we are: London

National Express has launched an innovative ‘low fare finder’ on their coach web page to make booking a £1 fare even easier for customers.

The National Express coach website receives over 60k visitors everyday, with a journey booked every eight seconds. The coach operator was aware that in a competitive market the customer’s time is precious and the new booking system needed to offer unbeatable value at the touch of a button.

The new booking system will simplify the booking process for customers, who can immediately access a calendar of low cost fares for over 180 routes without having to search through multiple booking pages.

The low fare finder has been developed by web usability specialists we are: london who were briefed to create a booking system which would make it truly simple for National Express’ customers to find their lowest fares.

Chris Averill, Managing Director, from we are: london, said:

“We have been working with National Express to create a booking system which is simple and transparent, meaning customers don’t need to search for £1 fares, they simply let the fare finder do the work for them.

Before developing the new system we undertook extensive research to understand who National Express’ customers were and what they wanted from online booking. The low fare finder provides simple, quick pricing across their most popular routes, making it easy for customers to find the best offer available. It is a sophisticated and stylish booking experience which is designed with customer ease in mind.”

Kevin Milnes, Head of E commerce for National Express, said:

“We set out to create a booking system with unrivalled simplicity and ease of use. The low fare finder delivers a wide range of £1 fares to the customer quickly and easily giving them the choice of when and where they want to travel within seconds.

The system has been built with the future in mind and we intend to build and expand upon the fare finder moving forwards. We believe this system is leading the UK transport industry when it comes to delivering simple, value fares online. Whether our customers are looking for a specific journey at a set time or want inspiration for a day out or ‘staycation’ our website delivers the best value fares to over 1,000 destinations across the UK. ”

National Express released 250,000 £1 fares across all routes to and from London. For more information or to make a booking visit http://www.nationalexpress.com/springcoachfares.aspx

Coaches, Design, National Express, Portal, Research

National Express, as the Official Travel Partner to Wembley Stadium and Official Supporter to the England Teams, sought to “make travel simpler” for fans of the beautiful game. we are:london were appointed to design and build a CMS-driven microsite, National Express Football world, that would provide football fans with exclusive football news, travel solutions to their favourite games and the chance to win money-can’t-buy prizes, whilst integrating a simple booking system.

Working to set a set deadline to deliver the full site, we utilised our knowledge of Wordpress, having just re-launched our website on it, whilst working with National Express’ internal design team to create a flexible site that met the challenges of an adaptable layout and flexibility of updating the content by a third-party marketing agency.

The site launched on time and to budget and proves that high value sites can be built with low budgets, yet still provide a robust and reliable CMS platform. We worked closely with National Express’ technical development team to integrate key booking functions from the main portal site, offering a seamless browse-to-buy experience.

The whole project was run using an agile approach and delivered to provide the best experience for both customers and content providers. Ongoing optimisation will be undertaken using Maxymiser behavioural targeting tools.

If you would like to find out how you can implement high value, low cost projects, from design to usability research the please call now on 0207 1991 321 or drop us an email.

Design, National Express Agile approach, information architecture, rapid prototyping

The National Express group has launched a new look coaches website www.nationalexpress.com/coaches. The re-design of the website is born out of the brand development for the National Express Group, which focuses on their strap line:  ‘Making travel simpler’.

The Project

User centred design specialists, we are:london, was appointed to develop the new branding online by focusing on the navigation, information architecture and template simplicity. Key objectives focused on delivering a website that provided design consistency across the navigation and page templates and produced a cohesive and engaging new site for online users.

Services included:

• User centred design - through our proven methodology, detailed site maps and high level wireframes, in conjunction with brand design concepts, are produced to define the information architecture and navigation of the application. Interactive prototypes are tested thoroughly to ensure the end product is fully functional.

• Project management – working with multiple stakeholders to ensure all parties’ commercial requirements are defined & delivered using a seamless and unified methodology.

• Customer Experience Strategy – providing unparalleled visibility of your customers’ online activities with our monthly site monitoring service.

Outcome

we are:london’s agile development and delivery methodology ensured the project was delivered significantly within the project delivery deadline. Via we are:london’s ‘Customer Experience Strategy’ service, ongoing work to monitor the site’s performance is now underway.

Design, National Express, Research user centred design

National Express is the UK’s leading travel provider, with over 1 billion journeys made every year on its bus, train, light rail and express coach and airport operations. we are:london was appointed to deliver an engaging and interactive website that streamlined the various travel services that National Express operates.

The Project

The National Express group operates a number of travel services and companies and wanted a web portal that combined all of the services under a unified branded portal so that customers could plan their journeys more effectively and efficiently. we are:london recommended the following services:

• User Centred Design – through our proven methodology, detailed site maps and high level wireframes are produced to define the information architecture and navigation of the application. Interactive prototypes are tested thoroughly to ensure the end product is fully functional.

• Remote Testing - remote user testing allows you to connect with geographically dispersed users over the Internet, providing you with a rich insight into the key usability issues.

Outcome

The final version was developed to high fidelity and tested through lab based research to refine the layout, content and services. Changes to the site build were implemented and the brand was developed with National Express and CHI&Partners to meet portal requirements. The site was successfully delivered on time and to budget.  An ongoing review process is in place along with continued multivariate testing.

Design, National Express, Research, Strategy Remote research, user centred design

In November 2007, National Express launched Dot2Dot, a brand new airport transfer service.  With state of the art satellite navigation equipment, congestion tracking systems, highly experienced drivers and a range of specially configured shuttles; dot2dot will be the first-choice for savvy business or leisure travellers.

The Project

National Express recognised that the website interface would be a major factor in the success of this new service.  we are:london was appointed by National Express, with partnering agency Concentra, to deliver an engaging and interactive website with a unique, simple-to-use booking system.

Chris Averill of we are:london comments, “Our business is well-placed to deliver bespoke business solutions, which are created through a breakdown of the market demographics using our powerful user-definition research tools.”

Matthew Lovering, dot2dot Business Development Director, explains why he chose we are:london.  “We appointed we are:london to lead the development of the new website with our customers’ needs at the heart of the process.  As a booking service website it was clear that a user centred design approach was critical to the success of the site and we are:london ’s findings during user testing were instrumental to how the site now looks and works.

Chris and his team’s ability to develop site navigation and a booking process that delivers an extremely intuitive experience is testament to their skills.”

Project Initiation

we are:london simplified the process for the client by appointing specialist agency partners whilst taking full responsibility for the project management. we are:london ’s research team was commissioned to provide a detailed competitor analysis for dot2dot, which revealed its competitors’ strengths and weaknesses

Lab-based testing was undertaken at we are:london ’s custom-built facilities in London, using a broad mix of business & pleasure, domestic & foreign users.

Research Focused

Research findings helped define the brief, which included, target group requirements, site interaction, usability issues and identification of key sectors within the target market.  From the results, we are:london developed a number of iterative information architecture (IA) designs, which the team tested at two key levels. The results from the research prompted a number of dramatic changes during the development phase to both the site and the booking engine.

Design, National Express, Research information architecture, interactive prototypes, user centred design