My Role
As the senior product designer for the Magic Key hub, I drove the project from start to finish, designing the IA, flows, interactions, and final comps to ensure a cohesive user experience. Close collaboration with cross-functional teams was crucial for success, given the extremely tight project timeline.
Problem Statement
Disneyland needed to replace its popular Annual Pass program with a new offering, requiring a clear and engaging in-app hub to ensure a successful transition.
The hub had to effectively communicate the benefits and pricing tiers of the new program to gain support from the park's passionate and vocal Annual Passholders.
The project faced a tight 6-week timeline from kickoff to launch, which presented challenges for content writing, design (IA, wires and flows, validation, visual design, and documentation), and development.
Goals
Maximize Guest awareness within the Disneyland app of the new Magic Key Passholder program, and provide existing and potential Annual Passholders with clear, comprehensive information about Magic Key and its value to facilitate informed purchasing decisions.
Research showed what Disneyland Annual Passholders valued:
The feeling of a home away from home
A place of nostalgia with excitement to have their kids grow up with the park
A unique sense of ownership over the park
Flexibility on visit dates and frequency based on price tier
Added value benefits
The research helped break down the goal into achievable steps:
Communicate through design and content hierarchy that Magic Key will offer the value and benefits of the Annual Pass that Guests had become accustomed to, plus more
Create an information architecture and a stylistically visual approach to the Magic Key hub that reflects the values of Passholders
Approach
Principles, strategies, and techniques
Effective collaboration
I proactively collaborated with leadership, product managers, and developers to ensure alignment and prevent delays, given the tight timeline.
I partnered closely with Content Strategy to form the IA structure.
Design approach
Partnered with content strategist to prioritize and organize content, creating an overall information architecture
Worked closely with developers to plan how to implement the design with minimal developer resources
Validated designs with design and marketing leadership throughout the project, using an iterative approach to a finalized design
Prioritized accessibility to align with Disney’s inclusive design values
Created high-fidelity visual design comps and documentation for developers
Outcome and Conclusion
Metrics and insights gained
The implementation of the Hub significantly increased interest in the Magic Key program through direct marketing within the Disneyland app.
The hub successfully converted current and potential Annual Passholders to Magic Key Holders.
The park's passionate Guests shared overwhelmingly positive feedback online, ensuring a smooth transition from the Annual Pass program to the Magic Key program and resulting in financial success for the business.
Challenges due to tight project timeline:
Developers had insufficient time to build out some of the spoke pages for Events.
Copy docs arrived at the last minute and contained more content than anticipated, causing issues with component scalability for News & Events.
Key Learning: When working on projects with extremely tight timelines, it is crucial to anticipate factors that require flexibility in design and content structure to mitigate potential challenges.
Conclusion
Despite the challenges posed by the aggressive timeline, the Magic Key project was an overall success, demonstrating the importance of adaptability and collaboration in delivering a high-quality product that resonates with users and drives business success.