Flightradar24 Web Widgets
The New Web Navigation project implemented in 2021 consisted of improvements to the platform's UI and UX. It was a project that had been ongoing for years and, although I wasn't part of the whole process, I was able to contribute to an essential part of the final product: the widgets.
The main objective of the widgets is for users to have easily accessible information while they are navigating on the map. In the old version of the platform, we already displayed a couple of old widgets containing tracking stats, tweets and blog posts. However, their functionality wasn't optimal, and the users couldn't customize them. That's why we started developing an upgrade to the existing widgets and created new widgets that would add value and generate engagement.
The first new widgets we introduced were Most Tracked Flights and Last Clicked Flights. The former has the objective of creating more engagement with the platform's users as it displays the number of people following the top tracked flights in real-time. The latter is intended to help individual users keep track of the latest flights they've interacted with and have a quick way of going back to those flights either on the map or to their history page.
While the Most Tracked Flights widget is free for all FR24 users, the Last Clicked Flights widget requires an active subscription. With this, we intend to generate yet another path to convince users to create a subscription.
One of the most significant improvements that we wanted to introduce to the widgets experience is the ability for the user to customize their experience. This is why we introduced a "widgets menu". This new element on the site would be located on the main navigation bar on the map and would allow users to turn ON/OFF widgets as a whole or individually. It also enables them to drag and drop them in the order they wish to display them on the map from top to bottom.
So far, our users have met the widgets improvement with positive comments. We have even added one of the most anticipated widgets: Bookmarks. With this new structure, we can keep adding more widgets and ensuring that our users keep having the best possible flight tracking experience. It is also a way for them to make the experience of using Flightradar24 their own. Check them out!
