KAYAK

Delightful loading

Overview

The loading experience is SLOW and this causes users to bounce before loading is complete. Our goal was to improve the loading experience to keep learners' attention.

Role

As the designer, I was responsible for scoping, designing, performing user research and collaborating with engineers.

Problem

20% of direct users bounce before loading completes...more importantly bounce is likely impacting conversions.

Existing experience

Loading is slow. It avg. 18 sec load time on all verticals
Switches between 3-5 different broken screens before landing on the results
Loading interactions didn't provide progress indicators
Loading felt boring

Goals and success metrics

Reduce bounce rate on search
Improve conversions
Make perception loading speed feel faster
Make loading feel progressive and cohesive
Make loading engaging and fun

Comparative analysis

Seeing results load helps with perceived speed
Seeing a counter increase helps perceived speed
Tips could be a great opportunity to nudge users towards good interactions

Design Considerations

Needs to work on fast and slow connections
Adding more data could slow down the loading speed
Can’t change the way results load
Utilize variable reward principles

Validation

Performed moderated A/B user test on lookback.io to validate which of the 3 designs has the fastest perceived speed.

View user test animations here.

4/6 users found the price counter most engaging
4/6 users felt the price counter loaded the fastest
3/6 users felt that tips loaded the slowest

Immediate JTBD after results load is to understand the context of results
Banners that auto animate and are surrounded by gray outline feel like an ad
Countdown animation created a feeling of anticipation: how low will it go?

Final designs

Because the price animation is difficult to implement I broke down the project into two phases based on ease of development. V1 lays the foundation for V2 and will be used to test if there was any measurable value when loading is improved.

V1

V2

Challenges

Finding a cool idea that didn't impact the already slow loading speed
Scoping down the ideas to something feasible and testable

Impact

This project is currently being built and will be XP'd for impact. In the meantime I created user research and loading learnings presentations that have been utilized by other design teams to develop similar projects on other platforms.

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