AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL: NEXTPEDITION

In a culture where you’ve seen the ratings of every hotel, read the reviews of every restaurant, and street-viewed every monument; how do we allow mystery back into people's lives? 

NEXTPEDITION is "A custom-made mystery trip based on a traveler’s passions and interests" — designed to engage the next generation of American Express Travel's customers.

The project was designed as an ecosystem with physical, digital, and social touch points.

The website acted as the hub of NEXTPEDITION. It tells a complete product story, shares comments, images and videos from other travelers on their NEXTPEDITIONS; and invites visitors to find their own Travel Sign to go off on their own mystery trip.

The Travel Dossier and Travel Console are the physical products that convey the protection, confidence and premium brand experience that travelers are buying into when they purchase travel from American Express. Specifically, the Travel Console acts as the traveler’s trip companion, comprised of a digital guidebook, itinerary, and travel log. A pocket concierge, it provides travelers with all the information and functionality they need to navigate, capture media, and share socially during their trip.

When it comes to the magic of making it all work, that's where the backend planner system comes into play to support the trips, and allow the agents to determine travel logistics.

To drive real-world participation and foot traffic into American Express’ Cambridge Travel Office, we created an interactive store front window to engage passers-by on the street. The interactive window lets users find their Travel Sign and invites them to come into the office to speak with a Travel Specialist and book their NEXTPEDITION.

Being a travel enthusiast myself, this project was definitely a memorable one for me. It was a great challenge designing for the entire product experience, and gave me invaluable insights into the product development cycle and process. Sure, the initiative is designed for a niche market and may not support a sustainable business model, but it was refreshing to see a brand finally experiment and innovate in the travel landscape.

Read Grant McCracken from Harvard Business Review's take on NEXTPEDITION here.

COMPANY

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

CLIENT
American Express Travel

MY ROLE
I was one of the Lead Experience Designers in determining the user journeys throughout the travel experience, and designing the website, travel console, backend admin system for trip planning and content upload, and in-store/interactive window experience.

Also oversaw the design and development efforts throughout the project cycle.