KAYAK is a travel search engine for flights, hotels, rental cars and more. KAYAK users rely heavily on reading reviews when making travel plans and KAYAK relies on their user base to contribute these reviews.
The Goal
In 2018, KAYAK was going through a massive tech refactor and design system adoption. The form for users to leave a review needed to be refactored, and I wanted to take the opportunity to optimize the design as well. The current design was an overwhelming, single page form with outdated styles and patterns. The goal was to increase user review submissions, optimize for accessibility and remove friction.
The Approach
I designed a progressive disclosure flow that allows users to focus on one section of user inputs/actions at a time, helping to reduce cognitive load. We were asking users for a lot, and so we needed to make it seem as easy as possible and guide them through one step at a time.
I took a lot of inspiration from the Airbnb review form because they ask several questions (way more than KAYAK) while still making it feel easy and delightful to complete.
I also made sure to adopt KAYAK’s design system principles:
• Use typography and spacing to create visual hierarchy
• Embrace a 'less is more' mindset towards color
• Design like you're having a conversation
• Delight the user with the details
• Apply imagery to context
I designed the smiley face rating scale and incorporated illustration for delight. I used large bold typography and lots of white space to create a visual hierarchy and give some space to breathe. I used a large inspirational image to set context. I collaborated with our ux writer to make the design feel conversational. The copy encourages the user to leave a review and makes the user feel appreciated for taking the time to leave a review. Lastly, I adopted KAYAK’s design system, ensuring that all styles and components were modernized.
The Outcome
We successfully launched the new and improved review form on web, iOS and android platforms. Review submission rate increased, submission completion rate increased and number of submissions per session increased.