Client
  • Carnival Cruise Line
Design Tools
  • InDesign
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Whiteboards
  • Notebook
Deliverables
  • Wireframes
  • Designs

Carnival Cruise Booking Engine Redesign: Enhancing the User Journey

Carnival Cruise Line, the world’s largest cruise line, serves over 21 million passengers annually. With 11 ships operating around 50 cruises weekly, the company needed a booking engine redesign to address customer pain points and increase online bookings.

Cruise booking interface asking

Discovery Phase: Uncovering Key Client Challenges

During our discovery phase, we identified key reasons why bookings were underperforming.

Through research and testing, we found that clients were overwhelmed by the extensive amount of information presented at once. This confusion often led to booking abandonment.

Competitive Analysis:

Our competitor analysis revealed that similar challenges were faced by other major cruise lines, making it clear that streamlining information and improving navigation were critical.

Design Strategy: Simplifying the Experience for Better

After gathering and analyzing the data, we brainstormed key questions to guide our design strategy:

  • How can we reduce content while still conveying critical information?
  • Can we make the interface more intuitive?
  • What features will best engage users?

Our primary goals were to:

  • Reduce booking abandonment rates
  • Increase engagement
  • Provide contextual information with ease

Proposed Solution:

We recommended a vertical scrolling, full-page design, providing a clear and engaging booking journey with contextual information available at a glance.

Whiteboard with hand-drawn wireframes and notes depicting website or app layout, including various pages and navigation flows.

Client Experience and Visual Design

To further enhance the experience, we developed a visual booking interface that maps the entire ship, guiding customers smoothly at every step.

This provided users with clarity and confidence during the booking process.

Diagram of a cruise ship stateroom selection interface. Users can choose from 'BACK,' 'MIDDLE,' or 'FRONT' locations. Features annotations on selection icons and stateroom descriptions.
A cruise booking interface showing an option to select staterooms, pricing, ship deck layout, annotations, and notes for a 4-day trip to the Western Caribbean from Miami, FL.
Cruise ship stateroom selection chart showing availability, preferred rooms, upgrades, and sold-out/unavailable rooms. The layout includes annotations and a legend on the right side.

Early Design Concepts

In the early design stages, we explored a creative concept featuring floating objects such as pillows, hats, and flip-flops, which parallaxed down to the ship against a sky-blue background.

While visually engaging, the concept lacked key functionalities and was ultimately revised.

Screenshot of a room selection page for a Carnival cruise. It asks
A travel booking screen showing “How many people traveling?” with the number 2 selected and navigation arrows for adjustment. There is a white hat in the bottom left corner and another in the top right corner.

Next Steps:

The revised design direction retained some elements of this creative exploration, allowing us to move forward efficiently while focusing on functionality.

Cruise booking interface asking
A cruise ship cabin with a large bed, orange accents, and a window showing the ocean. The price is $339 per person for an ocean view.
Image of a cruise ship balcony stateroom featuring a large bed, a sofa, a table, a painting, and a sliding glass door leading to the balcony. Pricing details and upgrade option text are displayed.

Project Summary

Launched in 2015, the redesigned booking engine achieved its primary objectives of increasing online bookings and reducing cancellations for Carnival Cruise Lines. The project also earned several industry awards, demonstrating its success.

Despite multiple updates since launch, several core features remain integral to Carnival’s booking experience, validating the strength and durability of the original design strategy.