Katie Hannibal

Initial Problem Statement
Marriott’s original request was to immediately start creating new design comps for a website redesign and recommendations for a new digital experience.

New Problem Statement
Although the initial request was for me to create immediate design comps and recommendations, I did not feel that that I had all the information needed in order to create the best experience for Marriott’s end users. Instead, I recommended that we start with initial user research in order to better understand current state in order to define the design problems and user experience opportunities to ensure the redesign would meet the user’s true needs. 

Marriott’s Primary Business Goals:

• Increase hotel bookings via digital properties by 10%

• Increase reservations for their Luxury and Lifestyle Collection hotel categories

• Gain 10,000 incremental members of the Marriott Rewards loyalty program in the first quarter after the redesign

• Decrease the number of people starting and then abandoning a reservation by 20%

• Increase the number of people choosing a hotel and flight package by 5%

User research is not just about asking questions, it’s about understanding what users want and what the goals they want to accomplish. What do they need in order to complete these goals? What type of environment will they be in when they complete these tasks? Understanding these things requires context and user research can help provide that context.

Benefits of User Research 
User research can help us avoid our own biases, as we are not our users and we have to find a way to build empathy and design solutions for people who aren’t like us. Working directly with users that meet the target persona or users that actually use your product, is a key way to understanding their needs along the way.

Research Goals

• Gain a deeper understanding into what the user’s behaviors, needs and goals are when using the digital experiences

• Discover how users search for information and how they sort it into groups and why

• Evaluate why a user makes a decision to book a room and how they navigate the site in order to do so

• Validate that our new redesigns will improve the overall user experience and meet business goals

Research Method

My research method included three separate interviews in order to discover users opinions and insights into their individual needs when using a hotel booking site. Here is a high level overview:

• Conducted three on-site interviews

• Q&A format with a series of 20 guided open-ended questions

• Each interview took 15-20 minutes

• The interviews were conducted by one moderator

• Each session was recorded for future analysis

• Note taking was done throughout interview

• Transcription of interview done during playback

Data Analysis

Analysis is an extremely important step in the research process and helps to uncover those deep user insights. Here were the techniques I used:

1. Deconstruction
Broke down research data and observations from interviews into component pieces to inspect each in its own right.

2. Summarization
Collated similar observations and findings together
and treated them collectively into summaries that “roll-up” the data in order the characterize the underlying data.

3. Synthesis
Our process of drawing together concepts, ideas and objects into new configurations. Synthesis allowed us to explore new configurations for the whole.

Difficulty in Sorting the Search Results

• Users seemed to be frustrated with initial search results when looking for hotels

• The current button to filter out unavailable hotels doesn’t seem to be obvious enough

• The filter buttons for sorting and searching results seems to be convoluted

• Hypothesis: Eliminating unbookable hotels could help with cognitive overload of too many options and increase completion of bookings for the users.

Frustration with the “Map View” Experience / Interaction

• The map view functionality seems to be limiting and not obvious to the user

• The users struggled when switching countries internationally while in the “map view”

• Search function ability seemed to be heavily used in place of interacting with the intended “map view” and users stopped interacting after becoming frustrated

• Hypothesis: Allowing for full interaction within the “Map View” could help users stumble upon options they didn’t know they had when destination is a primary focus and allow for more bookings to be completed.

Confusion with the “Quick View” Option

• “Quick View” option was not obvious to some users, and they got confused on how to briefly just see the hotel options at a quick glance

• Not every button or link was obvious to the user, some opened up “Quick View” and others opened up “Full Page View” not knowing which action would actually occur

• Hypothesis: Improving this experience may help users navigate the site more quickly leading to less frustration on the end-user and decrease page abandonment.

Hotel Brands are Overlooked with No Understanding of Value

• Once the user sees available options based on search criteria, the hotel brand or collection seems to get lost and/or overlooked

• It is not easily recognized that these categories are in fact a category as they are displayed as just a light gray logo and users don’t seem to notice they can “Filter by Brand”

• Users do have the ability differentiate which brand is luxury, premium or select on a top level view

• Hypothesis: Allowing the user to hover over a hotel category to show more information or benefits of that particular brand may increase their motivation to book

Lack of Room Amenities “Highlights”

• Users seem to find room amenities buried within multiple clicks and seemed to want a more top-level view of things they were specifically looking for within a room

• Users seem to want the ability to compare different types of hotel rooms at a glance

• Hypothesis: Highlighting even a few key amenities on the top-level view may improve the user’s decision-making ability and improve motivation to book a hotel.

Users Experience “Banner Blindness” with Credit Card Promotion

• Users seem to gloss over the immediate advertisement for a credit card application for bonus points

• Promoting a credit card or points that don’t seem to promote what the user actually gets out of the deal may be why it is being overlooked

• Hypothesis: Replacing the main advertisement with a loyalty program bonus offer or clearly defining the reward may increase click through and conversion of new loyalty members (ex: 50,000 points = 2 Free Nights)

No Clear Incentives for Flight Package Deals

• The user can navigate the entire checkout process for a hotel without every being prompted to also book a flight thus losing out on the opportunity

• There is nothing above the fold on the main website for the user to be incentivized to book a flight along with the hotel stay except for a very small menu link titled “Deals & Packages” which doesn’t stand out

• Hypothesis: When the user clicks on the hotel “View Rates” page, it may be beneficial to add in additional discounted rates or incentives if they also book a flight along with their stay

Confusion on How to Change Dates/Destination

• Once the user is in the search results page the home button and menu options completely move to the other side of the page, thus creating confusion for the user and makes it difficult to navigate as it is consistent

• The date range and destination although editable, do NOT look like links or something that can be edited on the page and creates a dead end for the user if they want to change their search and don’t know how to navigate back because the menu bar moved

• Hypothesis: The users may be abandoning the reservation process if they can’t quickly and easily edit their search results. By keeping the menu bar consistent or making the information look dynamic and editable may help decrease user abandonment.

GOALS

• Location of the hotel is the most important factor to the user

• Users want to get a good deal on hotel, location and price

• Price is a priority when choosing a place to stay, but will sacrifice amenities to get better deal

NEEDS

• Users want a website that is easy to use and quick

• Users want to have all the options available in one location, not just one brand

• Amenities are the least important factor to the user

• Hotel brand name is NOT important to these participants

BEHAVIORS

• Users don’t travel enough to see benefits of using loyalty programs

• They aren’t loyal to just one brand

• Users travel mostly for specific events or to explore new cultures

• Users will search for days before making a final decision

• Users prefer to do separate search for flights, because they think they can get a better deal

#1 – Recommendation
I recommended that Marriott highlight better deals on the site in comparison to other websites. Showing the users they are getting better deals in comparison to expedia, kayak or other hotels or hotel booking sites will improve sales.

Business Value
This helps support Marriott’s primary business goal of how to increase bookings on their website, by providing the value to the user and highlighting how the price is competitive, it could improve bookings on their website.

Rationale
The primary concern with users isn’t the UI design, it’s the deal they have perceived they are getting which is why they choose to go to competitor’s sites.

#2 – Recommendation
I suggested allowing the user to type in their primary destination or point of interests and then search by location in a map view in relation to that point, this would help them visually see all the options they have available to them and they’ll feel like they are getting a better deal.

Business Value
This helps support Marriott’s primary business goal of how to increase bookings on their website, by providing the value to the user and highlighting how many options they have, they may even be able to improve their luxury brands, which is also another business goal, because users could adjust price to get what they want since location is so important.

Rationale
Location of the hotel is the most important factor to the user and what they ultimately choose to sort by, they are even willing to adjust price for better location.

#3 – Recommendation
Instead of making a user wait until they have 50,000 points that qualifies them for one free night, they could also cash in the points for a free breakfast or a movie rental while they stay at hotels, making it easier to reach the goals and benefits of the rewards they have accumulated which may help entice more adoption.

Business Value
One of Marriott’s primary business goals is to increase loyalty member signups and by improving the value of this program we feel this will help entice more adoption.

Rationale
Users don’t see the value in the loyalty programs. They either don’t travel enough to use the benefits of the points, feel as if it is a scam, or are not loyal enough to stick to one brand.

#4 – Recommendation
Although I was able collect a lot of great data through this process, there is a strong need to conduct further research with users that fit a better persona of current users or potential users of hotel booking sites.

Business Value
By casting a wider net of users and recruiting different types of users that fit a broader range of personas, I could help provide more direct recommendations to help improve their bookings and overall revenue.

Rationale
Most of the users I interviewed didn’t use hotel booking sites not did they committed to just one brand in order to earn loyalty points and I believe that there is much more to learn about this subject.