Select Clients

Case Study

Virgin America

The airline industry’s new digital standard

Overview

Virgin America already had a reputation for making flying fun again. It paired a playful brand personality with a great customer experience, introducing perks like touch-screen entertainment, personal power outlets, and Wi-Fi on every flight. As its digital agency of record, Work & Co took on the challenge of creating the airline industry’s best booking experience.

We designed and developed the very first responsive airline website. Then we extended the experience to mobile, simultaneously launching new native apps for iOS and Android. Within hours of launching, Virgin America was the #1 featured app on both the App Store and Google Play.

Propelled by its tech-forward reputation, Virgin America launched an IPO in 2016. In 2018, it was acquired by Alaska Airlines.

What We Did

  • Strategy and user research
  • Design across web, mobile, IFE
  • Platform architecture
  • Web, iOS, and Android app development
  • Digital-first branding
  • Analytics and optimization
“Work & Co was a completely different kind of partner. They took something very complex and created a simple, beautiful, and intuitive user experience.”
Luanne Calvert
CMO, Virgin America

Outcomes

3x

Increase in mobile conversion with the Virgin America app

2s

To load, the fastest for any airline site

No1

Featured app in the App Store and Google Play

20%

Decrease in web-related support calls

Recognition

wired logo

“The first radical rethinking of the flight booking experience in a decade.” Read more

forrester logo

“Both the process and the outcome offer techniques that other companies looking to build innovative products and services can follow.” Read more

travel and leisure logo

“An impressively simple experience for booking, managing, and checking in to flights.” Read more

fast company logo

Virgin America’s New App Puts a Travel Agent in Your Pocket. Read more

Awards

UX Awards logo

"Most impressive industry evolution"

Cannes Lions Logo

3x Cannes Lions Awards

webby awards logo

5x Webby Awards

pixel awards

3x Pixel Awards

and more logo

Clio, One Show Award, Digiday Award, UX Award, CES Innovation Award, London International Award, Communication Arts Interactive

3 Big Takeaways

01.

Focusing on the most important customer needs

Booking Speed

Work & Co recognized early on that Virgin’s KPIs were driven by just a few important use cases, not a dozen. To make sure users could quickly find and book their next trip, we ruthlessly prioritized, slashing the promotional messaging most airline sites feature prominently on the homepage. Our new streamlined experience let travelers book flights in just 60 seconds.

Consistency Across Platforms

A booking journey often includes multiple devices. Our technology team built a site that worked on all of them. Users could start booking on a laptop at work and finish booking on a smartphone at home. The Virgin America app also remembered users’ preferred routes, seat preferences, and companion details. A personalized approach meant a better, faster experience.

Situational Awareness

We built the app and website to function as contextually aware travel companions that showed users the most relevant information. When it was time to head to the airport, the app and website would automatically switch to day-of-travel mode, enabling rapid check-in and persistent access to your boarding pass. After every trip, both experiences celebrated the completion of your trip and showed your updated loyalty information.

Entertainment in the Air

We also reimagined Virgin’s approach to an in-flight video player. It uses the same interaction models as the site and the app so users have the same experience across all touchpoints.

02.

A new architecture for web and mobile

Flexible and Scalable

An amazing front-end experience is only possible with a robust technology solution backing it. Like most airlines, Virgin America’s booking technology was powered by Sabre, a decades-old back-end system. We created an architecture to provide the flexibility we needed.

Web Implementation

To deliver a single-page experience with high performance, we developed a standalone JavaScript web application in AngularJS. Compared to other airline sites at that time, it significantly reduced the number of calls to the server. At launch, the page weight for VirginAmerica.com was 850kb—half the industry average.

A bespoke CMS let Virgin America centralize their flight service content, including tiers, food options, destination pages, and promotions. We used Adobe Analytics and Optimizely for client-side A/B testing.

Android and iOS

The airline industry often relied on webview and off-the-shelf solutions. We built a truly native app, developing iOS and Android simultaneously to speed up development. Every platform shared the same layer of business logic to reduce maintenance. It was a radically different and efficient approach to digital product development for our client partners. Whenever it was time to make a change, updates rolled out at the same time across every platform.

03.

Digital-first branding

Irreverent Illustrations

We helped define an ownable digital brand for Virgin America, starting with VirginAmerica.com. It included lightweight, colorful illustrations by Build.

Flipping the Process

Logos and branding usually start offline and then go digital. Virgin America went the other direction. They extended Work & Co’s digital branding across their other offline communication channels, from billboards in Times Square to airports across the country.

More Case Studies

AppleAesopTechCrunchALDOPlanned ParenthoodVirgin AmericaHippoLyftMTA
Visit main navigation page
Work & Co
Copyright 2021

Newsletter

Privacy policy

Contacts

careers@work.co

press@work.co

newbiz@work.co

Brooklyn

231 Front St., 5th Fl.

Brooklyn, NY 11201 

+1 347 470 4803

Portland

208 NW 5th Ave.

Portland, OR 97209 

+1 347 470 4803

São Paulo

R. Fidalga 603 Conj. 12

Pinheiros, São Paulo, SP 

05432-070 

+55 11 91067 8995

Rio de Janeiro

Ld. da Glória 26 Casa 6

Rio de Janeiro, RJ 

22211-120 

+55 21 2285 3396

Belgrade

39 Knez Mihailova St.

11000 Belgrade 

+381 65 205 59 15

Copenhagen

Bernstorffsgade 21

2nd Floor

1577 København

+45 33 33 03 10

Snap Links