Flexible Search and Booking
Envisioning flexible browse and booking for 200M+ Delta Air Lines flyers
Innovation & Product Design @ Delta Air Lines
Team
Intern passion project
Timeline
2 weeks, July 2025
What I did
Strategic Design, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Vision and Scoping, Critical User Journey, Wireframing
Impact
Drove cross-functional conversation across revenue, data, and engineering
Pitched to and loved by senior leaders!
01 overview
What is flexible search?
I created an end-to-end design and strategy that can be encompassed by the following vision:
Flexible Search is an exploratory search experience that makes booking feel seamless, personalized, and exciting for hesitant “browsers” and helps them become confirmed travelers
Go anywhere, whenever
Browse with flexible dates and times
Personalized search results
Envisioning end-to-end solutions for an outdated and complicated feature
As the innovation design intern, I identified core opportunities in the current search and browse ecosystem in the Fly Delta app and Delta’s web booking feature and delivered solutions aligned with the company’s strategic innovation roadmap.
I pitched my proposal near the end of my internship and secured approval from the managing director. My pitch also received positive feedback up to the VP level.
01 why tackle search?
PROBLEM STATEMENT
For travelers without a set date or destination in mind, Delta offers limited ways to browse their inventory and explore options for their next trip
PROBLEM #1
Current destination discovery flow reveals drop-off points and key opportunities for surfacing personalized results
Current offerings on Delta dot-com such as “Current Flight Deals,” Flexible Dates calendar, and “Deals and Destinations” are not yet available in FlyDelta and integrated seamlessly into the customer journey.
PROBLEM #2
Losing conversion to external platforms due to missing search and explore functionality
A significant portion of bookings come from external platforms, even for loyal customers and members.
"I just always made flight reservations with other online platforms. "
– Jessica (SkyMiles Member)
"I fly Delta, but usually just book through Hopper."
– Elyse (Non-Member)
PROBLEM #3
Search in the age of AI and personalization
Search interfaces are rapidly evolving in the age of AI. Users use search and natural language interfaces and expect to see the best results for them. How might Delta evolve to meet the needs and expectations of future customers?
Why search?
02 define
How do I align design solution with high-level business goals and solve for the right problem?
STRATEGY #1
Mapping customer intents
Before jumping into ideation, I started by defining the intents and use cases for the new flexible search experience. Using a clearly defined journey map and three different intents, I added structure to subsequent design explorations.
STRATEGY #2
Designing for the eigen-use case: Helping customers figure out when and where to travel
Taking a closer look at the customer journey segment and intents, I defined the goal of the search experience: to help customers figure out when and where to travel with flexible search + displays of destination and date information. Below is a simple mapping I used to convey this idea.
STRATEGY #3
Exploring near-term and future modes of AI search to align with strategic roadmap
Starting broad, I explored various entry points to incorporate flexibility & personalization at core nodes in the search journey; these experiments were meant to be broad and to raise questions about my vision
03 design decisions
DECISION #1
Capture different user intents with dynamic interface components
First, I iterated on the entry point of the new search experience – users encounter a search box that allows them to search without entering a date. The area below the search box is populated with a feed for free exploration.
Users are no longer limited to browsing flights – they can explore rabbit holes of dates and destinations
Whereas the original search experience consisted of a rigid structure going from destination to checkout, a more flexible experience accomodates for various intents by showing various kinds of results
DECISION #2
Dynamic interfaces for different user intents to optimize personalization
Leveraging my mapping of user intent from the research & scoping phase, I defined how atomic elements populate the page depending on the intent. This approach allows the algorithm to respond to specific needs presented by different and diverse types of users.
DECISION #3
Helping users choose the right dates with compelling, relevant suggestions
Introducing the Fare Calendar — The fare calendar is a common feature in other platforms for flexible travelers; I designed Delta's version
Contextual suggestions based on date input — The overall strategy is to display compelling, specific, and contextual information about different dates. I also use UX psychology is to surface narrower options that force the user to think about their trip without feeling boxed in by a specific date and destination.
04 impact & reflection
Some reflections and takeaways…
Planting the seed for flexible search
While a self-initiated project completed in a short amount of time, Flexible Search and Personalization received positive feedback up to the director level because of how I leveraged storytelling and stakeholder engagement to create compelling value.
Balancing baby steps and far vision
One of the biggest challenges in this project is scoping and pushing for innovation rather than being solely bogged down in short-term fixes. I made sure
