Extended Stay America What's Nearby Map

Digitizing What’s Nearby Paper Directory

my role
UX \ UI Design lead, Digital Art Director, Visual Design, UX Strategy, Low Fidelity Wireframes, High Fidelity Wireframes, User Testing, Competitive Research

tools used
Sketch, InVision, User Testing, Illustrator, PhotoShop

overview

Extended Stay America's What's Nearby Map tool helps long term hotel guests easily find local stores, services, restaurant and attractions. The existing guide was a cumbersome three-ringed binder. Guests found it difficult to use and the staff found it a nuisance to update. Information was often out-dated resulting in guests driving to a place that no longer existed.

I was the Iead UX/UI designer and digital art director. My role was to come up with an online solution that was easy for patrons to use and staff to update.I collaborated with Extended Stay's VP of eCommerce, & Digital Marketing, the client team and the ad agency's account executive team.

process

The click-thru prototype of low fidelity wireframes for user testing

Interviews were conducted with staff and guests to identify pain points of the three-ringed binder system. These pain points were revealed; pages routinely fell out, guests walked-off with it, staff lacked the time to effectively maintain it… The over all take-away was the current system was highly inefficient and very difficult to maintain. User journeys were defined based on the initial user interviews.

Next, I evaluated area attraction maps on hospitality related websites. The client and ad agency teams collaboratively developed a features list from my findings that would best solve the UX problem. Armed with this information, I created low fidelity wireframes using Sketch and InVision App to iterate through several design options. After a team review, we presented the best alternatives to the client to select a direction.

After their decision, I created a click-thru prototype using In-Vision App. User testing was conducted using the low fidelity prototype. Based on the findings from those sessions, the client and agency teams refined the features to a final list.

With a solid foundation, I fleshed out fully branded high fidelity wireframes. After several collaborative reviews, all teams came to consensus on a direction. Final revisions were made and the final mockups were handed off to the development team for production.

project recap

What's Nearby Map in use

The biggest take-ways from this project were the importance of listening to your client and collaboration.

Initially the "What's Near-by Map" was not part original scope. It came out of a side-bar conversation with a client team member about the how "frustrating" the three-ring binders were. I suggested we add a digital map to solve the problem.

The initial conversation evolved collaboratively into a very robust feature of the hotel search results. It was used in an app that guest used on hotel tablets. The development team made it possible hotel staff to easily make real-time updates.

While the project was completed a few years back, it has stood the test of time. It is still in use with positive feedback from hotel staff and guests alike.

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