Phocuswright
Travel industry platform reimagined
INDUSTRY
The ask
Phocuswright, a global travel research firm, caters to airlines, hotel groups, OTAs, and firms — all paying for proprietary data. The company needed a platform to reflect that prestige. At the time, its interface limited how analysts presented research and how subscribers consumed it. Senior leadership came to us with a problem and asked for a solution. We provided a strategy.
The challenge
The challenge
Since research platforms are inherently content-rich, we had to figure out how to structure the information to give analysts and consumers autonomy. This is a classic UX conundrum that speaks to the challenge of creating a site architecture that’s navigable (without being redundant) for both frequent and infrequent users.
The cherry on top: a team of opinionated executive stakeholders. Everyone at the table had a perspective on the “right” path forward; we had to show them a design direction backed by research.
The work
The work
We ran discovery sessions with stakeholders across the organization, including executives, research analysts, and the sales team, who heard customer complaints firsthand. That cross-functional input shaped the sitemap.
From there, we designed a full future-state UX. We created conceptual wireframes, a design system, and a high-fidelity interactive prototype that let stakeholders experience the new platform, rather than just review it on paper.
The prototype gave Phocuswright’s internal development team a clear blueprint, complete with annotated specs, component documentation, and interaction guidelines for building the platform.
This mobile-first design underpinned the digital translations of analog research. Some key features included bookmarking, intuitive forward and backward navigation, recalling contextual patterns, and saving text snippets.
The result
During the firm’s annual global conference, Phocuswright conducted user testing sessions, which yielded positive results. Travel executives, researchers, buyers, and sellers all reacted positively to how our design drastically reduced the time they spent searching for information.
- Stakeholder sign-off across executive, product, research, and sales teams
- Development-ready prototype and full design system for internal engineering
- Clean scope and clean handoff