Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection Cruise Search

overview

The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection ship directory is a web-app to help guests search for luxury vacations online. The existing search user interface had several friction points use because of inconstant spacing and style. Search result tiles extend way below the fold making the results difficult to read and visually suppressed the main CTA's.

It needed clean, intuitive user interface makes it easy to use and quickly identify key information and CTA's. My Role was to lead research, UX/UI design, build wireframes and create prototypes for the business owners to evaluate. I collaborated with marketing, creative, development and executive teams.

process

Initially I analyzed website analytics to identify what worked and where improvements were needed. The luxury cruise market is a small yet crowded space, so I did competitive research on the top 5 most relevant competitors. Next I evaluated search results of related industries (resorts, hotels, real estate) sites to assess how approached the problem.

Next I created low fidelity wireframes in order to think through the structure of information blocks and layout of the webpage. I used Adobe XD and Zeplin to iterate trough many layout options. After a collaborative review with team members, we evaluated which layouts and UI design provided the best user experience. Once the business owners signed off, I designed high fidelity wireframes for creative review.

In the final stage, I developed an interactive prototype in order to simulate the user flows. I presented these to the business owners and executive teams for an interactive review. My solution was well received and got final sign-off to proceed to development.

View Prototype

project recap

Presenting an interactive prototype was essential to get buy-in from stakeholders. It was fascinating how adverse they were to change and saw the product as "theirs". This left little room for an optimal user experience. High fidelity were a key step in the process, but did not convey the user flow a prototype can. After the presentation if the interactive prototype, everyone clearly understood why the redesign was needed. The end result was a solution that solved the problem of information being clearly displayed, easy-to-read and on brand.

While I enjoyed as facets of the project, I really enjoyed iterating on designs with the team and testing with internal users. The collaboration of the core team laid a solid foundation for a tight feedback loop. We were able to identify pain points throughout the process, refine the user experience and design rapidly. It was rewarding to create a product that we had full confidence users find intuitive and provide a "luxurious" user experience.