Based in Vancouver, Fresh Tracks Canada has over 25 years of experience in building over 15,000 personalized vacations for their travellers. The brand aimed to form a platform that will be the most trusted source of information on Canadian travel and tourism in the world. They wanted to become the default presence where people check to see what’s new and where they should go. This platform needs to embody the brand, allow effect and collaborative content publishing and be the central pillar to the customer experience for the company.

1. Role

Within my role as the UX Designer, I supported the discover track of web product development to validate ideas, learn and drive delivery of working designs with the help of wireframes, prototypes and user testing. I made recommendations and implemented design decisions to improve the experience for new and returning travellers. Some of those improvements include optimizing for better accessibility, increasing the performance of the pages, removing design inconsistencies which would result in the customer succesfully flowing down the conversion funnel.

2. Challenge

Their current business operations are fragmented across multiple websites, leading to significant internal complexity that manifested in a disjointed customer experience. This fragmentation is amplified by inconsistent branding, with development and marketing efforts disproportionately focused on just one of the five websites. Consequently, there was widespread confusion about what Fresh Tracks offers, its target audience, and how it differentiates itself from competitors. The onset of COVID-19 further compounded these challenges, shifting focus towards sales-led processes and procedures at the expense of marketing and customer-driven experience decisions. Additionally, their reliance on outdated technology hampered in their ability to quickly implement major changes and adapt products, resulting in slower time to market.

3. Solution

During the design phase, we explored numerous layout options, and I led several ideation discussions with the cross-functional team, including Sales and Developers, to align on project goals. Working closely with the development teams, I ensured that design specifications were accurately implemented within Storybook. I developed high-fidelity user interfaces and prototypes in Figma for mobile, tablet, and desktop layouts to ensure a seamless interactive experience, which were then A/B tested to gather customer feedback. Additionally, I built and maintained the design library in Figma, incorporating new and updated components to keep the system current and consistent.