Understanding creative expression

Our creative expression ranges from functional to expressive, offering flexibility to meet guests where they are in their journey. This adaptable approach isn’t tied to individual products — a single digital experience may shift its expression depending on its purpose and how it’s being used. By adjusting key design elements, we ensure experiences remain relevant and impactful. Understanding how to apply these elements along the functional-to-expressive spectrum helps us create intentional and effective experiences.

Transactional

Transaction-forward interfaces provide seamless, secure, and intuitive experiences for purchasing, upgrading, and managing user accounts. These designs prioritize clarity, efficiency, and trust, ensuring that users can complete transactions with confidence and ease.

• Booking flows, ordering systems and e-stores
• Account management
• Managing trips, flight status and notifications
• Check-in and travel kiosks
• Travel info content pages

Visual direction

• Prioritized UI: Prioritize essential content, keeping secondary details accessible but not overwhelming. Brand recognition is typically already established though previous touch-points.
• Functional palette: Keep the base UI neutral with pops of colour for actions, highlights, and urgency cues. If everything is designed to stand out, nothing will.
• Feature-based icons: Icons should aid navigation and clarity, not add noise. Icons predominately used to indicate status and attributes.
• Purposeful photos: Photography should serve a functional purpose in reinforcing product benefits, features, or upgrades. Should be straight-forward, potentially isolated, and not abstract.
• Impactful use of colour: Keep the base UI neutral, using accent colours for key trip details and CTAs. Use contrast to create strong hierarchy.

Retail

Digital retail experiences should be visually engaging, creating a strong brand presence while guiding users deeper in their guest journey and into other funnels.

• Marketing e-mails
• Retail and marketing campaign pages
• "First-touch" displays (visual experiences a user encounters when initially engaging with WestJet)

Visual direction

• Brand-centric colour palette: Use the brand’s core colours throughout the interface to create a strong visual connection while ensuring all accessibility compliance is met.
• Dynamic imagery: Infuse subtle brand colours into product photography, illustration, and visual accents to increase the brand’s colour ratio without overpowering the UI
• High contrast for impact: Ensure the design maintains usability. Essential elements (like product info and CTA buttons) should be easily accessible and identifiable.

Operational

Operational tools often pertain to internal-facing tools designed to support and streamline day-to-day business functions. They are built for speed, clarity, and reliability, prioritizing functionality over aesthetics while maintaining a cohesive and intuitive user experience

• Corporate tools
• Airport applications
• Call centre agent tools

Visual direction

• Optimized density: Balanced information density with readability; avoid overcrowding but minimize unnecessary whitespace. Often more compact than guest-facing design.
• Minimalistic palette: Uses a neutral base with subtle accent colours for highlights and actions. Reserve colour for status indicators, alerts, and interactive elements. Will often be designed with Dark Mode as it’s primary theme.
• Purpose-driven Icons: Heavy usage on recognizable iconography to support actions and navigation.