Royal Caribbean x Make-A-Wish
This 5-day design sprint focused on integrating the Royal Caribbean and Make-A-Wish partnership into the cruise booking experience.
Our objective was to build trust, inspire donations, and showcase the life-changing impact of the partnership while maintaining the Royal Caribbean brand’s tone and design consistency.
Timeframe:
End-to-End Designer
Year:
2024
The Challenge
Potential donors feel hesitant due to a lack of trust, clarity on donation impact, and the absence of meaningful incentives to contribute. My team found that the existing Royal Caribbean website did not fully leverage the emotional and storytelling potential of its partnership with Make-A-Wish.
The Solution
Our solution was to integrate storytelling into the checkout process in a non-invasive and progressive manner. We aimed to build familiarity and awareness of the Make-A-Wish partnership by introducing the cause early in the booking journey without immediately requesting a donation.
By focusing on emotional storytelling during the initial stages, we established trust and connection with the customer. The donation request was then presented toward the end of the booking process, framed as an optional cart add-on, with the incentive of onboard benefits to encourage contributions.
The Method
To tackle the challenge of integrating the Royal Caribbean and Make-A-Wish partnership into the user experience, we followed a structured 5-day design sprint process.
Each day focused on a key phase of design thinking, allowing us to dive deep into user needs, ideation, and execution while staying aligned with our project goals.
The Research
We began by gaining a comprehensive understanding of the problem. Through user interviews and secondary research, we uncovered critical insights about donor hesitations, such as the need for trust, clarity, and emotional connection.
The Problem
Our team found that there are potential barriers to engagement include donor trust, clarity on donation impact, and meaningful incentives for contributions on the current Royal Caribbean web page
The Design Challenge
How might we bring clarity and awareness to hesitant donor's in a non invasive way so that people feel secure in their decision to donate to the cause?
The Market Research
During market research, we analyzed how hospitality brands presented Make-A-Wish and similar partnerships.
Competitors effectively used emotional storytelling, impact-focused landing pages, and strategic donation placements to engage audiences.
These insights guided our design, helping us position the Make-A-Wish partnership within Royal Caribbean’s experience authentically and non-intrusively.
The Norms
We analyzed successful partnerships, like Disney’s with Make-A-Wish, to understand the balance of emotional storytelling and clear calls to action.
We then looked within Royal Caribbean's site at their existing partnerships for design references and standards in practice.
Focusing on Royal Caribbean’s existing styles, we identified best practices, such as featuring impact stories and aligning visuals with the brand, to create a distinct yet consistent 'Wishes at Sea' campaign.
The Target
To create a user-centered solution, we synthesized insights from interviews and market research. We identified key patterns, such as donors’ need for trust, transparency, and non-intrusive donation options.
By analyzing these recurring themes, we developed Carlos as a representative persona to embody the hesitant donor.
Creating this persona helped us align our design decisions with real user needs, ensuring our storytelling and donation flow addressed their concerns while building trust and confidence in the process.
With a clear understanding of the problem space, we moved into ideation.
Each team member contributed sketches and concepts for potential solutions, including homepage integrations, storytelling-driven landing pages, and donation flows within the checkout process.
Crazy 8s
Using the Crazy 8s technique, our team rapidly sketched concepts for key screens, including the homepage, landing page, and checkout flow.
This quick ideation method encouraged creativity and diversity in ideas, helping us identify common themes and innovative approaches to seamlessly integrate the Make-A-Wish partnership into the user experience.
The Sketches:
Home Page Hero
Our homepage hero section sketches introduce the 'Wishes at Sea' partnership prominently while aligning with Royal Caribbean’s visual style. Key phrases like 'Make-A-Splash' and 'A Small Splash Can Make a Big Wave' evoke emotional impact, supported by recognizable logos for trust and credibility.
With concise messaging and clear call to actions like 'Learn More,' these designs effectively capture attention and guide users toward engaging with the partnership.
The Sketches:
Landing Page
Our landing page for the Royal Caribbean and Make-A-Wish partnership was inspired by the design of existing partnership pages to ensure a cohesive and familiar user experience.
Featuring emotional storytelling, impact statistics, and clear calls to action, the layout was designed to build trust and encourage engagement, serving as the foundation for the 'Wishes at Sea' campaign.
The Sketches:
Checkout Page
Our checkout sketches focused on integrating storytelling early in the flow to build trust and emotional connection to the 'Wishes at Sea' partnership.
Impactful visuals and messaging introduced the campaign without an immediate donation request.
Donation options were presented later as optional add-ons, creating a seamless and non-intrusive experience while ensuring users felt connected to the cause.
The Decide stage of the design sprint is a critical turning point where ideas are refined and a clear direction is chosen for the design.
Through structured methods like collaborative brainstorming, prioritization, and constructive critique, we combined diverse perspectives to select the most user-centered and effective design approach.
The Experience Map
Our experience map illustrates Carlos’ journey as he interacts with the 'Wishes at Sea' campaign.
Starting with excitement about booking a cruise, Carlos becomes curious when he notices the campaign and decides to explore its mission and impact.
Through engaging storytelling, Carlos learns about the tangible benefits of donating, which builds trust and eases his initial hesitations.
By the end, he feels confident and empowered to contribute, rounding up his travel expenses or making a one-time donation.
The confirmation leaves him with a sense of fulfillment, knowing his contribution is making a meaningful difference.
The Solution Sketches
These illustrate our refined approach to integrating the 'Wishes at Sea' campaign into Royal Caribbean’s digital platform.
These designs focus on emotional storytelling, seamless navigation, and non-intrusive donation opportunities.
By combining impactful visuals, real-life testimonials, and clear calls to action, the sketches create a user-friendly experience that builds trust and highlights the tangible benefits of donations.
This approach ensures the campaign aligns with Royal Caribbean’s branding while effectively engaging users.
In the prototyping stage, our team transitioned from sketches to creating a high-fidelity interactive prototype using Figma.
This phase allowed us to bring our designs to life and refine the user experience based on the selected sketches and flows.
By leveraging Figma's collaborative tools, we ensured alignment across the team while iterating on key elements such as navigation, storytelling, and donation integration.
The Home Page
Here, we retained Royal Caribbean's familiar layout for consistency, integrating a prominent hero banner to highlight the 'Wishes at Sea' partnership without disrupting the homepage flow.
The banner provides an entry point to learn more about the campaign, blending seamlessly with the site’s aesthetic.
We also added a 'Partnerships' section in the hamburger menu, offering users an intuitive way to explore collaborations.
These choices ensure the partnership feels like a natural part of the site.
The Landing Page
The 'Wishes at Sea' landing page mirrors Royal Caribbean's partnership layouts, maintaining brand consistency while using storytelling elements like impact stats, testimonials, and imagery to evoke emotion.
Testimonials at the bottom of the page highlight individual children and their stories, offering a personal connection and showcasing the tangible impact of donations.
These real-life stories and data build trust, addressing donor hesitations and creating a transparent, emotionally engaging experience that encourages users to connect with the cause.
The Checkout Process
The checkout process introduces 'Wishes at Sea' thoughtfully, using storytelling at the bottom of the page to highlight its mission without an immediate donation request.
Donations are later presented as optional cart add-ons, fostering emotional engagement while ensuring a seamless, non-intrusive user experience.
It was crucial to maintain a non-invasive design that didn’t distract users from the primary goal of completing their booking.
From a business perspective, we prioritized the booking process while subtly encouraging donations, ensuring the campaign supports the partnership without detracting from the core user journey.
On the final day of our design sprint, we focused on testing our prototype to validate its effectiveness and refine the user experience.
Through peer feedback and iterative adjustments, we ensured the design aligned with user needs and project goals, preparing it for future user testing.
The Testing
After introducing our prototype, we conducted peer testing to identify areas for improvement and validate our design decisions.
Feedback highlighted minor inconsistencies and areas for enhancement, which we addressed by revisiting our storyboard and sprint questions.
By prioritizing actionable changes, we refined the prototype to ensure it provided a seamless and engaging user experience, setting the foundation for successful user testing.
The Results
With the insights gained from peer testing and iterative refinements, we transitioned from a draft prototype to a fully functioning design.
This final iteration incorporated all validated changes, ensuring a cohesive, user-centered experience that aligned with our goals and addressed both user needs and business objectives.
The Key Learnings
Storytelling Drives Engagement: Integrating storytelling into the design, particularly in the landing page and checkout process, proved to be a powerful tool for building trust, evoking emotions, and addressing user hesitations. This reinforced the importance of narrative-driven design in fostering meaningful connections with users.
Non-Invasive Design is Crucial: Balancing the visibility of the 'Wishes at Sea' campaign with Royal Caribbean’s core booking flow was critical. By ensuring the campaign elements were subtle yet impactful, we upheld the primary business goal of securing bookings while successfully promoting donations.
Consistency Builds Trust: Maintaining alignment with Royal Caribbean’s established design language ensured a seamless and familiar user experience. This highlighted how leveraging existing patterns can enhance usability while preserving brand identity.
Iterative Collaboration Yields Results: The design sprint methodology, combined with regular peer testing and collaboration, enabled our team to refine and validate our ideas effectively. This process emphasized the value of teamwork and user feedback in shaping a successful solution.
User Empathy Shapes Solutions: Developing Carlos as a persona and mapping his journey illuminated user pain points and motivations, driving us to create designs that resonated with real-world scenarios.
The Next Steps
User Testing with Real Customers: Conduct user testing sessions with actual Royal Caribbean customers to validate the design further, gather additional insights, and identify any remaining areas for improvement.
Track Campaign Metrics: Collaborate with Royal Caribbean to establish key performance indicators (KPIs), such as click-through rates, donation conversions, and engagement levels, to measure the campaign's success over time.
Iterate Based on Analytics: Use data from live user interactions to iterate and optimize the design. For example, refine the placement of storytelling elements or adjust the donation flow based on user behavior.
Explore Accessibility Enhancements: Ensure the design is accessible to a diverse range of users by testing and refining features to meet WCAG compliance standards.
Scalability Planning: Work with stakeholders to explore how the 'Wishes at Sea' campaign can scale across different platforms, devices, or future partnerships while maintaining the integrity of the user experience.
Integrate Personalization Features: Investigate opportunities to introduce personalization, such as highlighting user-relevant testimonials or donation impacts, to deepen engagement and further inspire contributions.