Tour leader platform

Restructuring tour prep
documentation to cut onboarding time by 38% and save 2,475 hours annually

Restructuring tour prep
documentation to cut onboarding time by 38% and save 2,475 hours annually

Role

Role

UX Designer

UX Designer

/

Timeline

Timeline

2024 · 2 months

2024 · 2 months

Ownership

Ownership

Worked as a solo designer in partnership with Operations team to deliver a service blueprint and website template.

Worked as a solo designer in partnership with Operations team to deliver a service blueprint and website template.

Project summary

Project summary

By replacing dense, fragmented legacy documentation with a scannable knowledge platform, we enabled tour leaders to self-serve, which directly improved on-tour customer experiences.

By replacing dense, fragmented legacy documentation with a scannable knowledge platform, we enabled tour leaders to self-serve, which directly improved on-tour customer experiences.

Problem

Costly 4 hour onboarding driven by fragmented resources

Costly 4 hour onboarding driven by fragmented resources

Tour leaders relied on information dense resources scattered across channels, forcing staff into lengthy onboarding calls to answer repetitive questions.

Tour leaders relied on information dense resources scattered across channels, forcing staff into lengthy onboarding calls to answer repetitive questions.

Solution

Shifting to self-service with structured content architecture

Shifting to self-service with structured content architecture

A structured knowledge hub with clear hierarchy and visual layout to enable tour leaders to find critical answers independently in seconds.

A structured knowledge hub with clear hierarchy and visual layout to enable tour leaders to find critical answers independently in seconds.

Objectives

  1. Enable self-service prep. Design a scannable, centralised knowledge platform to minimise reliance on 1-on-1 support calls.

  1. Increase operational efficiency. Streamline information discovery to reclaim staff bandwidth and allow them to add value elsewhere.

Discovery

Mapping the pre-tour journey to uncover operational friction and knowledge bottlenecks

Mapping the pre-tour journey to uncover operational friction and knowledge bottlenecks

Through service blueprinting and heuristic analysis, relying on the expertise of one experienced tour leader, we identified a critical operational bottleneck. Tour leaders were spending hours hunting down fragmented information, forcing reliance on high-effort onboarding sessions (Fig. 1).


Heuristic failure. The old site scored poorly on aesthetic and consistency. Content was hidden behind complex navigations and excessive collapsible sections.


Content gap. The platform lacked the granular, actionable planning content tour leaders needed (e.g., local transport rules, precise timing estimates). This forced them to waste excessive unpaid time researching external sites.

Through service blueprinting and heuristic analysis, relying on the expertise of one experienced tour leader, we identified a critical operational bottleneck. Tour leaders were spending hours hunting down fragmented information, forcing reliance on high-effort onboarding sessions (Fig. 1).


Heuristic failure. The old site scored poorly on aesthetic and consistency. Content was hidden behind complex navigations and excessive collapsible sections.


Content gap. The platform lacked the granular, actionable planning content tour leaders needed (e.g., local transport rules, precise timing estimates). This forced them to waste excessive unpaid time researching external sites.

Decision

Decision

Seeing that a large portion of the onboarding session time was spent answering repeatable, static queries, we made the strategic decision to shift from reactive human-led training to an interactive, self-serve knowledge platform.


Targeting a direct reduction in onboarding duration and support overhead.

Fig.1 I utilised the knowledge of the operations team and an existing tour leader guide to collect the knowledge of the tour leader journey from pre-tour preparation to the post-tour checklists.

Design

Redesigning unstructured documentation into a scannable, self-serve knowledge hub

Redesigning unstructured documentation into a scannable, self-serve knowledge hub

To eliminate the need for lengthy 1-on-1 onboarding calls, I transformed dense, unstructured operational guides into a modular visual platform.


Modular & consistent layouts. I created simple, modular templates for the four key content types (Itinerary, City, Activity, Transport). This consistency drastically reduced the tour leader's cognitive load, speeding up information intake by eliminating the need to re-learn a new layout for every resource (Fig. 2).


F-pattern hierarchy. I prioritised critical planning and logistics information at the top of the page. This focused visual hierarchy enabled tour leaders to rapidly scan and triage information, making self-service feasible and reducing frustration.

To eliminate the need for lengthy 1-on-1 onboarding calls, I transformed dense, unstructured operational guides into a modular visual platform.


Modular & consistent layouts. I created simple, modular templates for the four key content types (Itinerary, City, Activity, Transport). This consistency drastically reduced the tour leader's cognitive load, speeding up information intake by eliminating the need to re-learn a new layout for every resource (Fig. 2).


F-pattern hierarchy. I prioritised critical planning and logistics information at the top of the page. This focused visual hierarchy enabled tour leaders to rapidly scan and triage information, making self-service feasible and reducing frustration.

Decision

Decision

By creating structured modular templates for each tour route, we enabled instant information retrieval.


Tour leaders could solve prep questions independently, directly reducing the 4-hour length of information being parsed.

Fig.2 I crafted a simple to build main template for the tour itinerary and a second template that would fit the city, experience and transport content.

Impact

Cutting onboarding duration by 38% and unlocking 2,475 hours of annual operational capacity

Cutting onboarding duration by 38% and unlocking 2,475 hours of annual operational capacity

By replacing information dense resources with a scannable self-serve knowledge hub, we removed the friction from tour preparation. Tour leaders no longer needed long support calls to locate essential details, resulting in a 1.5-hour reduction per session


“Great work, I think the new platform is a great way to save time and a perfect step to prepare before the onboarding session. If tour leaders even need them.”

By replacing information dense resources with a scannable self-serve knowledge hub, we removed the friction from tour preparation. Tour leaders no longer needed long support calls to locate essential details, resulting in a 1.5-hour reduction per session


“Great work, I think the new platform is a great way to save time and a perfect step to prepare before the onboarding session. If tour leaders even need them.”

20%

↓ reduction in onboarding duration

2,475

saved staff hours annually

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