Viking wanted to offer the ability to visualize all ships, both river and ocean, currently sailing around the world in real-time. The UI allows users to search and browse ships as well as to discover details about ports along a given route.
Visual Design
To show the scale of Viking, how can we display all ships in the Viking fleet that are sailing at any given time?
When wireframes came in from a third-party, we were forced to translate them into a coherent design. Based partly on my work on this application, Viking decided to use us for UX and UI design going forward.
A drop-down on the world-view allows users to explore by ship or itinerary.
Clicking a ship icon shows its name, the itinerary name, and it's whereabouts.
These icon explorations were aiming to show a clear distinction between river and ocean ships. My favorites were on the far right.
Viking requested a landscape iPad app to control various aspects of the owner's suite aboard its ocean ships. It needed to be able to control many functions in four separate areas.
Wireframing
Prototyping
Visual Design
How do we interact with and display controls for five distinct commands in four separate areas of the suite?
Working landscape-only was challenging. It meant putting controls in the middle of the screen would be a stretch if a person held the device with two hands, which, in landscape mode, was more likely.
TV/DVD controls are aligned so as not to be a stretch while hold the device with both hands.
An interactive prototype shows a novel way of navigating between rooms and functions.
Prior to this work, Viking did not offer online booking. Working directly with the Chief Digital Officer I created the wires defining the online booking experience. Finally, the 400,000+ travelers who book with Viking each year were able to do it online.
Wireframing
For a business the size of Viking not to have online booking, the opportunity was immense. While a lot of their passengers are less computer-savvy, future passengers will continue to be more and more so. The challenge was to update the booking experience in order to supplement the call-center based booking currently in use.
Edge cases proved challenging on this project. Because Viking offers so much, including all options in the booking experience makes it a long one. Two people usually book at once, but might have different requirements for air, extensions and options. The challenge was designing for edge cases as thoroughly as we designed for a more common use case.
Payment detail. The summary in the right column is persistent in the experience to offer a user a running total.
Viking wanted it to be easier to check in passengers when they arrive to board a ship. Using the mobile accessory FastPax, an agent can easily scan travel documents and credit cards in order to expedite the boarding process.
Wireframing
Visual Design
Wires show an example check-in flow.
© Michael Pasternak, 2021
