Legacy booking workflow redesign for Norwegian Cruise Lines

Outcome + Strategy

Streamlining Booking Workflows

At Norwegian Cruise Lines, I simplified a legacy booking workflow so travel agents could move faster, learn the system sooner, and support customers with less context-switching.

Rather than rebuilding the system from scratch, I redesigned the workflow within existing legacy constraints to preserve operational continuity.

Workflow Speed
30%

Faster task completion across search + booking flow.

Operational Reach
1.5k+

Travel agents supported through a more learnable workflow.

Delivery Constraint
3 mo.

Designed within legacy constraints without disrupting workflows.

Collaboration

Product manager · Lead engineer · 2 UX designers · Tour operations managers

My Role

Prioritized onboarding speed over feature complexity. Aligned stakeholders around core agent decisions—not feature requests. Led high-fidelity workflow redesign within legacy constraints.

 

The Challenge + Constraints

The Workflow Problem

How might we cut travel agent training time in half?

Agents compared pricing, availability, and operational constraints across fragmented legacy systems that couldn’t be rebuilt from scratch.

Why this became urgent

Slow onboarding delayed booking confidence. Live customer calls depended on manual workarounds. Disconnected systems increased comparison time.


Current State
4-week onboarding
Goal
2-week onboarding
Current Friction

Manual Cross-Referencing

Pricing and availability information lived across tabs, tools, and memory.

Constraint

Legacy System Integration

New functionality had to layer onto existing infrastructure.

 

Defining the Problem

Aligning On Outcomes Before Solutions


Previous work prioritized feature breadth over learnability, creating disconnects across the team.

I facilitated a cross-functional workshop to align stakeholders on onboarding goals, operational priorities, and the workflows that would shape the roadmap.

Primary Metric
50%

Faster onboarding became the success target.

Efficiency Goal
30%

Lower call times shaped workflow priorities.

Core User
Tour agents

Roadmap decisions focused on agent workflows.

Roadmap Sequence
Search first Booking flow Advanced filters later

I advocated for a phased rollout centered on search first—reducing onboarding friction while working within legacy platform constraints.

 

UX Research

When The Workaround Becomes the Workflow


Agents switched to the consumer website when internal tools couldn’t answer live-call questions fast enough.

“I’ve lost reservations since people want pictures and I can’t get them right away.”

What happened during live calls

01

Question comes in

Customer asks for tour details live.

02

Internal tool slows down

Key information was too hard to access quickly.

03

Agent switches systems

The consumer website became the workaround.

04

Booking confidence drops

Time pressure increased booking risk.

 

Wireframing & Prototyping

Improving Learnability Without a Full Rebuild

Agents preferred the consumer site over internal tools because it felt easier to learn.

I reused familiar search patterns and layered them onto the legacy workflow—avoiding a full rebuild while unifying search and results.

Problem

Agents defaulted to the consumer site instead of internal search tools.

Constraint

The legacy booking platform couldn’t support a full redesign.

Design Response

Search was layered onto the existing workflow as an overlay.

Unified search workflow
Familiar search entry point similar to consumer site
Search + results unified in one page
Top search bar overlay avoided full rebuild
Annotated booking workflow screen
Reused search design patterns from the consumer site
Advanced functionality in legacy system accessible below search bar

Workflow Fragmentation

The Before: Search + Results Separated

Agents switched between disconnected systems to search, compare, and evaluate tours during live customer calls.

Legacy search workflow
Step 01

Initiate Search

Agents searched availability in a separate legacy interface.

Switch systems

Legacy booking results workflow
Step 02

Evaluate Results

Pricing and booking details lived in another disconnected workflow.

What Changed

Agents no longer relied on manual cross-referencing between disconnected systems during live calls.

 

The After

Search, comparison, and booking confidence in one flow

“It’s great. You don’t have to go back and forth and can do everything in one spot.”

Agents previously cross-referenced pricing, availability, and booking details across multiple legacy tools.

I unified search, comparison, and booking into one workflow.

New Flow
Find Tours →
Compare →
Drill Down

Search and comparison, all in one workflow.

Decision Speed
-30%

Faster task completion by reducing cross-referencing.

Agent Feedback
9.9/10

Average ease-of-use rating during usability testing.

 

Reflection

Lessons from the build

The project reinforced how much successful workflow design depends on early alignment, validating value before implementation, and reducing learning friction in complex systems.

Shared Goals

Align Early to Prevent Rework

Defining priorities upfront kept teams focused on outcomes instead of revisiting direction later.

Learnability

Design for Training-Heavy Environments

Familiar interaction patterns helped reduce onboarding friction across complex workflows.