UX & content strategy audit

In its first iteration, Airfare sold individual snack pouches with a few customization options like gifting, adding an extra snack, or doubling up your order for the return flight. A few months in, after analyzing sales and speaking with repeat customers, they decided to add a “frequent flyer” subscription option, which would require revamping their homepage and navigation—and UX eyes.

My first step as a member of the team was to perform an audit of the existing UX and content strategy. My initial recommendation was to clarify their brand story as part of a crowded health food marketplace—we needed to explain their difference and purpose more clearly. In terms of structure, we also needed to establish a stronger product focus and path to purchase up front, highlighting the reasons to believe in Airfare specifically, rather than relying on generic nutrition claims as their main selling point.

Before & After

• Replaced the rotating hero gallery with a single strong headline and brief functional description to introduce the product and drive users to purchase, rather than diluting the messaging with multiple conflicting calls to action

• Reordered navigation to add frequent flyer program and prioritize “get the pouch” as the primary CTA

• Centered purchase options on the home page, including showcase for new subscription product

• Added new brand-focused content to establish their niche in the travel and wellness markets

• Leveraged new custom photography to build Airfare’s brand identity

• Revised text styles and brand colors for consistency, visual hierarchy, and ADA compliance

Shift to Subscription Model

Airfare’s initial target audience was fairly broad: frequent travelers (especially those in business, hospitality, and the aviation industry) who are very invested in maintaining a healthy diet on the go.

Even before COVID-19 changed air travel as we know it, Airfare sales data and customer interviews revealed pilots and flight attendants to be an underserved market with needs that aligned with the company’s mission.

Physically and mentally taxing jobs means maintaining good nutrition and physical fitness is a top priority for many flight crew members, while limited per diems and quickly shifting schedules can make meal planning an additional stressor.

Airfare decided to narrow their target specifically to flight crew and shift their business model to make the subscription service—now retitled “Flight Crew”—their primary product, rather than focusing on single pouch sales.

Home Page & Nav Revisions

• Shifted the primary CTA from single pouch purchase to Flight Crew subscriptions, which also required us to revisit our overall content strategy to encourage a more long-term customer relationship

• Split out subscription tiers into separate “products" featured on the home page to showcase the flexibility of new offerings and demystify the subscription model for customers, with clear links to buy

• Removed single pouch driver from the primary nav and instead displayed as a low commitment alternative to the subscription tiers—positioning one-time purchases as a trial for customers who are unsure if they want to commit to the subscription. Single pouches remain accessible to customers but are now shown as a secondary option.

Content Enhancements

With the shift in business goals, we needed to flesh out the content of the site to better support Airfare’s range of products and encourage customers to buy into the subscription model. I recommended we expand existing content to transform a fairly bare bones e-commerce platform into a robust brand website. We could then emphasize the convenience, flexibility, and product quality Airfare offers, as well as build trust in the brand. We could also differentiate more clearly between the new subscription tiers and original pouch to help customers choose the best product for their needs, in terms of both schedule and snack preference.

How it works

Subscription is a greater commitment from customers than a one-time order, so it’s important to gain their trust and make sure they understand the logistics. We needed to offer more detailed information about order fulfillment for both subscription and single pouch orders, extra important for target customers who are always on the move.

While the existing “How it Works” page was fairly minimal, a lot of valuable information for customers was buried in the checkout flow, often in error messaging or helper text only visible on hover. This included shipping timelines, expedited shipping costs, shipping to multiple locations, even nutrition information. I recommended we collect and reorganize that information into a robust FAQ section, while also adding more detail on the different product offerings and the Airfare brand.

We also needed to provide specific information on the snacks themselves, a must have for target customers who are highly motivated to watch what they eat and looking for more than just a calorie number and basic free-from claims.

New snacks section

The Airfare target customer takes their nutrition very seriously and wants to know exactly what they’re putting in their body—making that content easily accessible was a high priority. In the original pouch, snacks were selected based on availability to fit a general nutrition profile, but with the new subscription model, Airfare now offered the ability to choose your own snacks. The variety and quality of the snacks is a strong selling point—as is the option to customize your selections with the premium subscription tiers—but information on snacks was only available as part of the subscription checkout process, hidden from undecided customers.

My recommendation was to create a new page on the website showcasing snacks, bringing that information to the forefront. We added filtering by brand and dietary needs in addition to general ingredient categories, a major plus for invested consumers who calculate macros or follow specific diets. This allowed us to significantly improve the user experience for navigating snacks on mobile, which accounts for about 65% of site traffic. We also added functionality for users to favorite snacks.

In addition to filtering, users can now click to view full product details on all snacks, including a larger photo, ingredients, call-outs for dietary restrictions, and nutrition facts. While users could previously view ingredients during the subscription checkout process, the functionality was clunky and we knew invested customers would want to know more. We also decided to include a brief blurb about each snack brand with a link out to their own sites—this offers the dual benefit of demonstrating shared lifestyle values to wellness-minded customers who care deeply about every aspect of their diets and strengthening Airfare’s business relationships with their producing partners.

Account Management Functionality

With subscription sales growing, Airfare next needed to tackle a major pain point for both customers and their own customer service. While single pouch orders continue to be processed through Shopify, the new subscription products are processed through ReCharge, which can handle recurring orders and payments. Currently Flight Crew customers can only manage their subscriptions through ReCharge directly via a link they receive by email. As expected, this is inconvenient and inefficient for all parties involved.

Our solution was to build an integrated “my account” feature that offers flexibility and self-service subscription management to customers, which brought the additional technical challenge of condensing shopper data from two different sources. We also needed to account for both Flight Crew and non-subscriber profiles.

The new account functionality also helps lay the groundwork for my next UX focus: streamlining the purchase flows for subscriptions and single pouch orders to make the customer experience more consistent and intuitive. Airfare also plans to launch new functionality to allow customers to make changes to their existing subscriptions via the account dashboard that will need to integrate with the checkout flow for new customers.

Account Features

• All users can create an account and sign in

• All users can view previous orders

• All users can favorite snacks and view favorites

• All users can change their passwords and reset their passwords via email link if they forget

• Flight Crew users can pause or cancel subscriptions

• Flight Crew users can edit monthly shipping date for their order

• Flight Crew users can edit shipping addresses and payment methods for both single orders & subscriptions in one location. Changes made to Airfare account will also sync with existing Shopify/ReCharge accounts

Future Enhancements

• Flight Crew users can change plan between the three subscription tiers

• Flight Crew users can edit snack selections if their plan allows

• Full Line Flight Crew users can generate on unique gift code per month for a free pouch. Airfare is exploring other potential loyalty perks that would also be accessed through the account dashboard

• All users can rate or comment on snacks privately

• All users can re-order past pouch orders more quickly