The brief
A chain of hotels across london & Scotland were in the process of being built & branded as Point A Hotels. A new contender in the affordable, reliable & forward thinking hotels which are centrally located in prime city centre locations. I was brought in to work with a strong digital team at Founded to work on the UX for its responsive website.
The team
UX Director - Andy Marsh
Project Manager - Alexia Mulet
Business Analyst - James Perea
Social Strategy - Alex Mak
UX Intern - Kirsty Oliphant
UX Designer - Jamie Kesavan
The client
Tune hotels
An affordable hotel chain who were in the process of a huge rebrand. Their original web experience was quite dated and followed old design patterns. As the brand was going to be completely redesigned for the new hotels, we had multiple workshops with the client to understand the companies vision.
Goals & requests
The main goals for this new website is to make it as clear as possible for customers to understand who Point-A are & why they do what they do. It was also really important to make sure the booking system was innovative & intuitive.
Direct & in-direct competitor analysis
We had a look at direct & in-direct competitors of Point A Hotels, understanding how they are positioning themselves as a brand, how the experience is across their websites (On desktop & mobile), the booking system UX & also their mobile app experience to understand the added value they are bringing.
Understanding the audience
The team at Founded had some sessions with the client to understand the target audience and were able to put together 3 main personas, before I got on the project which really helped speed up the process.
Business - Travelling suits
Adam is an Events Coordinator and a ‘tech junkie’. Adam graduated from the University of Leeds but has since moved to Birmingham with his girlfriend. Adam works for very progressive small tech company, they are currently looking to host tech events globally. Sometimes, his work hours are long and strenuous but as Adam has a very ambitious work ethic, he puts in the effort. He has a keen interest in Augmented Reality & loves smart tech such as ‘wearables’.
Majority of travel is for work purposes, though he does take regular city breaks. Makes the most of business trips by travelling and arriving a day before the event.
Personal - Out & abouters
Joseph is a Junior Architect and an avid traveller. Joseph graduated from the University of Sheffield but has since moved to Bristol. He's single and very independent when it comes to travel and leisure. He's well versed in using industry related programmes and in that respect he's tech savvy. He is usually caught late at the office, working long hours. When possible he likes to run and cycle.
Makes the most out of breaks away by travelling after work, allowing him to have a full day afterwards. Travels on a budget, doesn’t travel in peak months/days/times.
Groups - Born organisers
Laura is a Senior Nurse and theatre enthusiast. Laura lives in Yorkshire with her husband and two children who are attending university. Because of this, she has more time to herself to pursue her interests and to meet up with friends more often. Laura is the epitome of a ‘Born Organiser’, she has a logical thought process, natural eagerness to plan and informs herself very well through thorough research.
Majority of travel is for leisure, and are usually short trips away with friends. Plans are based on the event. Travels on a budget so that they can make the most of out of activities.
UX Idea generation & flowcharts
With those main personas in mind, I began thinking about the sitemap, customer touch points and sketching wireframes for all the key pages of the website.
Wireframes
Prototypes & User testing
I wire-framed all of the key pages for large desktop & mobile using Sketch 3 and used Marvel prototype to create a simple click through prototype to test with users. We tested the navigation between pages, the online booking flow & also see what people thought of the content & hierarchy on the website.
Feedback from user testing
We recorded all the feedback from user testing and analysed the positives/negatives/opportunities. The majority of participants found the website easy to navigate, the really like the booking system and the information it provided back to the user. They had some interesting suggestions on the homepage & social elements on the website, which we discussed with the team/client and amended to improve the overall experience.
UX Documentation
Once the wireframes & the prototype had been amended and checked, I created the UX documentation for the entire website for the visual designer & development team to analyse and implement.
https://www.pointahotels.com/