Story
American Express (AMEX) is known for its financial products, premium customer service and reward programs. Through its Travel Lifestyle Services (TLS) division, AMEX offers personalized travel planning, booking assistance and exclusive experiences to its cardholders, focusing on luxury and convenience.
Challenge
Facing intensifying competition, AMEX needs to evolve its offering. Despite holding a rich suite of digital assets such as RESY, CLEAR and Wheels Up, they are only available to users through the AMEX TLS desktop portal, making it difficult for cardmembers to unlock the world of possibilities available to them.
Outcome
AMEX partnered with SYPartners to create a travel app prototype that integrates TLS assets into a single, unified, intuitive experience. Three user journeys based on AMEX cardmember personas were used to envision how features such as curated travel inspiration, dynamic itineraries and in-trip notifications could come-to-life and enhance the cardmember's travel experience.
Client
Category
American Express
UX & Prototyping
My Role
Senior UX Designer & Researcher
Internal team
Managing Partner
Creative Technologist
Senior Designer (UX)
Strategy Director
Senior Designer
Designer
Program Manager
Senior Audio Producer
Sabrina Clark
Tim Malchoz
Ying Zhang
David Dini
Clint Disharoon
Brandon Joseph
Chloe Krey
Peter Fedek
My Contribution
I was the lead UX designer, researcher and illustrator, collaborating with a cross-functional team of strategist, program manager, creative technologist and visual designer. I executed user research, developed the user journeys and concept-tested the prototype.
UI Concepts
We explored three UI visual directions: 'AMEX as Your Travel Companion' uses vibrant imagery and bright colors, 'AMEXclusive' emphasize exclusivity by using black-and-white photography and deep tones and 'True Blue' most aligned with the existing Amex brand incorporate the iconic Amex blue for a familiar, inviting look.
Brand, IA, Design Principles & UX
We built on AMEX's existing brand system by establishing a set of principles that guided the design process. High-level information architecture helped organize content and user flows directed how users would move through the journey.
UX Research
To ensure design resonance, we conducted three user research phases with the different persona groups. Phase 1 focused on discovery and empathy, Phase 1B on co-creation and ideating key features. In the final Phase, we tested a preliminary prototype to evaluate feature design and gathered initial feedback on the UI/UX .
Reflections & Key Learnings
The goal for the Amex travel app was to leverage Amex’s extensive digital assets into a platform where can seamlessly plan and manage their travel. While we showcased Amex’s offerings effectively, weaving Amex’s assets more subtly into the app’s functionality would have created a more refined user experience without compromising the product's objectives. This project helped me to better understand the importance of balancing business objectives with a user-centric approach.
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