Travel websites are constantly improving, be it in their look and feel, response time, or add-on services.
Airline websites and other sites selling flights face a unique challenge, as fares and inventory change in the blink of an eye.
Apart from the content, inventory, and pricing, travel brands have many other things to take care of in their website, including page load time, design concept, uniformity through all pages of the site, and color palette -- as well as reducing the bounce rate, improving "stickiness", increasing the conversion rate, and more.
Fantasy Interactive, a digital design agency, has come up with a concept design of an airline site of the future.
The two-minute video (embedded below) highlights the smooth operation of the site, map-based flight search, structuring the flow/content, cross-selling services, focusing on non-core sections like trip inspiration.
The site is visually driven rather than text-driven. It's an online consultant rather than an order taker.
Finally the site is able to perform all of the above operations (including check-in and other day-of-travel services) in a seamless flow.
The design is impressive; it would work wonders if all websites were THIS responsive and hassle-free in usage.
The company has executed this concept after a thorough study of all the major airline websites for their information architecture, including their visual and interaction design. FI says it's about time to redesign airline websites in order to boost direct bookings. (Why pay commission to OTAs instead?)
Interestingly, the 14-year old company doesn't have any sales department. Its belief is that its work should speak for itself. And, in this case, the work certainly does.
Related: Recently Cleartrip explained to Tnooz about its massive website redesign project.