William Anthony Yanko
CX/UX Research & Research Operations Leader
Flight Centre Travel Group
Applying Anthropology in Design Research: Reframing Travel as Culture, Not Just Conversion
Design Research track
Applying Anthropology in Design Research: Reframing Travel as Culture, Not Just Conversion
Travel is not merely a transactional funnel. It is a culturally embedded, identity-shaping act. From how people imagine destinations to how they justify expenditure, signal status, seek belonging or negotiate family expectations, travel decisions are saturated with meaning.
In the travel industry, design research often focuses on optimisation: reducing friction, improving conversion, increasing engagement. Anthropology expands this lens. It asks:
1. What does travel mean in this person’s life?
2. What social roles are being performed?
3. What rituals, anxieties, aspirations, or moral tensions shape the booking journey?
4. How do cultural narratives influence risk, trust, and value perception?
For an industry that operates at the intersection of aspiration, identity, culture and commerce, anthropological approaches are not optional — they are strategic.
William Anthony Yanko
William Yanko is a UX/CX Research leader and PhD-qualified Anthropologist who has spent over a decade figuring out why people do what they do, and making sure that actually matters to the organisations he works with. His path hasn't been a straight line. Along the way, he's embedded himself in contexts most researchers don't get near, from wearable technology and city-scale tracking systems to emergency safety tools in mining and early-stage fintech at a Southeast Asian super-app. He currently heads the Centre of Excellence for Research at Flight Centre Travel Group - Leisure, working closely with senior leadership to ensure major product and technology decisions are grounded in real human behaviour. His PhD from RMIT University, where he researched the sociopolitics of Indonesian hip hop, is what shaped his conviction that good research is ultimately about listening carefully to people who are rarely asked.