As Lead UX Engineer at Emirates Airlines, my objective was to drive measurable business results by re-engineering the flight discovery and booking experience. I led the UX overhaul that increased conversion rates and modernised our internal workflows.
The challenge
Emirates' method for showing promotional fares was outdated and fragmented across web, mobile, and email. This resulted in slow, multi-week rollouts and a frustrating experience for customers trying to find the best deals. The challenge was to design a unified, responsive experience that would increase conversions while transitioning the team to a more nimble way of working.
My approach
I focused on rapid iteration, user insights, and proving out agile methodologies within a traditionally conservative corporate environment.
I collaborated with UX researchers to dedicate our initial design sprint to understanding user behaviour. We analysed search patterns from over 500,000 monthly visitors and conducted research across key markets to map the complete booking journey and identify conversion touchpoints.
Using these insights, I led my team through intensive two-week design sprints, where we rapidly built and tested prototypes directly with customers on web and mobile. We refined designs based on weekly usability sessions and direct feedback.
To accelerate delivery and ensure consistency, I established a component-driven workflow using our UI design system. This aligned the web and native mobile app experiences and created a clear, efficient handoff process.
I was a key driver in the shift to agile, facilitating two-week sprints with cross-functional teams, coordinating web and mobile releases, and using daily stand-ups and retrospectives to build a culture of continuous improvement.
Outcomes
The revamped featured fares experience delivered measurable results. We achieved a 14% increase in traffic to fare pages and a notable uplift in booking conversions within three months of launch. We also reduced the design-to-development handoff time from two weeks to three days with the new component-based workflow.
The team's ability to ship customer-focused improvements every two weeks proved agile could work at scale within Emirates, and influenced wider digital transformation efforts. The project also created a scalable foundation and lasting design standards for both emirates.com and the Emirates Airlines mobile applications.