FRED. OLSEN

Kickstarting a new growth strategy.

INDUSTRY

Travel

COMPANY

Fred. Olsen

ROLE

Sr. UX Designer

YEAR

2022

Fred. Olsen is a successful cruise liner with a host of loyal customers, 23% of whom have taken over 5 cruises with them. However, its users are aging and less likely to buy in the future.

The business had a need to increase capacity and grow new bookings by attracting a new audience of cruisers - monikered “Enthusiasts” - those that sail with others but not yet Fred. Olsen (around 8m adults in the UK in total).

Outcomes

online bookings increased

-0%

bounce rate reduced

increased session duration

Getting a deep understanding of the target audience

I built upon research conducted by Deloitte and Fred. Olsen’s consultants to profile ‘The Enthusiasts’—travellers who prioritise unique itineraries, close-knit experiences, and cultural enrichment. While Fred. Olsen excelled in these areas, their online presence did not effectively highlight this. My recommendations focused on enhancing their digital storytelling to better engage this audience.

Serving guests at various stages of their journey

I next wanted to build a picture of what a “good” online cruise purchase journey would be. So I listened in on customer service calls and conducted a guest experience workshop with the Fred. Olsen’s team. It emerged that there were three distinct behaviours of website visitors that the website needed to accommodate.

Open to discovery

Visitors seek inspiration and haven't yet decided on date or location and are a year out from travelling.

Browsing with intent

Users have a rough idea of destination and are comparing different providers to find something special in the category.

Surgical strike

Users know where they want to go and when. They are ready to purchase and are looking itinerary details to find the best.

Modular Components

We focussed on creating reusable modules that the content managers could use to construct pages. We then handpicked 8 key templates, which we dubbed the “Red Route” pages and created them using these modules, setting the design standard and demonstrating to the team how to best use the modules.

Key Design Decisions

Simplified IA & Navigation

The site had over 1,000 destination and hundreds of campaign pages, leading to user choice paralysis. Exit rates were 36% on destination pages and 52% on campaigns. Partnering with a data analyst, I removed low-performing pages, reducing clutter and promoting cruises more effectively.

Simplified IA & Navigation

Variying Depths of Information

Surgical Strike audience who know what they want and are comparing options had the highest buying intent of the three groups. To make the task of comparison and decision-making easier for them, we developed a “2- 5 - 10” content strategy.

Variying Depths of Information

Experience Modules

A new marketing campaign meant new users would visit Fred. Olsen’s site. We created modules to showcase the experience proposition, placing them strategically across the site as users navigated from awareness through to purchase.

Experience Modules

Aiding Exploration

Cruise finding was overwhelming. The homepage experience focussed on displaying as many cruises as possible without curation or guidance. The homepage was redesigned to enable flexible routes in to cruise discovery.

Aiding Exploration

Impact on Fred. Olsen

Not only did we successfully deliver the design output against a very aggressive deadline, our commercial lens on the project also meant that every design decision we took was in harmony with the goals of the business.

Though this was a short-term project which ended with the delivery of the module library, a sensible next step in my view would be to develop a proper design system to further standardise the use of design across the site, given that the site is regularly updated based on marketing needs.

This project enriched me with a great deal of personal learning, sharpening my knowledge of how to integrate marketing and branding strategies into a web redesign project.

“ It was vital for us to find a digital partner who could match our business ambitions. You’ve shown what user-centred design can do for Fred Olsen Cruise Lines.”

Ben Williams, Head of Digital, Fred. Olsen

“ The project over-delivered ROI for our business and opened a digital door to further growth.”

Alicia Coghlan, Head of Marketing, Fred. Olsen