End of an era with Amadeus
End of an era
Today officially marks the end of one hell of a journey. I began working with Vedaleon back in 2015, a small Melbourne team building bespoke products for airlines and airports, from booking engines, manage booking portals and check-in kiosks. Along the way we merged with ICM Airport Technics, the sydney based team behind the bag drops, joining our software with their hardware and not long after that were acquired by Amadeus. Finding our place within a huge global org was a big change from the startup culture we’d been working in, but it came with plenty to be happy about: a huge design community to work alongside, more resources and business direction that reached right across the world.
A force through COVID.
Then COVID hit, and this team was an absolute force. It was an awful time for so many people around the world, and with travel slowing almost to a stop, the silver lining for us was having the time and space to build something brand new, fast. Working through it together, we realised touchscreens were a huge issue for safe travel, with the airport kiosk being one of the most unhygienic places in an airport. As a rapid response we built a mobile to kiosk connector that mirrored the kiosk display onto the traveller’s own phone using responsive principles, so people could check in without touching a thing. That work saw us named Game Changers within Amadeus, and getting flown to Sydney to celebrate with the team at the awards night is something I’ll hang onto for a long time.
Work I’m proud of.
Leading WCAG accessibility adoption across the self-service product suite has made a real difference for travellers all over the world, and that only happened because the engineering and product teams got behind it and made accessibility part of how we build. I also took the White Label Self Service Design System from a basic concept to something running in airports like Heathrow, Changi, Melbourne and Adelaide, with a huge amount of help from the engineers, PMs and BAs who built it out and rolled it into airports, and it’s in great shape for Amadeus to run with from here.
The people.
The thing I’ll miss most is the people. I’ve made some great friendships over the years, the kind that don’t end when you hand back the laptop, and I’ve learned a lot from every single person I’ve worked with. That goes for the engineers, PMs, BAs and fellow designers across Melbourne, Sydney, Bangalore, Singapore and London, who all brought a perspective I didn’t have and made the work better for it. Through an acquisition, a pandemic and everything in between, you kept showing up for each other and making changes that genuinely mattered for the people using our products. You’ve been unreal to work with, and I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch. Thank you!
What’s next.
We’re moving our family to Adelaide in December, and I’m on the lookout for my next senior UI/UX role, in Adelaide. If you’re hiring or want to connect, I’d love to have a chat.
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