Sharif Matar
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PROTOTYPE
Search walkthrough

Iterative interaction design was a huge component of this project and helped us explore how a simple browsing and booking process could become a fun experience that reminds people why they are traveling.

CASE STUDY

Travel discovery & localization

Improving discovery, accessibility and local authority with research.
Visit Marriott.com

Marriott

Category:
Web
Year:
2018
My Role:
Design Lead
Developement:
Marriott International
SADA Systems

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Marriott's purchase of Starwood in 2016 gave it a significant lead globally in terms of locations (over 6,000 hotels and more than 1 million rooms), brands (over 30) and locations (122 countries). Looking internally at management and performance became imperative as that lead came with new responsibilities and pressure.
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To comply with a disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information.
The hospitality industry is in flux as it adapts to a changing customer base, dynamic technologies and innovative competition. Our job with the client was to take a good look at what was going right, where there was room to improve and build the changes that would move the needle forward.  I defined new destination linking and search pages with my project manager partners. I evangelized customer goals and balanced business goals. I prioritized and negotiated features for launch and beyond. ​
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​Home

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My Role

This project required me to attain a deep understanding of Marriott's current technology and other proprietary systems. My day-to-day role was to design & advise the team, present all deliverables, work with internal tracks to ensure the platform met all client requirements, daily meetings with internal teams and Marriott stakeholders, including presentations to Marriott Executives. My efforts focused on redesigning the main locations search and services to address customer pain‐points related to the browse and discovery experience.
I partnered with two project managers and one lead strategist to uncover insights and translate concepts into features that could address customer behaviors and motivations.

​All of the work was in collaboration and consideration of the clients internal teams and department heads. Ultimately they would be responsible for implementing some significant updates.

The Brand

Marriott has repeatedly been recognized as a top company including the Top Hospitality Company on FORTUNE's Most Admired Companies. Our goal was to make Marriott a technology platform for all kinds of travel accommodations.

Target and challenge

We wanted to create frameworks and prototypes to share the vision, design principles and content strategy. This would help evangelize ideas, gain alignment and drive decision making. We wanted to create a solution with strong internal linking for existing destination related pages via a Destinations ‘Hub Page’. It was important to address the Marriott  ‘Priority Needs’ Markets, defined as any market that needs additional support in meeting RN/Rev goals and/or a market that is prioritized by the region from an opportunity standpoint. 
Using research, we wanted to understand and present the primary factors influencing a user’s Hub Page search experience and identify value-add opportunities that drive increased bookings. For example,  investigate activity/interest type content; or focus on value of destination, including cost, best time to travel, and cultural experiences. Use data driven web-page design that drives strong SEO and additional Room Nights/Revenue for Marriott ​​​

Scope & Collaboration

With a large team of stakeholders at Marriott, every page, component, and interaction across the site needed to be meticulously documented for approval. We had daily stand-ups with the internal tracks (Design, Development, Content Strategy, and Business) to ensure alignment as we created the changes and pages. 
This also helped streamline our sprint delivery to the clients internal and off-shore development teams. Working together we scoped the clients approval timelines and a staggered development and release schedules.

Asking Questions

We conducted long in depth user interviews as qualitative research around modern travel. First we defined a set of goals that we wanted to discover with our research. 
background (such as ethnographic data)
use of technology in general
use of the product 
user’s main objectives and motivations
user’s pain points
After scheduling all the interviews, we made sure the space was comfortable and had several internet connected devices for testing. The interviews were connected to live video conferencing so the client partners were able to listen in and take notes.

In addition to the prepared Question & Answer portion we walked the users through hypothetical scenario building exercises led by the interview subject. We asked users to think about a trip they are currently planning or will plan soon. Then we asked them go online using any device of their choosing to learn about or make decisions associated with that travel.

Speaking to
​& Observing
Users

The user interviews were the single most important portion of my work on this project. Interview subjects highlighted key insights about their wants/need, perspectives and pain points... as well as important issues we were unaware of during planning.

One of the discoveries in the research was 
surprising related to the clients own website. 
During the travel planning scenarios, many users consciously or unconsciously became so frustrated with the Information Architecture on the clients main site that they would just use Google to search the clients brand and then the search item they were looking for. This would often work for users as the quickest way (in their view) to get to a piece of content or task they were looking for. This had important ramifications for our focus and proposed outcomes on this project.

User Journeys,
Card Sorting &
​Affinity Mapping

Who Are Our Users?

We sorted our qualitative data into groups based on shared preferences and interests. I used those groups to inform "travel personas". Together we were able to discuss my design decisions as they relate to our personas to make sure we were focused on solving for real pain points of our target users.

Client Workshops

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Presenting Insights

We went on-site with the client to present research findings, personas and design themes. The themes would drive our ideas for the solution.​
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Ideas​
​& Themes

The goal of the workshop was to generate ideas to respond to user research findings. We organized the raw ideas into key themes. Organizing ideas into themes is a good way to tame complexity, identify connections and patterns, and understand what is important. These themes will serve as guiding principles in designing the destination hub page.
We numbered the resulting ideas and mapped them all on a sliding scale measuring feasibility and value to the user. The ideas that were high value and feasible were prioritized.
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Solution

With a large team of stakeholders at Marriott, every page, component, and interaction across the site needed to be meticulously documented for approval. We had daily stand-ups with the internal tracks (Design, Development, Content Strategy, and Business) to ensure alignment as we created the wireframes and prototypes. This also helped streamline our sprint delivery to the internal development teams.
​The updated destinations framework deck was created for the Marriott Executive leadership, and some department managers​ to help explain the complexity and benefits of the changes as we began designing for Marriott. The presentation included a variety of diagrams and videos detailing how the platform would scale across Devices, Content Management, Personalization, and Transactions.

Sample of the final landing page for the locations search experience.

Prototype
​Walkthrough

Interaction design was a huge component of this project and helped us turn a simple browsing and booking process into a fun experience  that reminds people why they are choosing to travel.

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Next Projects
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