Redesigning the travel experience for Priority Pass members

The Priority Pass digital membership card being scanned at a lounge reception.

Priority Pass — the member app

Product design · Onboarding · Offline — 383 Project with Collinson

Sector
Travel · airport lounges
Role
Senior product designer, embedded

Focus Areas:
Login & onboarding · Membership/pass wallet · Offline mode · Digital brand implementation

Priority Pass is one of the world’s leading airport lounge membership programmes. I was the senior designer from 383 embedded with Collinson’s in-house team while they scaled it up — a head of design arrived during my time there. A rebrand and new design system were being built in parallel by my design lead and a contractor; my job was to take that system and build the moments where the membership actually gets used: onboarding, the digital pass, and offline mode. Another Collinson designer owned other areas of the app, and we worked closely.Shipped. The onboarding, digital pass and offline mode are in the Priority Pass app today, iOS and Android.

The Challenge

Through existing research and product insights, several key challenges became clear:

  • Friction during login and verification caused delays and confusion
  • Onboarding did not clearly communicate the value of the app
  • Membership and pass information lacked hierarchy and clarity
  • The visual experience was inconsistent across platforms
  • Travellers often relied on the app in places with poor connectivity
  • The digital brand needed to reflect a premium and trusted experience

The work required improvements to both the functional flows and the overall digital identity.

Guiding Principles

The design team’s documented principles for the app — the frame every decision got tested against.

  • Intuitive — predictable, familiar, low-friction
  • Familiar — use known patterns to reduce learning effort
  • Premium Utility First — surface high-value features instantly
  • Design for Failure — flows resilient to poor connectivity
  • Simple — reduce cognitive load
  • Accessibility — inclusive, robust, WCAG-aligned
  • Customer First — every decision increases clarity and trust

The one that shaped my work most was Design for Failure. Members open this app in the one place connectivity reliably fails — so the pass, onboarding and key assets had to work with no signal at all. Offline mode wasn’t a feature on my list; it was the constraint under everything on it.

A tooltip from the design system reading “Personalise your experience — choose your airport to get relevant recommendations”.

User needs

From existing research and experience data, users needed:

  • Reliable access to their digital membership/pass
  • Faster, clearer login and verification
  • A quick understanding of the app’s value during onboarding
  • Predictable patterns while travelling under time pressure
  • Offline access in airports with weak Wi-Fi
  • A premium, trustworthy visual experience
  • International accessibility
The lounge detail screen — photography, opening hours, membership entitlement and pre-booking — set against an oversized Devanagari character standing for international accessibility.

Login & Account Access

Travellers often attempt login under pressure at airports. The flow needed to minimise friction, guide recovery, and align with consistent component patterns.

  • Simplified the login entry point
  • Created clearer recovery pathways
  • Balanced brand with functional clarity
  • Refined error handling and state messaging
  • Ensured accessible inputs using the design system
  • Supported multi-account/membership scenarios
The Priority Pass welcome screen on an iPhone: “Start every journey with Priority Pass”, with Log in and Activate.
Create account — mobile number entry over a numeric keypad, with the option to activate by mobile instead.
Your details — first name, last name and country of residence, as they appear on the ID taken to the airport.
Activate — entering the activation code from the welcome pack, with a route out if the code is lost or expired.
You’re all set up — the benefits summary listing member, guest and international visits, and the plastic card notice.

01 / 05

Onboarding

Onboarding needed to introduce value quickly without slowing users down or overwhelming them.

Approach:

  • Created a modular, repeatable onboarding framework
  • Introduced high-value features early (lounges, membership)
  • Reduced copy and visual noise
  • Reinforced premium tone through brand colours & imagery
  • Ensured accessibility across global markets
Set your favourite airport — a searchable list of UK terminals, with Confirm and “I’ll do this later”.
The trips screen behind it, introducing trip details so lounges and arrival times can be planned.

01 / 02

Membership Wallet & Digital Pass

The membership screen is one of the most critical and most used, screens. It needed to feel premium, be instantly scannable, and work offline.

Improvements:

  • Clear hierarchy for membership status, expiry, QR, and card details
  • Simplified layout optimised for scanning at lounge entrances
  • Introduced new brand type, spacing, and visual rhythm
  • Ensured key assets cached locally for offline use
  • Created scalable patterns for users with multiple cards
The black Priority Pass membership card with its gold monogram.
The digital pass screen: a large QR code above the membership number, expiry date, linked bank and the remaining entitlements.

Browsing & Lounge Discovery

To support travel decisions, the browsing flow needed clearer structure, stronger information hierarchy, and premium yet functional visuals

Improvements:

  • Refined card layouts for quick scanning
  • Strengthened contrast and readability
  • Introduced new brand imagery and tone
  • Ensured consistency with other surfaces
Three browsing screens: lounges at a favourite airport, trip recommendations for a Gatwick to Dubai flight, and a trip with a lounge added to it.

Digital Brand Implementation

My role was to translate the refreshed premium brand into a scalable digital system.

Contributions:

  • Established digital type hierarchy & spacing
  • Defined component patterns for forms, cards, buttons
  • Applied colour palette & tone consistently
  • Built visual rules used across login, onboarding, memberships, and search
  • Ensured cross-platform alignment (iOS + Android)
  • Documented components for design system adoption
A promotional card: “Create a trip for easy access to all your travel bookings in one place”, over a photograph of a traveller with a phone.
The applied brand system: list and benefit cards, the welcome screen, the palette (Graphite #363534, Priority Pass Gold #827127, Cool Slate #F8F8F8, White #FFFFFF), the search home, a departure-flight card and the lounge photography treatment.
Hands holding a phone running the equiwatt app over a desk

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