Jul 14, 2018, 10:24 pm
Last edit by: SFO777
How to get the old layout back
- Delete the cookie named: newHP
- Go directly to https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/
- Enjoy it while it lasts
United Airlines' Redesigned Homepage Takes Off
Airline unveils new homepage with improved functionality and more personalized experience
CHICAGO, July 12, 2018
Today, United Airlines (UAL) announced the redesigned united.com homepage, featuring a more personalized digital experience for each customer and an updated, more modern, user-friendly design. The new homepage was created to better tailor the experience for customers, while also improving functionality and ease of use.
Some of the key highlights of the new homepage include:
"Each one of our customers is unique and has different needs for his or her travel, and our goal with this new homepage is to provide customers with a more seamless experience," said Praveen Sharma, vice president of digital products and analytics. "
Personalizing our digital offerings is just another step towards giving our customers the experience and the products that they ask for."United's homepage is the starting point where most of its customers begin their journey. These latest efforts reiterate the airline's dedication to improving the travel experience for its customers, beginning before they book a flight.
The airline first began rolling out the new homepage in April, and continued expanding to more and more users, while adding additional functionality throughout the phased roll out. The site will be live to all customers in early August.
Earlier this year, United updated its mobile website, adding a more optimized display, additional flexibility to adjust flights throughout the site, Japanese language and point of sale and more. The new design of United's homepage will also appear on the airline's mobile website, creating a more seamless experience when managing travel and bookings across a variety of different devices.
Today's announcement is just the latest in United's commitment to invest in all of its platforms to give customers the tools and information they desire to travel with ease.
Airline unveils new homepage with improved functionality and more personalized experience
CHICAGO, July 12, 2018
Today, United Airlines (UAL) announced the redesigned united.com homepage, featuring a more personalized digital experience for each customer and an updated, more modern, user-friendly design. The new homepage was created to better tailor the experience for customers, while also improving functionality and ease of use.
Some of the key highlights of the new homepage include:
- A more contemporary, user-friendly design
- Content personalized based on customer's MileagePlus status as well as upcoming, current and previous trips
- A new display that is fully responsive for optimal viewing on desktop and mobile devices
- A travel inspiration integration section that allows customers to explore curated content from different destinations United serves will be available later this year
"Each one of our customers is unique and has different needs for his or her travel, and our goal with this new homepage is to provide customers with a more seamless experience," said Praveen Sharma, vice president of digital products and analytics. "
Personalizing our digital offerings is just another step towards giving our customers the experience and the products that they ask for."United's homepage is the starting point where most of its customers begin their journey. These latest efforts reiterate the airline's dedication to improving the travel experience for its customers, beginning before they book a flight.
The airline first began rolling out the new homepage in April, and continued expanding to more and more users, while adding additional functionality throughout the phased roll out. The site will be live to all customers in early August.
Earlier this year, United updated its mobile website, adding a more optimized display, additional flexibility to adjust flights throughout the site, Japanese language and point of sale and more. The new design of United's homepage will also appear on the airline's mobile website, creating a more seamless experience when managing travel and bookings across a variety of different devices.
Today's announcement is just the latest in United's commitment to invest in all of its platforms to give customers the tools and information they desire to travel with ease.
https://www.united.com/ual/en/ca/
New (beta.)united.com layout -now standard site ("Classic View" returns) [2018]
May 17, 2018, 10:24 am
#61
Join Date: Oct 2013
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Unlike some other businesses, people aren't choosing an airline based on how nice it's website looks. In fact, most people are going to select an airline for each trip they take based on some combination of cost and schedule/route. I can't imagine that website design even enters the picture as the 10th tie-breaker.
May 17, 2018, 11:30 am
#62
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,324
it's ungainly and has definitely taken a step back. The stuff about not selecting an airline based on a website are valid. Yes, in a silo, this is the case, but the website is but a component of the entire experience. Start messing with one component, and the whole equation can fail to compute. Just sayin.
May 17, 2018, 11:35 am
#63
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The best possible website change they could make is performance optimization, maybe toss in some usability testing or A/B tests to improve the experience. But I don't think they do any of those things.
May 17, 2018, 12:38 pm
#64
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Did anyone else's brain go to "Premier" when they saw the "Status" tab and not "flight"?
May 17, 2018, 12:50 pm
#65
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Allow me to one of (if not the) first to make a positive observation.
It is new (to United) and (slightly) different.
It is new (to United) and (slightly) different.
May 17, 2018, 1:14 pm
#66
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-RM
May 18, 2018, 5:16 am
#68
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Scarcasm by dear fellow (assumed), Scarcasm.
.
May 20, 2018, 11:29 am
#70
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Having said that, it goes without saying that their inability to launch a fully redesigned site so many years after the merger is a huge disappointment. But to suggest they're not engaged in performance optimization, usability testing, or A/B tests is off the mark.
May 20, 2018, 11:32 am
#71
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United seems much more interested in change for the sake of change rather than trying to improve the user experience.
May 20, 2018, 11:55 am
#72
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May 20, 2018, 1:14 pm
#73
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Considering performance keeps going down, I have to disagree. As for the others, running the tests doesn't mean they act on them, or even that the tests are valid. I can only assume that the tests are faulty, or I'm a corner case and that my usability requirements do not match the majority of their testers. Of course, based on the general FT view, I really don't think I'm that off the mark.
United seems much more interested in change for the sake of change rather than trying to improve the user experience.
United seems much more interested in change for the sake of change rather than trying to improve the user experience.
With regard to goals for the homepage, I'm not privy to internal communications, but I'm certain that their top priority is not "change for the sake of change," nor is it "trying to improve the user experience." It's funneling visitors toward a purchase -- even to the exclusion of other important and potentially lucrative tasks. That creates tension, because not every market segment finds a homepage redesign adds value. In the aggregate, however, it adds value for the company as a whole.
I say this not as an antagonist, but as one who has led site redesigns whose audience numbered in the billions. It's always a compromise, and some segments are ignored in the process. But it doesn't suggest gross incompetence.
However, I want to be perfectly clear: the multi-year delay does suggest serious problems with process management.
UA's IT department handles its internal systems and security. It does not have any relationship to the company's customer-facing digital strategy.
May 20, 2018, 1:45 pm
#74
Join Date: Oct 2013
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it's ungainly and has definitely taken a step back. The stuff about not selecting an airline based on a website are valid. Yes, in a silo, this is the case, but the website is but a component of the entire experience. Start messing with one component, and the whole equation can fail to compute. Just sayin.
Are you sure of that? If so, perhaps that's the problem. I've worked with a great number of of Fortune 250 companies over the years, and "digital", whether it's web, mobile, etc. tends to roll up to IT and the CIO. You can't really design interfaces without having a connection to the underlying technology. Perhaps they have the group split in half, as you suggest, but I'd be surprised if they don't all roll up to a CIO, or the equivalent. If not, that might explain why there would be useless design changes without accompanying changes to functionality...everyone needs to justify their existence.
May 20, 2018, 3:11 pm
#75
Moderator: United Airlines
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After a career in product development (of very market specific technical products), there are a few truisms,
Everybody is an expert in user interface design and
Everybody is an expert in user interface design and
Everybody is an expert in pricing.
Once had a cost accountant commented on a product's UI but they did not really understand what the product did or why. But that did stop them.
Some of the worst senior executives who had long forgotten what it was like to be a 'regular" user.
In the end, formal user testing results, with a representative demographic group was the most productive appraoch but that did not stop others from inferring the testing results were wrong.
Another truism -- most people hate change.
Once had a cost accountant commented on a product's UI but they did not really understand what the product did or why. But that did stop them.
Some of the worst senior executives who had long forgotten what it was like to be a 'regular" user.
In the end, formal user testing results, with a representative demographic group was the most productive appraoch but that did not stop others from inferring the testing results were wrong.
Another truism -- most people hate change.