New York Cruise Lines (NYCL)

Circumnavigating the great city of New York has been possible since 1905. A local and international favorite, the New York Cruise Lines manages and operates many different water transportation vehicles around the New York City metropolitan area, including the Statue of Liberty Cruise and the New York Water Taxi. A celebrated company in the area with no major competition, the company set their eyes on elevating their experience and their brand perception to all their customers, local and tourists.

New York Cruise Lines wanted to differentiate themselves from the rest of the cruising industry by redesigning the digital customer experience. They wanted to elevate their brand that through immersive content communicating a singular message of modern luxury.

︎ Role
Served a functional role and client-facing role in uncovering business and customer desires, painpoints and unknowns; led and presented key workshops and facilitated design and thought discussions. Compiled the final design strategy roadmap and presented key learnings to NYCL executives.

Customer Interviews, Heuristic analysis, user journey, personas, workshop facilitation, design strategy, client deliverables, presentations

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The Process

I conducted several types of user-centered research activities to observe and learn about the New York Cruise Line customer experience from inspiration to booking to embarking on a cruise to reconnecting with the brand, after-experience. We captured qualitative and quantitative user and brand information and then synthesized the findings into a strategic design roadmap to make it tangible for implementation. The research findings suggested NYCL had the opportunity to set the bar with an immersive, digital experience. We learned that while NYCL had a great culture and customer loyalty, they lack in delivering an inspirational and seamless digital experience.

NYCL had the opportunity to connect the journey across all touch points and components of the business to deliver one cohesive experience to each guest, from pre- to post-journey.

Research Outputs

While synthesizing our research data, we identified user personas and mapped their desires, drivers and actions across the cruising journey.

Persona

Journey Map

Client Workshops

We held a rumble to check our work. 40 stakeholders participated in a two-day workshop comprised of design thinking activities, discussions, and persona and journey map critiques.

Workshop Themes

While synthesizing research data, I identified five personas and seven human-centered criteria and mapped their journey and impact, respectively.

Using these themes, the team created a future-state digital vision that would drive the entire customer experience.

Overall Recommendations:
• Empower guests with digital booking experiences
• Provide timely and relevant content
• Form strategic partnerships
• Encourage user-generated content
• Simplify the brand touchpoint experience

The Output

At conclusion of these design discussions, quantitative/qualitative understandings, the NYCL team was able to use our research artifacts to inform the design realization of digitally elevating their experience. I was able to help NYCL rebrand themselves by a content strategy that worked in tandom with a redesigned digital showcase outside their ticketing booth and Piers - to deliver on the promise of a seamless digital customer experience.