PROBLEMS TO SOLVE

Flight disruptions are typically negative experiences for passengers, front line staff and business operations.

When flights are cancelled, delayed or diverted passengers circumstances vary. How and when they receive information will depend on each case. Sometimes through via text, email or in persona at the airport. We needed to understand the context most passengers were in as well as their expectations, so we could identify 'what' information we needed to provide and 'how' to deliver it.

GOALS

- Reduce wait time at check in desk and call centre by providing passengers with clear options and solutions.

- Enable customers to take action faster.

- Encourage the use of self-service.

- Reduce customer stress/frustration.

- Reduce pressure on staff / internal disruption workload.

WHAT WE DID

1. Stakeholder meetings and workshops

One of the main challenges of this project was the number of different departments that are affected by disruptions and are responsible for communicating information to passengers. It was important for us to understand their obstacles and requirements. We held weekly meetings and did several workshops to ensure all departments were engaged and aligned with us throughout the project. Communication consistency and governance were two of our primary goals.

2. Content and systems audit

One of the starting points of the project was to do a content and systems audit.

The purpose was to gather all the different pieces of communication. Then we analysed things like readability, tone, length, content hierarchy, links, how these pieces of content connected and goals.

The main focus of this project was to improve usability, findability and readability of Dropbox's Help center.

The site wasn't responsive until we launched the first version in April 2017. Making it user-friendly on mobile was a key priority. Help content was dispersed throughout different platforms, very complex and text-heavy our goal was to integrate search and surface the most relevant, current and useful content for users. Content strategy played a key role. We reviewed how content was written, how content connected with each other, and how content was searched and surfaced. Reducing complexity was our goal.

Collaborating with the San Francisco brand design team would be critical to ensure visual consistency was aligned with both product and brand values.

3. Passenger interviews analysis

12 passengers who had been affected by flight disruptions had been interviewed for this project. After listening to the recordings we were able to identify many improvement opportunities. In summary, people wanted to know the reason for the disruption, what were their options were and where they could take action on their preferred choice of action. Quick, clear and easy.

4. Industry benchmarking

Understanding what are the industry's best practices for this type of situation gave us a starting point see where we could implement improvements.

5. User journey mapping

We mapped out several typical use cases from the people interveiwed to understand the process from disruption to action and to find opportunities to improve communications sent.

6. Write and design new communications

With content goals like simplification, transparency and good visual hierarchy we worked on reviewing all communications which included emails, website content, text messages and verbal announcements.

7. Governance

The last part of this project was to deliver a content style guide to help the team write content in the future. Following two of the pillars of Ryanair’s tone of voice and focusing on the concepts of Brutally Simple (we tell it straight and we tell it quickly) as well as Fair and Open (we tell them ‘the good, the bad and the ugly), we developed a brief communication guide for writing content in the event of disruptions.

Key principles:
Short, simple, scannable
Be personal
Active voice over passive voice
Informative and actionable
What matters first
Empathetic
Avoid all caps and exclamations
Transparency