During the Summer of 2021, I worked with Amtrak's Customer Experience team. As a CX Design intern, I explored design strategy, UX/UI design, and user research. During these 12 weeks, I was tasked with focusing on Amtrak’s person with disability (PWD) customers. I became very knowledgeable about the specific needs of this user base. I conducted research to develop post-Covid PWD personas (leisure and consumer) and lead ideation for a new PWD booking flow. My summer cumulated with a personal project where I designed a new feature on Amtrak.com to enhance leisure-related trip planning and booking. I presented my findings to Amtrak leadership at the end of my 12 weeks.
Outside my main responsibilities on the CX team, I participated in and won a company-wide graphic design competition commemorating Amtrak's 50th anniversary with the Midwestern-inspired graphic above. This graphic was displayed in several Amtrak stations throughout the country. Lastly, I was part of an intern-lead side project within Amtrak’s marketing department where we designed an Amtrak board game.
During my last weeks at Amtrak, I was tasked with developing a personal project of which I would present to Amtrak leadership. I knew trends within the travel industry were changing as a result of COVID lockdowns and I wanted to propose a new feature on amtrak.com that responded to them. I cannot show my entire process, but below is my high level overview of the problem I design for.
“Travel companies need to reposition themselves for the post-pandemic market by activating a new strategy based on leisure travel.” - Accenture (April 2021) “Travel Industry Recovery: Business or Leisure?”
The main industry trend I identified was the short-term shift for domestic leisure travel. At the time, the United States started opening up while other countries were in various stages. Americans wanted to go out and explore again after months art home. Google also just launched it’s new travel feature (google.com/travel). Companies spanning industries want to jump on this opportunity of Americans embracing domestic travel.
My first step was to identify the existing features and pages on amtrak.com that relate to leisure travel and vacation destinations.
I discovered that there isn’t much on this topic within amtrak.com. Most pages that relate to leisure travel and vacation destinations were not up to date, visually inconsistent with the rest of the site, and offer little valuable information. There was no way for passengers to plan, customize, and book their vacation fully online.
Problems within the Destinations Tab on amtrak.com
- No recommendations for activities at specific locations, including outdoor activities, arts and culture, or special events
- Lack of emphasis on trips.amtrak.com for hotel and car rental needs + bundling
- No suggestion for segmented trips along a route for multi-day travel and multiple stops
Amtrak Itineraries is a new feature on amtrak.com which allows users to discover new destinations accessible through Amtrak routes and encourages them to book travel.
