#productdesign
#UX
#appdesign
#atlys
Traveling is fun, getting a visa, not so much. Atlys takes the pain out of the process with an app that guides our users through their travel journey. Loaded with smart integrations such as the ability to take photos at home, schedule embassy appointments from your couch, upload covid tests on your phone and much more. Atlys is optimized to not waste your time and is able to track and procure a tourist visa to any country in the world, in as little as five minutes.
Automating travel visa applications for every country in the world was just the first step to getting the app launched. I was brought on to help with user traction by focusing on user experience and brand. We wanted to promote organic and viral growth, which meant we needed our product to not just work but also delight. The first step in the process was to breakdown the app to its core principles and rebuild it based on user data and feedback. I chose to focus on pain points, information hierarchy and usability.
Redesign Goals:
• Ease of use and understanding
• Speed of visa application (Value Prop)
• Delight through UX & UI
• Trust built upon transparency
My Role:
Product Design, UX Research, UI Design, Usability Testing,
Brand & Logo Design, Illustration Design, Copywriting
Target Users:
Power Travelers - Travel often and are required to get a lot of visas. They find the process painful and want it to be easier and faster.
Problem:
Ease and understanding of the application process
Strategy:
By evaluating map apps who already have years of research and feedback, we are quickly able to gain insights and solutions to common issues.
Key Takeaways:
• Easy to understand
• Clear start and end points
• Multiple steps laid out in a bird’s eye view and one at a time
Problem:
Increase speed of visa applications
Strategy:
Requires learning the visa process in and out. Reading government websites and having access to previous embassy and consulate staff was essential. We used what we learned to remove any time constraints, building those features directly into the app.
Key Takeaways:
These are a few of the biggest time wasters that we built for:
• Passport photos (Including delivery)
• Notary
• Embassy appointments
• Letter of employment
• Travel Insurance
Problem:
Add delight everywhere we can
Strategy:
Ask everyone we know, what their favorite apps are and why? Make a list to compare and contrast features, designs, feelings and colors. What can we take from this to build into Atlys?
Key Takeaways:
• More use of color and illustration to evoke a positive feeling
• Gamify with progress bars and acknowledge achievements
• Give users a reason to keep coming back (Not just a single visa app)
Problem:
Increase transparency to build trust
Strategy:
Talk to users who drop off, especially those who make it to checkout without converting. Ask them what concerns they have about the app.
Key Takeaways:
• Acknowledge user fears by addressing them on every page of the app. Provide easy to find info on our security methods, information use and privacy policy.
• Provide a clear and obvious explanation for what our service fee is for. Remind users how much time we can save them and the peace of mind Atlys will provide.
Customer support and user feedback helped us prioritize product features that really matter. Once we were able to implement user drop-off metrics, we could focus our line of questioning even further. Gaining the insights we needed to improve the Atlys experience. Here are a handful of the changes we made early on:
Checklist broken down
into sections:
Created to inform
user expectations
Success state screens:
Added to acknowledge
completed tasks
Data safety warnings:
Added to every screen so users are always aware of their data privacy
Progress indicators:
Needed on every screen to
encourage users to finish
applications
Value prop delight screens:
To remind users why Atlys is the best solution to their visa needs
Checkout screen trust:
Enhanced by sharing where our other users are traveling
The entire travel and tourism industry was heavily affected by the pandemic. Atlys had to adapt to changing worldwide restrictions and a volatile visa application process. For us that meant adding another layer to the app and making sure it was as up to date as possible.We needed to build out Covid-19 entry forms for every country we supported. This required adding proof of vaccination (with the ability to scan vaccine cards) and an easy way to upload Covid-19 test results.
Example:
The Bahamas was a country that previously did not require a visa from US citizens. However during the pandemic they started to require all international tourists to have a Bahamas Health Visa and a negative Covid-19 test (uploaded 5 days prior to travel).
Part of every good app redesign is a branding initiative. Building a solid brand identity comes through asking questions such as, “How do we want to be perceived? What mood do we want to elicit from our users? Can we get our users to share the app of their own free will?”
By choosing to aim for delight, we needed to apply this feeling at every touch point. This meant breaking from boring and bureaucratic “government paperwork” in the app itself. While transforming our brand from “by the book” to something a little different. That’s how “Atlas” evolved into “Atlys.”
Logo & Brand Mark:
To help with brand & app recognition, I wanted to create a new logo. Starting with sketches, playing with typography and designing travel symbols led to many logo variations.
It became obvious that the logo needed to feature our new name to help with marketing and brand recognition. Luckily our name is only five letters long and fits easily in an iOS app icon square.
Knowing we needed more then just typography led me to a plane, a clear symbol for travel. The plane we ended up with was already being used across every screen of the app. As part of the redesign we used this plane to convey section progression to our users. By adding the same plane to our new logo, it evolved into a brand mark.
Colors:
We wanted to add more vibrant colors to not only make the brand more visually appealing but to also help with our design hierarchy. Knowing we needed more then just a good contrasting secondary color, I turned to color psychology.
We wanted to keep the calm, trust and honesty of blue and chose to add the energy, creativity and joy of Orange.
Illustrations:
As part of the rebrand and app design, I created an illustration set. Two characters were designed to accompany our users on their journey through the app. Each illustration was customized for different screens to help our users easily glean what is required.
The Atlys brand quickly evolved past my simple illustrations. Shifting focus to a younger user base, we also moved to a more modern 3D illustration style.
Experiments are rewarding
No idea is a bad idea until it is tested. At Atlys we ran experiments all the time. Anything that might encourage engagement, influence conversion or promote sharing was tried for a least a week. Product flows were shifted, screens removed or split up, share screens curated to demographics and holidays, friends and family visa trackers, etc…
Collaboration is key
I had the opportunity to work closely with and mentor a junior designer. Our different experiences and ideas were an advantage while solving for a travel problem we were both passionate about. We were even able to huddle up and bounce ideas off each other in realtime by using Figma. Cutting hours of back and forth slack/email traffic, we could easily brainstorm, design and iterate on each others wireframes and concepts.
Good feedback leads to good design
Being able to chat with the team about our customer support calls and emails was an immense help. All our design questions were influenced directly by customer needs and wants. This direct feedback on our decisions and experiments really helped us, help our users.
