Overhauling EF's Booking Flow

Goal

To drive measurable business impact by overhauling the booking flow that enables students and parents to confidently book a language course abroad online.

My role

I led the design process, including research, wireframing, prototyping, and collaborating closely with developers, product, and a UX writer to launch the updated flow.

Impact

One year post-launch, a key market doubled the number of online bookings compared to the previous year.

Senior leadership was convinced to go in a bold new digital direction, and asked us to launch the booking flow redesign in a second key market.

Before and after

Where we started

The booking flow was buried in the hamburger menu and cluttered with dropdowns, leading to confusion and high drop-off rates.

Our first steps

Assess current sales and analytics data to establish clear goals and metrics.
Understand key markets and their current sales strategies and pain points.
Gain a deeper understanding of the needs of kids and parents when booking online.

Discovery

In research, I set aside all of our technical and political constraints and asked simply: when the student is ready to book, what does she want to do first?

Here's what I did:

Benchmarking: Analyzed competitor booking flows to identify best practices.
User testing: Conducted interviews and concept testing with students and parents throughout the design process, and iterated on the design based on the feedback.

This question and further research led me through several sketches and booking flow iterations, three of which I prototyped and tested.

Booking flow sketches — Sketches from brainstorming sessions

Concept 1: Choosing course dates via a calendar, then selecting a course

Concept 2: Choosing a course, then selecting dates via a calendar

Concept 2: Course-first booking flow with calendar

Concept 3: Month-level date selection via buttons instead of calendar, then selecting a course

We moved forward with a combination of Concept 2 and Concept 3, as they best balanced user needs and business constraints:

Ease of Implementation (Concept 2): Concept 2 leveraged EF's existing API, avoiding costly redevelopment.
User Preference for Course Selection (Concept 2): Users preferred starting with course selection. As one participant noted: "I want to pick my course first, then figure out the dates."
Ease of Date Selection (Concept 3): Concept 3's button-based date selection was clearer and easier to use compared to the more rigid and confusing calendar inputs in Concepts 1 and 2. One participant shared: "It's easier to choose my options this way."

Final design

Impact

The redesigned booking flow delivered significant improvements: Users completed bookings faster with fewer drop-offs, doubling conversion rates.
Replacing dropdown menus with tappable buttons improved usability and minimized booking mistakes.
Moving the booking flow from the menu to destination pages reduced friction and simplified navigation.
Strong sales data convinced leadership to expand the new booking flow to a second key market.