United Airlines: Digital Hemispheres
A preview of the current printed version of United’s Hemispheres magazine
Where we started
Hemispheres Magazine is United Airlines’ inflight magazine, circulated monthly and reaching 139 million passengers annually. In alignment with United’s “Good Leads the Way” mission, eliminating the weight of magazines from aircraft will reduce fuel emissions and save printing costs and resources. Additionally, broadening the reach beyond the printed inflight magazine allows United and its partner advertisers to deliver personalized ads to customers, which can drive revenue for United.
Whiteboards and sticky notes during our ideation session at the project kickoff meeting.
Project goal
To establish an omnichannel digital content marketing program to evolve Hemispheres from an onboard print magazine to a scalable, multimedia digital experience across United’s channels, engaging and inspiring customers, driving MileagePlus engagement, and enabling additional partnership opportunities.
The design Process
The key stakeholders and team members: Digital Content, Marketing, Content Management, Development, UX Writing, and UX Design collaborated during a workshop to decide what the future of Hemispheres looked like. The printed magazine includes aspirational travel content, advertising, and information like inflight menus and airport maps; the goal of the digital publication was to showcase the travel content, make it easily accessible, and include opportunities for United’s advertising partners to buy ad space.
I created templates for page layouts, keeping our mobile web users at the top of mind. The main landing pages are the home page, the Places to go page, the Things to do page, and the Three Perfect Days page.
After determining the business requirements and technical capabilities for MVP1, we created the information architecture. Hemispheres content would be divided into three categories: Places to go, Things to do, and Three Perfect Days.
1: The printed edition of the Hemispheres magazine on a United flight in 2017.
2: A Three Perfect Days feature on the inflight entertainment system on a United flight in 2024.
3: Designs in progress for the new digital Hemispheres on united.com.
Where we’re going
Digitizing Hemispheres will allow United to connect with more current, previous, and potential passengers through its inspirational travel content. Channels could potentially include showcasing Hemispheres content in the United app, in-flight entertainment screens, email, SMS, and monetized content marketing across the entire customer journey. Content will evolve to be digital-first and include video, podcasts, and travel tips.
Design concepts
Design concepts for the new digital Hemispheres site: home page, Places to go landing page, Things to do landing page
The hero section of the Hemispheres home page features the Three Perfect Days content, personalized to the user. If the user has enabled cookies and/or is signed in to the MileagePlus account (United's loyalty rewards program), the content will be customized to their search/travel history.
The Hemispheres home page also features personalized content outside of the Three Perfect Days format. Below the hero section is another carousel of articles that are personalized to fit the user's preferences. Targeted ads are also throughout the pages, as well as a 'Book now' call to action that leads to the united.com flight booking flow.
