Idea generation
Strategy
Driving Member Sign-in Through Funnel Personalization
Increasing authentication through personalized moments in the shopping funnel.
Illustrative example only. Not a final or production UI.
Impact:
- Influenced product strategy by identifying high-impact authentication moments, resulting in a 16% increase in sign-ins rate within 5 days of testing.
Role: UX Designer
Timeline: 6 months
Teams: Engineering, Product, Design, Research
Timeline: 6 months
Teams: Engineering, Product, Design, Research
What is this?
Context
Existing sign-in entry points primarily served returning users and had limited impact on converting guests. This case explores how authentication could be introduced contextually across the shopping funnel to drive member growth.
Why does it matter?
The Problem
A large portion of users completed bookings as guests, limiting insight into their preferences and long-term marketing engagement.
Without a clear motivation to sign in, this resulted in missed opportunities for retention and repeat revenue.
How was it solved?
Solution
We reframed authentication from a static entry point to a context-driven interaction by defining when and why it mattered.
Research insights aligned authentication prompts with user intent across the shopping funnel, shifting sign-in from a passive option to a purposeful interaction.
What changed?
Impact
Aligned authentication prompts with user intent and the perceived value of signing in across key funnel stages.
Within 5 days of testing, this approach delivered a 16% increase in authentication rate, validating contextualization as a scalable driver of member conversion.
My role in this case
- Partnered closely with UX Research to conduct scalable quantitative analysis and synthesize behavioral insights
- Evaluated direct and indirect competitors to identify effective member conversion patterns
- Influenced product decision-making by identifying high-impact opportunities to increase authentication converstion rate across the shopping funnel.
Decision Process
Understanding the Real Pain Points
Why are we solving this?
Users can choose to sign in to access member benefits or continue as guests for faster checkout. While guest bookings still generate revenue, they limit our ability to build loyalty, personalize experiences, and drive repeat business. Product analysis also showed that users who authenticate earlier in the shopping funnel are significantly more likely to complete a booking.
Although authentication entry points existed across all page types, they were not meaningfully impacting sign-in rates. The core question became not where sign-in was available, but why users were not motivated to use it. This led us to focus on understanding what drives users to become members and how authentication could feel relevant rather than optional.
Although authentication entry points existed across all page types, they were not meaningfully impacting sign-in rates. The core question became not where sign-in was available, but why users were not motivated to use it. This led us to focus on understanding what drives users to become members and how authentication could feel relevant rather than optional.
Business Evaluation & Product Requirements
What business impact could this bring?
Product data indicated that travelers who authenticate earlier in the funnel are up to 4× more valuable from a conversion perspective. Based on projected interaction uplift, this approach could unlock 75,000+ additional successful sign-ins per month. While research helped identify the right direction, business investment in research needed to be scalable, producing insights that could support multiple initiatives over several quarters.
Any authentication interaction needed to meet the following constraints:
Any authentication interaction needed to meet the following constraints:
- Alignment with marketing’s claims framework
- No disruption to the primary task of each page
- Compatibility with existing technical limitations
- Adherence to the current design system
Design Strategy & Explorations
How I approached the problem before large-scale research
Before committing to large quantitative research, we first evaluated why existing entry points underperformed. This included a competitive analysis to identify common patterns that successfully motivate sign-in, as well as an audit of current authentication placements across page types.
Building on these insights, we used quantitative research to understand user goals and behaviors at different stages of the funnel, and defined a benefits-driven vision for authentication. This enabled targeted explorations around placement, presentation, and personalized content, ensuring authentication moments aligned with user intent while remaining lightweight and non-intrusive.
Building on these insights, we used quantitative research to understand user goals and behaviors at different stages of the funnel, and defined a benefits-driven vision for authentication. This enabled targeted explorations around placement, presentation, and personalized content, ensuring authentication moments aligned with user intent while remaining lightweight and non-intrusive.
Design × Business × Governance Trade-offs
Conversion impact vs. ownership, compliance, and brand risk
Increasing authentication motivation required balancing conversion gains with page ownership, legal constraints, design system standards, and brand governance. While more explicit and benefit-driven messaging could attract greater attention, legal and marketing considerations limited how personalized or specific the content could be in certain contexts.
To navigate these trade-offs, we prioritized high-intent moments where authentication added clear user value. This allowed us to increase engagement without compromising brand consistency or regulatory boundaries.
To navigate these trade-offs, we prioritized high-intent moments where authentication added clear user value. This allowed us to increase engagement without compromising brand consistency or regulatory boundaries.
Solution Highlights
Choosing the Right Research to Answer the Right Question
Rather than designing for edge cases, we focused on dominant behaviors that drove the majority of user decisions and conversions. we audited existing authentication entry points and mapped the end-to-end shopping funnel to surface gaps, assumptions, and unanswered questions. This helped us define what we actually needed to learn before investing in large-scale research.
Because our goal was to understand motivation patterns across the funnel, not just individual usability issues. We decided to choose quantitative research over qualitative interviews. While qualitative method can surface deep insights, they are limited in scale and insufficient for identifying dominant behaviors across page types.
Through quantitative research with 65+ participants, we identified primary, secondary, and low-intent tasks at each funnel stage. These insights clarified where authentication added value versus created friction, and directly informed our design recommendations.
Because our goal was to understand motivation patterns across the funnel, not just individual usability issues. We decided to choose quantitative research over qualitative interviews. While qualitative method can surface deep insights, they are limited in scale and insufficient for identifying dominant behaviors across page types.
Through quantitative research with 65+ participants, we identified primary, secondary, and low-intent tasks at each funnel stage. These insights clarified where authentication added value versus created friction, and directly informed our design recommendations.
User journey with Quantitative research
Intentionally blurred. Illustrative purposes only.
Aligning Stakeholders Through a Data-Backed Experiment
One high-impact authentication opportunity required placement on a page owned by another product stakeholder, who initially rejected the recommendation due to concerns about disruption and conversion risk.
Rather than pushing the design direction, we partnered with Product to propose a controlled testing strategy. We landed agreement to run a 5-day experiment in a single point of sale, with clear success criteria:
Rather than pushing the design direction, we partnered with Product to propose a controlled testing strategy. We landed agreement to run a 5-day experiment in a single point of sale, with clear success criteria:
- Authentication rate must increase
- Booking completion rate must not decline
If results showed no improvement or negative impact, we committed to not pursuing the entry point further. This approach reduced perceived risk while creating space to validate the design recommendation with real data.
The test results confirmed a measurable increase in authentication without impacting bookings conversion rate, validating the UX hypothesis and establishing trust in a data-driven decision framework.
The test results confirmed a measurable increase in authentication without impacting bookings conversion rate, validating the UX hypothesis and establishing trust in a data-driven decision framework.
Illustrative example only. Not a final or production UI.
