Information
Title
Stardrift
DescriptionAn experience audit of Stardrift — AI travel search for people who fly a lot — reading the booking flow closely and proposing where it could be clearer.
RoleDesign Engineer
Timeline2025
LiveStardrift
What it is
Stardrift is AI travel search for frequent flyers — it plans and books the complicated itineraries, the ones that have to fit a real schedule and a real set of preferences.
Leila Clark brought me in early to audit the booking flow and find where it was losing people.
What I found
SolutionLet the status update in real time and name what it's doing — “searching award space,” “comparing fares” — so the work always looks alive.
SolutionLabel every number, hold fees steady from search through checkout, and lay flights out in a table so options are easy to line up side by side.
SolutionGive the actions real button styling, and order the page so the primary action leads and reads as the obvious next step.
SolutionSettle on one bullet style and one date format, and set the agent's reasoning apart from its output with block formatting so thinking doesn't read as results.
SolutionSimplify the motif and use it more deliberately — fewer, more intentional moments — so it reads as a considered system rather than decoration.
A note of thanks
Thank you to Leila Clark for the chance to work on Stardrift this early. It was a genuine learning experience, and I'm grateful to have spent time on something this ambitious.