Content design at TravelPerk
Here at TravelPerk, we’re lucky enough to have broad investment in the user experience, and this includes a team of fantastic Content Designers who are embedded in the broader Design discipline.
Although our team is relatively new to the company, we’re already established as a core part of the product team, with 4 content designers working across product areas related to the user experience — booking and managing travel for business travellers, and the administration and financial control aspects of travel management.
What is content design?
Content Designers are responsible for the words and information architecture that guide people through our core products. We help users navigate complex digital experiences, using research and deep collaboration with stakeholders to help.
We come from a range of backgrounds including marketing, journalism, psychology and the arts. But generally, we all have the same passion — language! And we’re also quite good at understanding how people think and simplifying complex information.
You can read a good definition of what content design is by Content Design London.
Making travelling easy with great content
Travel can be stressful, especially if it’s for work. Perhaps the traveller has an important meeting to attend or a packed schedule once they arrive. That’s why making the booking and management experience easy and stress-free is crucial — it’s one less thing they have to worry about.
At TravelPerk, we aim to make every step of booking business travel straightforward, and this is often down to the content. Good content design helps people easily understand what options suit their needs and how to remedy something that might have gone wrong.
In a nutshell, clear, concise content is integral to ensuring a positive experience.
How we impact a traveller’s experience
As an example, we recently had a traveller who booked a hotel using our platform, but they hadn’t realised they needed to pay for it on arrival. This was frustrating — they were tired after a long journey and didn’t want to deal with the payment.
This issue wasn’t the traveller’s fault. Our booking experience wasn’t doing a good job of explaining how hotel payments work, and was causing confusion.
As a remedy, we explored how we could make things more clear on our platform. Using research to back up our approach, we updated the booking flow to surface information that explicitly explained hotel charges. As a result, travellers were clear what they needed to do on arrival, reducing unnecessary stress.
Content design is good for business too
It’s not only travellers who benefit from content design. We also create value for our company, whether through increased revenue or a reduction in business costs.
For example, in 2023 our pricing model was updated and customers needed to choose which new payment tier they wanted. For some, it meant an increase to how much they were spending, although they would receive extra benefits.
By having content design involved early, we were able to clearly break down the new pricing structure and explain the extra benefits so that customers knew exactly what they were paying for and why. The result was over 350 customers accepting the new prices without needing to speak to us for help, saving time and money in our operational costs.
We’ve also been making our help content clearer, more consistent, and focused on users needs, so they can resolve issues quickly without needing to speak to us.
How we work with other teams
TravelPerk’s product team (‘The Builders’) is a multidisciplinary team made up of product, design, engineering, and data. Folks from each discipline are spread across different product areas (known as ‘tribes’ and ‘squads’) that align to specific parts of the user experience.
Content design normally aligns to broader pieces of work, focusing on high impact, end-to-end user journeys and initiatives. This ensures we’re not stretched across too many smaller, granular projects that might reduce the quality of our work.
We often refer to ourselves as ‘full-stack’ content designers. This means we partner or lead on end-to-end projects from start to finish. We collaborate with product managers and designers on all aspects and stages of the design process. We also work deeply with stakeholders while managing team workloads and setting expectations.
Content design is also fun!
Rituals are especially important in our team. They’re what knits us together and helps us build trust, which is crucial for being a high-impact team.
Each week, we spend time with each other, whether in content critique sessions where we provide feedback about others’ work, or at more informal social events.
We also make sure to get out of the office to have fun as a group. TravelPerk’s mission is to connect people in real life, and we believe in the importance of face-to-face collaboration and bonding.
Find out more about the TravelPerk design team and any open job roles: TravelPerk Design
