Smart Hotel
About Smart Hotel
A client from the hospitality industry was looking into designing an app idea for Smart Hotel. It would like to see convenient services on the Smart Hotel app. It would also like to see the research on the target market on who would benefit using the Smart Hotel app.
Business Opportunity
There has been a strong demand on digital innovation around travel industry. More and more millennial travelers are relying on mobile devices to make decisions in regards to booking and exploring various accommodation services within hotel, airline, cruise, and etc. The hotel industry wants to explore the digital innovation with room services. The best start would be through the mobile devices.
Potential Business Impact
Increase brand awareness and reach
Increase hotel booking and services sales
Attract and retain customers
UX Goals
Provide an immersive and convenient experience for hotel guests to have the capability in booking room services and amenities
Key target market for Smart Hotel known for using the hotel services on a frequent basis
Create a mobile device that showcases the room services and other amenities that are convenient and stress free for travelers to use
My Role
UX Research: Analyze the key target markets on the type of frequent travelers and competitive research on hotel competitors.
UX Design: Brainstorming ideas, create personas and customers journey maps, app inspiration, design the wireframes, create the digital prototype
Collaborators
Solo
Key Deliverables
Target market research on key user groups for frequent hotel users
Conduct SWOT analysis for competitive research
Brainstorm ideas on the services that are available for hotel guests
Create persona and customer journey map that highlight the ideal target user’s story of current hotel experience
Design wireframes and the prototype within mobile devices
Tools Used
Sketch
Adobe XD
PowerPoint
UXPressia
Excel
Canva
YouTube
Research
Scope
Due to the short project timeline, the research focused primarily on the target market and the competitor research
Target Market Analysis
There are two areas of target market which were on the highest internet users and mobile devices
The highest internet users were business travelers and international jetsetters
As for mobile devices, it was business travelers
Characteristics of business travelers geared towards creating travel plans and tracking their investments
Competitor Analysis
Hilton hotels should expand its market share and look into IOT rooms for digital innovation
Hyatt wants to differentiate in the hospitality industry and increase loyalty programs. It provides strong mobile apps for events
IHG is exploring into tech partnerships. It has strong guest retention rate. It needs improvement in online bookings
Marriott is an innovative brand that started to provide IOT advances in hotel rooms. It’s exploring into new innovative opportunities to expand its market share.
UX Design
Gathering the research information to create the persona and customer journey map of business traveler’s hotel experience
Develop wireframes (low-fi and high-fi) and digital prototype
Results
Key Target Market
The key target market are business travelers who make the biggest profit for the hotel industry. Here are the charts shown below that support the claim.
Internet access
Business Travelers and International Jet Setter are the highest users of Internet Access
mobile devices
Business Travelers and Family Vacationers use mobile devices the most.
Characteristics of Each Target Market
Created on PowerPoint
The main target market characteristics being used for the Smart Hotel app design would be the business travelers who are loyal to hotels.
Competitor Research
Based on the competitor analysis, Smart Hotel will take in opportunities on digital innovation through mobile devices and rooms that can strengthen the customer loyalty and attract more business travelers.
Hilton
Hyatt
ihg
Marriott
Ideation
Based on the target market information, I brainstormed ideas on a typical business travelers’ needs and wants
Business traveler needs meeting rooms to collaborate with team members
Business traveler needs a good and big conference room to host events and workshops
Business travelers need a big workspace for working on a laptop, charging other tech devices, and take private phone calls
Business travelers need to be informed about their stock and investment information
Created on PowerPoint
Business Traveler Persona
The user persona highlights the story behind Lincoln who is a business traveler that would need the Smart Hotel app for getting convenient hotel services and amenities. Lincoln is hoping to have a stress-free experience at the hotel after an exhausting day of work and travel.
Created on UXPressia
Customer Journey Map
The customer journey map highlights the current experiences Lincoln has been facing while staying in the hotel. This would indicate the pain points and opportunities to look for when creating the smart hotel app aimed towards a business traveler. The key items for the Business Traveler are having convenient room amenities, booking meeting rooms, and much more.
Created on UXPressia
Designs
App Inspiration
Based on the competitor analysis, I explored into Marriott’s app innovation on room booking and services. It inspired me for convenient messaging for repair services, showcasing room status, and accessible bath amenities. There could be new opportunities included for creating a Smart Hotel app.
Room Ready
Notify customers room is ready.
Request Amenities
Selecting bath amenities.
Chat
Customers can message the receptionists for services
Low-Fidelity Screens
The low-fidelity wireframes showcase the services a business traveler can use while staying at a hotel. This is based on the research of a business traveler.
Main Menu
The home screen provides ticker designs to showcase up-to-date information in regards to loyalty points and the stock market.
Investment ticker
The user can also be informed on the stock performance.
Private office
Book major event rooms within the hotel
Exec Lounge
Business travelers can book private happy hours with a group of people and order food.
Nearby restaurants
There is a list of nearby restaurants that the business traveler can attend to on an urgent basis
Gym
There are options for utilizing the workout videos in the hotel rooms. If they have time, they can book a video time with a personal trainer or schedule a time in the fitness center at the hotel.
Digital Prototype
After several iterations, I provided the final updates for creating the digital prototype.
Learning Outcomes
I identified different types of target users through analytics and also in some literature research on Google.
I learned in-depth hotel experiences from a business traveler through the research.
It was interesting to see a large number of facilities a business traveler would have to use in a hotel.
There were some facilities a business traveler would wish to see such as private meeting room reservations.
I also learned how to use Adobe XD for the first time on creating the Smart Hotel app through design and animated interactions.