Altéa reservation desktop – Amadeus

The Amadeus Altéa reservation desktop is used by nearly 400,000 travel agents worldwide.

Despite having a graphical version available, the original command-line interface was preferred by users, so Amadeus looked to a user-centred approach to develop the next generation reservation desktop.

Working in a team, we supported Amadeus throughout the UCD life-cycle, during which I was primarily responsible for interaction and interface design.

My Involvement

Requirements gathering
Interaction design
Prototyping

Launch website

Command-line interface

Dated but highly efficient. The command line interface had a very steep learning curve and required a lot of training. However, expert users found it to be incredibly quick and efficient.

One of the key drivers for creating a graphical user interface was to reduce training costs, and enable new travel agents to get to grips with the system quickly.

Low-fidelity wireframes

I worked with Product Managers using low-fidelity wireframes to map key functionality.

We knew that we could not compete with the speed of the command-line interface when dealing with existing expert users. Our aim was to make the GUI smarter, while also still supporting keyboard input.

Task flows

I defined task flows to help clarify user and system interactions. There were a lot of complex transactions taking place on the system, so mapping them out was an important step in understanding requirements and user behaviour.

Design specification and prototype

I created designs, which we turned into an interactive prototype and tested with users. The annotated pages were used as blueprints for the development process.

Key outcomes

The new graphical interface has allowed Amadeus to provide the following benefits to their clients:

Enhance customer service: Agents are faster and more accurate when answering a question or amending a travel journey.
Increase productivity: New users become fully productive within a few weeks, while expert users can enjoy the new user-friendly graphical user interface and continue to input cryptic (command-line) entries and shortcuts.
Control costs: Altéa Reservation Desktop Web helps to reduce costs, particularly in training and deployment, and also minimises mistakes due to human error.
Easy deployment: The solution is a fully web-based (thin client) application and only requires internet access and user credentials.
Tailored to your needs: It can meet your specific market requirements and business needs, with many customisable elements.