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Turning Weather Uncertainty into a 2.5% Boost in Conversion

Live Component

Live Component

Introduction

Jet2holidays serves millions of customers each year, with winter sun holidays representing a key trading period. However, users searching winter destinations were progressing and converting at lower rates on the search results page, suggesting uncertainty during the comparison stage.


I designed a weather component that surfaced average temperature, sunshine hours and rainfall for the selected month and destination directly within search results.


The aim was to reduce uncertainty and increase booking confidence without users needing to leave the site to research weather elsewhere.


The component was A/B tested and delivered measurable impact:


  • Monthly winter conversion increased by 2.5%

  • Session conversion increased by 1%

  • Overall bookings increased by 2%


By integrating weather information directly into the comparison journey, the feature improved confidence at a key decision making moment and contributed directly to increased bookings.

Jet2holidays serves millions of customers each year, with winter sun holidays representing a key trading period. However, users searching winter destinations were progressing and converting at lower rates on the search results page, suggesting uncertainty during the comparison stage.


I designed a weather component that surfaced average temperature, sunshine hours and rainfall for the selected month and destination directly within search results.


The aim was to reduce uncertainty and increase booking confidence without users needing to leave the site to research weather elsewhere.


The component was A/B tested and delivered measurable impact:


  • Monthly winter conversion

    increased by 2.5%

  • Session conversion increased by 1%

  • Overall bookings increased by 2%


By integrating weather information directly into the comparison journey, the feature improved confidence at a key decision making moment and contributed directly to increased bookings.

Key Facts

Audience: 17.7m passengers flew with Jet2 in 2024


Goal: To increase conversion rate and step progression in the booking path for winter bookings on Jet2holidays.


My role: Led UX discovery, prototyping, usability testing, and cross-functional alignment across the CRO team.


Timeline: 3 months

The Problem

During winter months, users browsing beach destinations showed lower progression and conversion rates on the search results page.


Engagement remained high, which suggested the issue was not lack of interest but hesitation during decision making.


Research indicated that users were uncertain about weather conditions for winter destinations and were often leaving the site to check weather elsewhere.


This disrupted the booking journey and increased abandonment at a critical comparison stage. This created an opportunity to reduce friction, increase progression, and improve winter conversion on the search results page.

Discovery

I formed the hypothesis that "Displaying relevant weather information directly in search results would increase confidence and progression by reducing the need for external research."

Quantitative Validation

Analysis of Quantum Metric data showed:


  • Strong engagement on the search results page

  • Noticeable drop off during the comparison stage

  • This indicated friction in decision making rather than low intent.

Qualitative Validation

Questionnaires and usability testing revealed:


  • 60% of users said weather was very important when booking holidays

  • Many users checked external weather websites before committing

  • Weather influenced booking decisions, not just inspiration

Competitor Analysis

Competitors such as TUI surfaced weather information in inspirational contexts like “Where’s Hot When?”, but not within the comparison stage.


This presented an opportunity to introduce weather information at a more critical decision point.


Together, these insights validated that embedding weather information into search results could reduce friction and improve progression.

Design Decisions

After validating the problem, I focused on three key questions:


  1. What weather information actually influences decisions?

  2. How should it be presented for quick comparison?

  3. Where should it sit on the search results page?


User research showed a clear hierarchy of weather information:


  • Average temperature

  • Sunshine hours

  • Rainfall days


Users did not want detailed forecasts, just quick, scannable data to support comparison. Because the search results page is comparison heavy, I prioritised scannability over descriptive content.


Icon supported designs performed better than text heavy versions and reduced cognitive load. Emphasising the raw data rather than descriptive summaries made side by side comparison easier.


Placement testing showed that placing the component near filters reduced visibility, while integrating it alongside search cards made the information immediately actionable during comparison.

Early Concepts

Early Concepts

The Fried Egg Affair

You're probably baffled at that title, but let me explain.


When coming up with the visuals for the component, I introduced a flat, stylised sun icon to modernise the UI. In testing, one user referred to it as a fried egg. This made me laugh, but also realise that recognition and clarity was being sacrificed for trends which weakened trust in the component. 


I replaced it with a more universally recognisable sun icon, similar to that used on the BBC. It was a small change, but an important (and funny) reminder that usability and familiarity is always more important than aesthetics and designing for designers.

Constraints

Visually, the component needed to support comparison without distracting from the holiday cards, requiring restraint in hierarchy and styling.


The title text was also written to say average weather to make it clear that this wasn't a weather forecast which may have invited legal risk.

I led the charge on ideating potential approaches to the seats component. I began this process by sketching and then evolving to high-fidelity designs.


These designs were then constantly iterated upon over a continuous course of design reviews, usability testing, time-on-task testing, click testing and questionnaires to refine pricing clarity, navigation, visuals and categorisation. I used Figma to create prototypes and used UserZoom to enable quick feedback and constant iteration. 


The key decisions lay in the three core problems facing the existing seats component; pricing clarity, categorisation and cleaning

up the UI.


One key decision was around using colour coding to distinguish between different seat categories which tested well, however in design reviews I was reminded that relying on colour alone would be an accessibility kiss of death. 


Subsequent iterations combined colour and icons or abandoned the use of it entirely. Another was placing pricing on seats vs. the use of labels, both tested well however legibility for users with poorer eyesight became an issue on smaller viewports.


The business was wary about making pricing more prominent because they thought this would defer users from buying seats, however testing re-assured them that the trust gained resulted in the opposite effect and this reflected both in user testing and the live A/B test.


The approach to the seats UI was simplified too with less emphasis on “style” and more on a functional approach focussed on clarity and communication.

Final Design

The final component displays:


  • Monthly average temperature highs and lows

  • Average hours of sunshine in a day

  • Days of rainfall a month.


The component lives three search cards down on the results page. The copy is bite sized and icon lead keeping cognitive load low and enabling quick comparison / scannability for the user.

Outcome

The weather component reduced uncertainty during the comparison stage and improved decision confidence during winter holiday searches.


Impact:

  • +2.5% monthly winter conversion

  • +1% session conversion

  • +2% overall bookings


This demonstrated that small, well placed information improvements at key decision points can have measurable commercial impact.

Key Learnings

I learned about balancing information density with readability. I had to figure out how to design a component in a way that struck the balance between being digestible but also communicating everything users needed which was harder than first thought. 


This project reinforced the importance of designing for comparison behaviour and how to do so by making information as digestible as possible. 


I was humbled very fairly with the fried egg affair; I learned the importance of usability over trendy designer-centred design,

Next Steps

Future iterations could involve a calendar toggle to allow easier weather comparison between months where the component could be utilised in an inspirational manner on the homepage or holiday details page where testing suggested demand for weather info as well. 


More customisation options including switching destinations and perhaps options for more detail as well, though investigation would be needed to garner interest.

Get in touch

Do you have a cool project that you're dying to discuss, maybe you want to talk about design or why Rubber Soul is the best Beatles album?

Send a wee message below and let's come together (ha get it,) to see how I can help breathe some life into your digital products with focussed and functional design.

Made with joy and warmth by Usman Akhtar 🌞