SpaceX Booking App

Project overview & brief

We're probably going to Mars at some point, so I decided to create a vision of what the flight booking experience would look like in years to come. SpaceX was the perfect business to base this product around, considering their innovation and future thinking in this space. It also helps that their identity is slick and modern, so a brilliant place to start.

The approach

Before anything, I wanted to further understand booking experiences and similar products, which helped in defining the positioning for this app. I then wanted to map out the experience with task based flows centred around the user, whilst considering an OOUX approach.

A full requirements list was then put together and pinned against the mapping work, which resulted in a clear architecture I could evolve into design.

This process then allowed me to move into crafting out the intuitive user experience, focusing on pre and post booking of a flight.

The goal

The challenge was to design something for all to use. Whether visiting through work, packing up and relocating, or just curious about another habitable planet, the booking app should enable people to easily search flights, become educated on destinations and guide them through the travel experience end-to-end.

Think of the app as your go-to companion for outer space travel.

The outcome should be a user-centered booking app with extensive functional features, such as vehicle hire, multi-stop flights, live navigation to terminals and pre mid post flight status tracking.

Areas of focus

I conducted some light research into various flight booking apps and assessed their overall experience. I started to think about the tasks a user will need and want to perform. This has lead me onto the following areas:

Searching for flights

When looking for flights, this task should be easily accessible and quick to retrieve results. I imagine the user might revisit this feature of the app multiple times before making a booking.


Booking a flight

For a user, finding a flight is one thing but then allowing them to complete the booking smoothly is also important. Efficiency of this stage in the process should be simple.

Education on destination

Familiar with the location or not, expert knowledge of the destination will bring a lot of benefit to the user. Broad or specific content will add value to their flight experience.

Optional flight upgrades

Additional options and upgrades should be accessible during and after the booking process. Plans often change, so this needs to be an important factor. This will give the user a lot of convenience.


Paying for booked flight

It's commonplace to pay a deposit and the remainder later on. Both options should be considered here, for easy payment options, pre and post booking stage. All types of currency, including crypto should be included.

Accessing flight status details

Before and mid flight, details will be hugely important. The user will want to know contextual information relating to their current status. Things like what gate is departure, boarding times, flight duration, important notifications around their flight and so on.

My profile & account details

These areas of the app are going to be very important. The user will want to store and access sensitive data. Personalisation will be a nice highlight of the app.

Mapping the journey

After scoping out core functionality and requirements, I mapped out the app architecture which would help define the user experience and flows.

These core journies are:

Booking a new flight
Tracking the status of a booked flight
Adding/updating details to a booked flight
Accessing/updating details from their account
Learning about a destination before visiting the location

Intro screen & Login

Here is a subtle short animated opener sequence that takes the user straight to a Login screen. If the user remains logged in, they will go straight to Home, as displayed below.

Home & Search

When landing on the Home screen, the user will be asked where do they want to go, with the ability to search for a flight immediately and see the local weather. Search is favouring the date first, then number of passengers second, which kicks off the flight booking journey.

Destinations & Planet details

This app becomes a go-to place for learning about the destination by creating detailed content pages that a user can explore. They can view destinations in list or 'explore' view that allows the user to interact with the planets and space stations.

Search Results, Filters & Review

The filtering functionality should allow the user to hone in on specific results and therefore customise their booking package but also serve the right info they need in a way that is easy to digest.

Passengers, Seat Selection & Luggage

After the user has selected the destination, they can start to customise their flight package. This involves selecting passengers, seat allocation and luggage options.

Flight Upgrades & Vehicle Hire

The user will have the ability to upgrade their flight package and bolt on additional travel requirements such as vehicle hire. They will be able to skip this step easily if not needed.

Flight Booking Review

Getting the user to this point in their booking flow has taken a lot of decision making, so reviewing their flight package needs to be super simple. The user will also have the ability to change and update details in any step.

Payment Process

The challenge now is to create a smooth checkout process and give them a healthy choice of payment options. I would think about incorporating a crypto payment option.

Flight Detail & Progress Tracker

Once the user has booked their flight package, they can revisit their booking details to get status on their flight and access a multitude of info. Pre, during and post flight content will change to become relevant based on their physical location.

Profile, Trips, Favourites, Search

The user can also create and update their profile details, access their flight history, create and manage their favourites list, search, etc.