this, we contacted our end users - our customers. Their feedback revealed that while they appreciated the travel box, it didn't resonate with the excitement we aimed to create. However, the travel documents were a must-have for the user. Based on this user feedback, the decision makers decided to keep the travel box, but to tailor it to our more budget-conscious user segment. The challenge that followed was refining the user experience while balancing cost and complexity.
I optimized the printed material inventory stock and reduced the printing cost by 21%.
Eventually, the journey of the travel box came to an end in August 2019, in line with our sustainable ethos and with user feedback in mind.
