Jonathon Thomason - Product and Experience Design

I’m a passionate creative with a practical approach to product design, research and innovation.

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I’m a New Orleans born and raised designer that loves energetic, multi-disciplinary teams. I love solving problems that make things simple for people - likewise, simpler to implement. I appreciate the craft of systems thinking (visual and technologies) and production. I had an early career in boutique design agencies in NOLA (with great creative directors), then I spent nearly 10 years in Miami, FL in senior and lead roles with a variety of teams and cultures. I’ve led and collaborated with teams of several sizes in remote, contextual and controlled research/testing and design environments (hackathons too!) that saw great results. I have also served as head instructor in two UX cohorts (see Ironhack) on visual design and user research, respectively.

When needed, I’ve contributed to front-end development. I understand the needs of versatility in lean and agile atmospheres and thrive in adaptability to add value where I can. I first started to design and code as a ten-year-old boy, so there is no denying that I love what I do (my first ever website is still live - view website)!

Mostly, I love being as excited to complete projects as I am to start them. The process has its own reward to me.

Booked Guest Redesign

I was hired to lead UX in a redesign for the Carnival “booked guest” team, which is for customers who have already purchased their cruise (this can be several months in advance). The booked guest redesign was the first of an entire digital overhaul and its design system was adopted by the rest of Carnival’s digital experience.

Booked guest contained a homepage that acted as a portal to various planning (ecomm) and to-do list type of tasks such as checking in, managing preferences, completing payments, etc. There is also a substantial need for learning materials as uncertainties linger for many new customers traveling abroad. The UI and workflows consisted of multiple UIs and style libraries, along with technologies and workflows that didn’t work together. My goal was to unify the areas with one design system and leverage customer and cruise details for a flow of information across the booked cruise management suite (and into the mobile onboard app!)

Not long after hire, I became a utility UX lead across the org (with a focus on booked guest) and my projects and methodologies varied depending on team and resources / requirements. Likewise, the projects were non-linear at times and I managed them in parallel. I hope to illustrate my effectiveness in understanding the business’ domains and needs with a broad skillset and not necessarily as an isolated case study.

Discovery

Ex. Customer Journey Map - Cruise Booked 6 Months Out from Sail date

I first hosted and facilitated bi-weekly product team workshops that would outline the customer journey from the time customers book their cruise to the time they sail. The customer journey map became a working document that was updated as needed. This was a cornerstone for strategy conversations and understanding of the entire customer journey, distinct touchpoints and relevant KPIs, respectively. It acted as a roadmap in many ways.

“Start with what we have now”

Analytics, Voice of the Customer & Existing Research

I was fortunate in that Carnival already had some existing marketing research to cross-reference with my own research. With this, I straw manned a first round of hypotheses based on analytics, expert interviews and existing research and also created a customer journey map. A lot of the information was validated over time and we updated artifacts as needed with new learnings.

Initial approach for "as is":

• Cognitive walk throughs and simply using the site myself
• "As-is" user testing
• Analytics deep dive on user behavior flow, time on page, bounce rate, device types, etc.
• Sales analytics like average cruise purchase-to-sail date (how long do we have before they sail)
• Audits of on-page content & functionality
• Creating "as-is" Information Architecture outline
• Heuristics evaluation for top trafficked pages (page & page type)
• Existing marketing surveys & personas
• Customer support/call center partnership (shadowing, interviews, etc)
• Cruise port visits (interviews, usability testing)

Ex. Docs from top left to right: legacy homepage, analytics user behavior top patterns, old check-in flow, survey 'what do you want to know after booking'

Outcomes:

• UX Competitive analysis conducted & presented to team
• Workflow diagrams were documented with highlighted friction points
• Content and information overlap identified
• Heuristic assessment and recommendations made:
• Design discrepancies, confusion with language/wording conventions, redundancies, inconsistencies, lack of affordances, limited navigation, etc.
• General hypotheses created for validation:
• There are 3 primary reasons to use this site (learning, admin, planning)
• Users struggle to distinguish a clear purpose of pages and go in circles/leave
• Users are leaving after certain tasks (journey context)
• Users are looking for details and functionality that do not exist (yet)
• E-commerce opportunities documented/identified
• Reusable data documented/identified
• Opportunities to batch tasks documented/identified
• Information architecture strategy created
• F.A.Q.s simplified/consolidated and prioritized
• Personas refined per continued research and testing
• New/Returning cruisers, alpha planners, etc
• Next steps recommended, backlog & “parking lot” items created

Ex. New Information Architecture outline for entire Carnival digital ecosystem

Design, Testing & Results

At Carnival, I led the design process, creating wireframes, prototypes, and coding in HTML/CSS/JS as necessary. In lean/agile projects, I transformed wireframes into developer-friendly design libraries and a design system. I managed user testing, shared findings, and stored design systems in repositories like Zeplin and storybook. Additionally, I supported training and presented updates to call center teams before major changes.

"CHOOSE FUN!" - brand refresh

New marketing, e-commerce platform, & new design system

I was at Carnival during a massive agency change for a rebrand and marketing initiative with agencies RGA, HUGE and Deloitte. This timing lined up perfectly with our redesign for digital efforts and so a collaboration took place across all areas of marketing and digital experience.

Aligning Efforts:

• I led the design system to match the marketing/brand refresh by RGA
• We integrated a new e-commerce platform, SAP Hybris, developed by Deloitte
• I managed design system handoffs to offsite teams
• I guided UX/UI direction and flows with HUGE

My Deliverables

• Wireframes, Information Architecture & User Flows
• High Fidelity Mockups, Page Patterns & Prototypes
• Designs for net new functionality:
• Favoriting/Comparison
• Upsells, Cross-sells, Bundling
• Style Guide & Design System in Zeplin
• User testing Task Scripts & Testing (moderated, unmoderated)
• A/B Testing (usertesting.com and Optimizely)
• Mouseflow (heat maps & recorded sessions)

User Testing

Outcomes

• Task based user testing insights applied in design
• Subjective user testing feedback applied in design
• User work flows A/B tested in wireframes - winner selected
• Increased traffic into ecomm stores by 75%
• Increased ecomm conversions by 25%
• Reduced customer support phone calls
• Designed an ADA compliant style guide that was implemented across all of carnival.com
• Gave presentations and training to other design teams on new design system, use cases, style guide and 8pt grid
• Increased Ecomm Enhancements ROI (Upsells, Cross-sells, Bundling, Favoriting)