Virgin Atlantic-Holiday - sizzle created
video credit: Freddie Almond
Client's vision - "to be the world's most loved travel company";
Our goal - Design and deliver a modern mobile experience for Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays as one unified product.
Virgin aimed to build a digital experience that deepens customer understanding, lowers support demand, encourages sustainable choices, builds loyalty, and drives revenue.
The current app suffers from several critical issues that undermine its usability and value. Poor attention to detail on the front end is evident through inconsistent spacing, misaligned elements, and a sluggish interface that underperforms despite offering limited functionality.
The booking access is clumsy, needlessly complex and dismissive
of basic user needs, causing friction right from the start.
Content is flat and uninspired, missing the clear opportunity to deliver engaging, memorable moments expected from a holiday-focused app.
The app’s core purpose seems misaligned with user interests,
it appears to be used primarily for generating branded screenshots shared on social media. It serves Virgin’s marketing goals more than delivers meaningful, functional value to users.
There’s no meaningful data capture or behavioural insight to truly know the customer. Instead of reducing pressure on call centres, the poor booking flow adds friction and confusion.
Opportunities to respect the planet through digital-first efficiency are missed due to performance lag and reliance on redundant interactions. Underwhelming content and a misaligned core purpose, the app fails to create emotional connection or engagement, critical to growing loyalty.
Without engagement, there’s no pathway to increasing revenue.
The core challenge isn’t cosmetic - it's foundational: aligning the product experience with the brand’s strategic intent and designing for outcomes that matter to both customer and business.
Work span over 18 weeks, 6 sprints - we delivered a solid, fool-proof MVP. The project was well-structured, and when things aligned, the execution was seamless.
Despite mid-project challenges - including shifting priorities, miscommunication, and internal chaos on the client side - the team pulled together.
Collaboration was strong, resilience was high, and we all grew from the process. It was a standout example of what a focused, supportive team can achieve under pressure.
1. Move from utility to destination
2. Do fewer things – better
3. Streamline the customer journey
4. Create moments of delight
5. Unify visual language and tone of voice
6. Make customers fall in love with us
We explored key competitors in travel and aviation, alongside analogous brands in lifestyle and digital services. Supported by in-depth industry research to understand evolving customer expectations and identify opportunities to elevate the experience beyond pure utility.
We developed design principles to align the team around a clear, shared vision of what the product should achieve - both functionally and emotionally.
These principles served as a strategic filter for decision-making in the early stage of the project.
We explored the client’s boundaries and advocated forward-thinking ideas aimed at fulfilling both customer needs and business objectives.
Recognizing that users primarily engaged with the app to capture and share branded screenshots - we introduced a dedicated “Snapshot” mode.
This feature embraced existing behaviour while elevating
it into a deliberate, user-centric experience.
Few months later, iPhone's iOS 16 introduced a very similar feature
to customize the lock-screen.
Follow the interactive walkthrough --->
Virgin Atlantic illustrative style was dated and lacked unique character.
Illustrations which were a big part of the original experience did not reflect the new values and approach proposed by the fresh re-design - we decided to more closely align the style to match the new experience.
I led the exploration of the new illustrative styles (from a modern, minimalistic 3D to a more classic Flatstyle inspired images) and conversations with the client's Art Director and their team - the response was overwhelmingly positive.
We received a green light to incorporate the new style in the VAH app re-design.
To balance shifting stakeholder asks with the integrity of the original vision, we shaped three clear, complementary directions: Re-skin, Discovery & Self-Service, and Beyond the App. Each built on the last, allowing us to phase them naturally across sprints.
This structure gave us room to stay responsive without losing focus - keeping the work grounded in user value and aligned with the project's core goals.
MVP 1 marked the starting point -
a dialled-back version of select exploration concepts previously shared with the client and re-skin of some of already existing flows.
We created a refreshed, functional experience for the core functions
of the new Virgin Atlantic Holidays app.
→ Project index
→ User flows
→ UX rules
→ UI rules
→ Interaction rules
→ Measurements
→ Components
→ Content rules
→ Illustration rules
→ Photography rules
Being a successful delivery overall, the project still faced a range of challenges.
Unfortunately, largely stemming from internal misalignment and shifting expectations on the client side.
While innovation was a key objective, Virgin often hesitated to commit, frequently asking us to scale back concepts we had been encouraged to explore. Political dynamics within their teams led to limited clarity and inconsistent direction, with key constraints and requirements often surfacing late - creating avoidable friction during sprint execution.
Midway through the project, a sudden fixed deadline was introduced, compressing the timeline significantly. Still, we recalibrated quickly and delivered a high-quality MVP 1 on schedule.
Throughout it all, our team remained cohesive, professional, and resilient. We maintained open communication, kept morale high, and supported each other through ambiguity.
We remained true to the brief and focused on delivery, we ensured that, despite external noise,
the work met the standard we set from day one.