TUI: Launching River Cruises
Defining the foundational digital experience for TUI’s expansion into the River Cruise market—leading the end-to-end UX strategy for a high-stakes Greenfield product launch.
Who & How
Role: Lead Product Designer
Duration: 6 Months
Tools: Axure RP (Advanced Prototyping), User Research
Team: R&D Innovation Lab, Product Owners, Engineering
The Challenge & Research
The Problem: TUI was entering a brand-new market after acquiring a fleet of river cruise ships. There was no digital infrastructure, no user data, and no established mental model for how a "TUI River Cruise" customer should book online.
The Insight: Operating in an R&D capacity, I conducted competitive landscape audits and deep-dive user interviews. We discovered that river cruise customers are "itinerary-obsessed"—the boat is the hotel, but the route is the product. We needed to design a journey that prioritised the waterway experience.
The Solution & Iteration
The Execution: I led the architecture of the entire booking ecosystem from scratch. Using Axure, I built high-fidelity, logic-driven prototypes to simulate complex pricing engines and cabin availability before a single line of code was written.
Key Feature: Created a "Map-First" discovery module. Instead of a standard list of results, I designed an interactive waterway explorer that allowed users to visualise their journey day-by-day, making the intangible "Greenfield" product feel real.
Leadership & Impact
The Strategy: I presented the functional prototypes to the board to secure the multi-million pound funding required for the full build. My team and I established the UX patterns that would define TUI's newest business arm.
The Outcome: Successfully launched the River Cruises digital platform, which met 100% of launch-day business requirements and established a new gold standard for cruise booking flows within the wider TUI Group.
