MARRIOTT DIGITAL asSets - User ResearcH

Problem

The digital assets of www.marriott.com and its app were identified as requiring improvement in the area of user experience by company stakeholders. Business goals stated by the company included:

• Increase hotel bookings via digital properties by 10%.

• Increase reservations for 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 by 20% the number of people starting and then abandoning a reservation.

• Increase by 5% the number of people choosing a hotel and flight package (vs. just booking their hotel alone).

Additionally, Marriott identified the following user experience questions to be addressed by the project:

• What is the demographic makeup of our user population?

• How do people choose a hotel?

• Why do people start a hotel search and then not complete a reservation?

• When do people use the website vs. the mobile app?

• What value are customers looking for in a hotel loyalty program?

The initial redesign plan called for the UX designer to immediately start recommending changes to the user experience to meet the business goals. A limited-scope (nano) usability study was conducted to ascertain any prominent issues that might prevent the company from reaching its goals relative to the redesign. Several prominent UX issues were identified that could have potentially inhibited the success of the redesign project. These included:

• Labeling of Search Pathway Links

• Display of Search Results

• Lack of Direct Links to Luxury and Lifestyle Collection

• Meaning and Prominence of “Bonvoy” Loyalty Program Logo/Links

• Premature CTA Prompts for “Bonvoy” Loyalty Program

• Lack of Clear Filtering Ability on Property Pages

• App Navigation Ambiguity

• Lack of Prominent Access to Flight/Hotel Bundled Bookings

• Lack of Clear Workflow to Add a Flight to a Hotel Search/Reservation

• Lack of Differentiation for Traveler Types

I advocated for a portion of the project to incorporate a limited user research study to ensure that the redesign efforts met user needs, wants, and motivations. Marriott stakeholders approved of the additional project phase.

Approach

A screener document was utilized to ensure that the research participants fit within the intended consumer market as defined by the stakeholders. A limited user research study was conducted with participants that met the screener criteria and was designed to provide insight into the research questions. These included methods and motivations for:

• Searching/browsing hotels and/or hotel/flight bundles.

• Booking hotels and/or hotel flight bundles.

• Participation in customer loyalty programs.

The recorded interview sessions were reviewed to collect information and insights directly related to the research goals and questions, and the business needs. Qualitative data regarding the participants’ experiences, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes regarding online and app-based hotel and hotel/flight shopping and booking, and hotel customer loyalty rewards programs was collected. Primarily, the data was analyzed to provide qualitative insights that will help to inform recommended design activities and feature-specific/functional development of the digital properties. Quantitative information was presented where applicable.

Results

Data was organized into the following areas:

• How Users Book

• Search Results and Filtering

• Customer Rewards Loyalty Program

• Hotel/Flight Bundles

It was revealed that users vastly preferred booking travel through websites instead of the company’s app. Additionally, a majority of users were more likely to book travel accommodations through 3rd party sites rather than a specific hotel chain due to preferences for customization and rate comparison.

Recommendations were made to increase easier browsing and searching on the Marriott digital properties based upon research participant behavior and site interaction, feedback and preferences.

Further recommendations concerned revising Information Architecture issues that were likely impacting user engagement with the “Lifestyle and Luxury” properties and the ability of users to locate resources to book hotel/flight bundles.

Participants reported high interest levels in hotel customer loyalty programs. Recommendations were made to increase the prominence of Marriott’s “Bonvoy” program branding and CTA, as well program features/benefits that were reported by participants as desirable.

The ability to book hotel/flight bundles was identified as a highly valued aspect of booking online and through apps. However, all participants indicated no knowledge of the ability to do so through specific hotel chain sites/apps. It was recommended that the site and app call attention to this feature and that advertising campaigns stress this advantage.

Recommendations for further research were made based on questions that the limited-scope study exposed. These included:

• Interface design

• Information Architecture issues

• A/B testing of redesigned site elements and work flows

• Usability testing

• User surveys conducted with actual site and app users.

Lessons Learned

• Limited-scope (nano) usability studies can effectively indicate issues and areas for further research.

• Interacting directly with potential users allows for informed research methods to illuminate motivations, needs, and use cases that are often unanticipated by traditional marketing and design methods.

• User research is essential to the design process. Not only does it inform which user populations are served, but also how the designed elements are used, interacted with, and where they excel or fall short of intent.

• Valuable, yet unanticipated directions and questions for future research are brought to the surface through user studies. When taken into proper consideration, these continue to refine and inspire the development of a product or digital property beyond the scope of the initial research phase.