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.