Hyatt Residence Club booking engine has not been updated since 2005. HYFN was tasked to tailor the user experience and visual design to help users book their next vacation with the least friction as possible while integrating its existing infrastructure, business logic and legal requirements. HYFN was also tasked to build a hub to house information about the 16 sites that Hyatt Residence Club operates and incorporate opportunities for lead capture for the timeshare division of Hyatt.
ROLE
Lead the design team by coordinating UX and Visual design efforts
Developed the initial design direction and interaction patterns
Worked with the project manager and tech lead to execute the vision
CHALLENGES
Complicated business logic and infrastructure
Stakeholders with opposing motivations
Two massive projects being worked on in tandem
PROCESS
The discovery process kicked off with a series of stakeholder interviews with the client at HYFN’s Hermosa Beach office where we were debriefed about the users based on data provided by the client. We found that the user was affluent with an average annual income of $197,675, almost twice the national average, with a discretionary spending budget of $109,806. The majority of the users, 68%, are between the ages of 35 - 64. They believe that paying more for high quality accomodations is worth the money.
We then worked with the client to identify key features for the sites and the business logic associated with the workflows. The workflow will be different for someone that has not booked their vacation with the timeframe that was provided to them vs a user that is within that window.
The UX designer, visual designer and myself then took the data and started whiteboard session to put together a preliminary sitemap. The UX designer took the sketches and created a final form to be presented to the client. I then worked with the designer to create moodboards in Pinterest to be shared with the client.
Whiteboard session concepting different approaches
We then came back together and started sessions to whiteboard different approaches to structure the site. I worked with the UX designer to create wireframes for the key screens and workflows. We then tested the workflows by creating different approaches with InVision prototypes. Once approved on the wireframes of the main navigation and key booking flows and the visual look & feel, the designer on the project and I worked on putting together comps of the homepage and an internal page to give the client a sense of where we wanted to go. We emphasized with the client our design was sensitive to our users and used the personas to guide us with our design decisions, such as very clear call to actions and larger text.
The client approved a direction and started to design out key screens and flush out and annotate the wireframes for development. Once in production, I worked with the front-end engineers to clear up any questions about the design.
OUTCOME
- Helped us secure multiple projects from Hyatt for our agency and paid media services for HYFN
- The booking flow portion was just released and initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive
- Lead capture data on the property pages has increased