Watch a short project summary.
The project started with Platinum and Centurion Cardmembers in France, Japan and the UK. Over five years, it grew to include 30 countries, 8 languages and all Cards, from Green through Centurion.
The very first task was creating online market and card-specific benefits guides that could be updated and viewed by Cardmembers more easily.
From there, we created the first true digital benefit — a lounge access guide Cardmembers could use on their mobile phones. In the past a book had been sent each year — not useful when a user is stuck in the airport or when new lounges are added or removed mid-year.
The success of the lounge guide led to development of digital services for the hotel, dining and restaurant tools, as well as integration with travel booking.
Prototyping and iterating.
Since these were the first digital benefits, there was no user data to build on. We did extensive research, both online and in one-on-one guided sessions, using a variety of prototypes to test our work, then built on data from the first live app and site tools to add and improve.
Fast-tracking from prototype to live design — initial versions of lounge access and offers.
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City Guides
Cardmembers had trouble using travel benefits. Research showed that those who didn’t use them were more likely to quit. To make it easier for Cardmembers, we developed City Guides, covering 30 global destination cities at launch, including:
Editorial content, Concierge recommendations, special offers and benefits for hotels, dining and experiences.
Individual city page and map designs.
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Hotel Finder
Brought together a mash up of different programs, including Fine Hotels & Resorts, to let users see all their choices.
Users could search by destination, style or program type.
Research included testing of multiple user interface schemes.
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Insurance Finder
Research showed this was a highly valued program, but not well understood. We believed that making the benefit visible and searchable in the app would help build loyalty and reduce call volume.
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Roll out
The benefits apps we created rolled out across over 30 countries — essentially everywhere American Express does business outside of the US — and all Cards, from Green to Centurion.
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