Company

HotelTonight is an online travel service that allows users to find discounted hotel accommodations last minute. Due to the last minute nature of the bookings, the app can offer deep discounts off the listed hotel rate.

Challenge

I found myself manually filtering out certain aspects of search results and wanted to see if other users were having similar problems.

Solution

I redesigned and optimized the search filter by providing one solution for three pain points.

FINAL DELIVERABLES

Everything you need to book the perfect hotel. In one filter.

During the two-week end-to-end design sprint, I came up with a design proposal to address three pain points in HotelTonight's native application. I solved three pain points with one solution.

EMPATHIZE

Millenials are spontaneously on the move

I first began my research by conducting an online study on HotelTonight's primary customer base. After thorough investigation, my research revealed that the predominant users of HotelTonight were working individuals in their 20s and 30s with disposable income living in a metropolitan area. With this information, I created a provisional persona to effectively pinpoint my target audience. With more time, I would validate the personas I created through user interviews. 

Traveling is more than just getting from Point A to Point B

To further clarify the problem, I spent a bit of time trying to understand the motivation and context of users in order to achieve the desired outcome. Job stories in tandem with the personas and scenarios I've listed above were additive in solving the core problems in question.

DEFINE

Booking hotel rooms shouldn't be that difficult

After doing a deep-dive of the primary user, I headed out to the streets of San Francisco to conduct guerrilla usability testing. Through this exercise, I wanted to verify whether or not other users encountered similar usability issues like myself. I identified seven users who fit the persona to put themselves in a few test scenarios and complete a list of specific tasks. The tasks were as follows:

1. It’s been five years since you’ve graduated college. You and your friend decide to book a trip to NYC to visit some friends you haven’t seen in a while. What do you do?
2. You found a list of hotels but your friend wants to stay at a trendy hotel for a reasonable price. How would you go about doing this?
3. There are lots of results but you realize that some of the reviews are terrible and you’d like to stay somewhere with good reviews. How would you edit your search?

Users rely on filters to figure out what they want

After carefully reviewing the recordings of the usability tests, I arranged the problems and complaints that each users had into various categories via affinity mapping.

Sometimes subtlety can cause features to go invisible

To help prioritize the issues, I used a 2x2 map to help rank the category of issues by how important they are to the users (x-axis) and to the business (y-axis). The analysis was very helpful in identifying and selecting the overall problem that impacts users and the business the most - the search and filter functionality within HotelTonight.

Examining the search & filter flow

I examined HotelTonight's search flow, analyzed users' behavior and patterns, and discovered three pain points that posed issues. The current state of the flow is as follows:

Here are the three pain points in detail:

The following is the proposed flow:

IDEATE

A great filter should enhance the experience for users

After inspecting the task flow and defining the pain-points, it was time to put pen to paper and start sketching. I sketched out potential solutions to each of the pain points and chose the best options (highlighted in green).

PROTOTYPE

Optimizing search filters for travelers

To effectively communicate my proposed design, I created an interactive prototype using Principle to show the search flow for HotelTonight.

VALIDATE

A solution that works

After creating a clickable prototype, I tested my design solution with 7 users. They all validated my design solution and were able to get through the search and filter flow without any pain points.

RETROSPECTIVE

Put users at the center of it all

HotelTonight’s search and filter functionality created a substantial amount of friction for the users when they were trying to book a hotel. After hours of research and many iterations, I was able to successfully design a filter that works. Users were able to seamlessly search for hotels without pain points.

Crafted with care by Kevin Kim © 2019
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