Laurence Pratt

Work

13 years as Designer, User Researcher and Digital Strategy

Discovery

British Airways • Airline

The project was a continuous 12-week discovery research initiative aimed at improving the user experience of the “My Account” and Loyalty sections of the British Airways website and app. This work formed part of the larger Nexus project, which is focused on rebuilding the entire digital platform from the ground up. The goal was to better understand user needs and expectations around account management, loyalty features, and help systems—identifying key opportunities to increase engagement, satisfaction, and self-service.

Role: UX Researcher

Objectives:

  • Understand customer perceptions and expectations around the “My Account” and Loyalty propositions

  • Identify pain points in the current journey and opportunities to innovate beyond basic functionality

  • Discover how different customer segments engage with account features and loyalty tools

  • Validate assumptions and gain insights to shape future product strategy and feature development

Approach & Process:

  • Discovery Interviews (Human-led & AI-assisted): Conducted weekly 1:1 interviews with a representative mix of Executive Club members (across tier levels), supported by AI-assisted participant feedback

  • Segment Analysis: Incorporated data from seven customer segments, covering value/volume drivers and diverse user goals (e.g. booking, account setup, redemptions)

  • Inclusion & Accessibility: Ensured 20% of participants had accessibility needs to test inclusivity of account management experience

  • Stakeholder Alignment: Weekly report delivery and communication cadence maintained across core product, design, and analytics stakeholders at British Airways and Avios

Solution & Result:

  • Delivered a continuous stream of insights over 12 weeks, informing design iterations and feature prioritisation

  • Identified critical gaps in feature understanding (e.g. loyalty tier benefits, pooling features)

  • Surfaced opportunities for improved personalisation, clearer IA, and more intuitive help systems

  • Insights contributed to a product roadmap aimed at reducing reliance on the legacy “Classic” system and increasing Executive Club sign-ups

Platform Redesign

Fuller’s • Pub & Hotel Group

The project focused on improving the usability of website theme that was delivered to 250+ hotels and pub properties on it’s website platform. The diverse range of properties meant that the theme needed to have a flexible design system, as well as cater to a number of different revenue streams. Such as Room bookings, Table bookings, Corporate Events and Weddings.

Role: Lead UX Researcher

Objectives:

  • Improve the overall usability of the platform’s theme 
  • Improve the customer journey for each target audience group
  • Improve the Information Architecture between Umbrella Brand site and Location sites
  • Improve the usability of the dietary requirements menu

Approach & Process:

  • Stakeholder Interviews: To understand the project goals of each department 
  • Competitive Analysis: To understand potential opportunities
  • Surveys & Feedback: To identify current usability issues
  • User Interviews: To gain a better understanding customer journey and identify potential opportunities to convert leads earlier in the customer journey.
  • Usability Testing: To identify current usability issues
  • Prototype Testing: To validate solution design

Solution & Result:

  • Launched a new website theme that increased room bookings across platform by 13% &
  • Event Lead Enquires by 26%
  • Introduced a new Dietary Menu Filter interface that increased engagement of feature by 42%

Booking Engine Design

Umi Digital • Digital Agency

The project was to design a prototype of a booking engine that would provide an additional revenue stream for the agency. The focus was to combine a website platform and booking engine in order to create a seamless, streamlined booking process to improve the cross-sale potential for the hotel clients.

Role: Lead UX Researcher

Objectives:

Design a prototype of a hotel booking engine including experiential add-ons to be tested with clients and users.

Improve checkout flow in comparison to competitors.
Design features that took advantage of  the seamless integration between website and booking engine.

Approach & Process:

Competitive Analysis: Reviewed a number of competitor booking engines to gain a better understanding on features available. 

User Interviews: Interviewed users to gain understanding of overall customer journey when booking rooms and planning trips.

Usability Testing: Ran usability tests on competitor booking engines to see which features appealed most and which did not.

Solution & Result:

Launched an MVP booking engine that is currently being tested with clients and users.

Website Redesign

Kirker Holidays • Luxury Tour Operator

The project was a website redesign with a focus on improving the usability of the overall website. Particular focus was on improving the messaging of the USP for new users and a younger demographic.

Role: Lead UX Researcher

Objectives:

  • Improve the usability of the overall website
  • Improve the messaging of the USP to new users
  • Improve the usability for a younger target audience

Approach & Process:

Competitive Analysis: Reviewed a number of competitors that appealed to the same demographic to identify what opportunities existed for improving Kirker website

User Interviews: Interviewed existing customers to understand what appealed most to them about Kirker’s USP

Usability Testing: Conducted usability tests with existing and new users, to see where usability issues existed. As well as to see if new users could identify what Kirker’s USP was.

Solution & Result:

  • Launched a website redesign
  • Introduced video to increase the understanding of USP
  • Improved the use of headings and subheadings to increase understanding of USP

Customer Journey

The Other House • Serviced Apartments

As a newly opened luxury branded serviced apartment member’s club, the project focused on discovering if new users understood the USP.

Role: Lead UX Researcher

Objectives:

  • Improve the messaging of the USP
  • Improve the Information Architecture between Umbrella site and Location Website

Approach & Process:

  • Stakeholder Interviews
  • Competitive Analysis
  • User Interviews
  • Usability Testing
  • Iterative Design Feedback

Solution & Result:

  • Moved key USP details to the start of the User Journey to improve understanding
  • Reduced intrusiveness of pop-ups and sticky elements 
  • Reduced number of menu items in navigation to reduce cognitive load
  • Improved messaging of labels to improve usability of room search
  • Overall improvements in messaging and usability increased booking conversions by 23%

Customer Journey

Kula • Serviced Apartments

The project focused on increasing the long-let bookings of serviced apartments in a specific region.

Role: Lead UX Researcher

Objectives:

  • Improve the customer journey for Long Stay Rentals
  • Improve the messaging of the USP

Approach & Process:

  • Stakeholder Interviews: To understand project goals of each department
  • Competitive Analysis: To identify opportunities from providers in different industries
  • User Interviews: To understand behaviour habits and concerns of target customers
  • Usability Testing: To identify current usability issues
  • Prototype Testing: To validate solution design

Solution & Result:

  • Introduced new search bar features that indicated the long-stay availability in the region
  • Improved UI of the calendar to improve indication of long-stay availability in the region
  • Improved messaging about payment schedule in the booking process to reduce cart abandonment
  • Created a prototype to test the new search bar functionality

Website Redesign

Social Interest Group (SIG)• Charity

The project focused on improving the usability of an umbrella website for a charity group. As there were a number of diverse charities operating within the group, particular attention was made on understand if the group’s USP was understood.

Role: Lead UX Researcher

Objectives:

  • Improve the overall usability of the website
  • Improve the Information Architecture of the website
  • Improve the messaging of the USP

Approach & Process:

  • Stakeholder Interviews
  • Analytical Review
  • User Interviews

Solution & Result:

  • Launched a website redesign