Brief
The Hoxton is a chain of hotels which started in Shoreditch in 2006, it was inspired by the diversity and originality of the streets.
Our role was to create a new feature that would allow people to plan & book local experiences through the eyes of the locals. The service would live on The Hoxton website.
Features to consider:
● Ability to browse and book a local experience through the eyes of the locals.
● Messaging or chat functionality to ask questions about the experience.
● Ability to reschedule a booking.
● Ability to rate and/or share the experience on social.
My role: User research, usability testing, affinity mapping, wireframing high-fidelity & creating the final presentations.
Read the extended case study on Medium
Process journey
Research
Getting to know The Hoxton & it's usuals
With a site visit to The Hoxton Shorditch, we gathered vital information from staff and customers. Observing the environment and the customers gave us insight to a potential persona.
• Competitive analysis helped us understand current trends in the event booking industry. Flexi-ticket was a feature that we felt must bring forward to accommodate last minute change of plans by the user.
• Speaking to customers at The Hoxton, we were informed that they relied on recommendations when booking trips.
• Average age group at the hotel was 25-35.
User needs
Understanding pain points around searching & booking events
Sending screener surveys, we organsied face to face and phone interviews with the our network.
• We found that flexibility and local recommendations were key points from interviews and the brief.
• With this info, we were able to create a persona, which allowed us to have an ideal user and help tell the story of the product.
• Creating a visually engaging storyboard for a better storytelling technique.
Define
Ideation and Testing
Using a method called a lighting decision jam, we were able to quickly focus on ideas by dot voting on prefered features. This allowed us to wireframe and test our screens. Main pain points from the testing were:
• Reducing the steps taken to get to the booking page.
• Introducing the distance from the hotel sooner in the process.
• Adding booked events to you Apple wallet was welcomed addition as all users expected this.
Conclusion
Next steps
Product improvement
We had a trendy product that merged well with The Hoxton Shorditch surroundings but things could be improved:
• Adding a flexi-ticket search in the filter.
• Onboarding process to help the user get the most of the service.
• Testing the secondary flow further, to see how finding events through bloggers preformed.
My insights
Teamwork.
Collaborating as a team made a massive difference.
• Supporting and voicing opinions comfortably made for a safe working environment.
• As staff did not want us to bother their customers with interview questions the first day. I decided to return to The Hoxton the following day to have an informal chat with hotel clients to gather direct customer insights.
• Not dwelling on a single feature as a team is paramount to moving forward. If you're talking about it for too long, move on.
Feedback
My experience
The Hoxton is a very cool and trendy place. It was a pleasure to work on.
• Being pro-active by prepping and doing a site visit as protocol, laid the perfect foundations to understanding the brand and The Hoxton customers.
• Presentation feedback was overall great. I was told I gave a great explanation
of User flow and
paper prototyping, it was really seamless and clear.
• We managed to create something
that has such a strong connection to the brand and that was because of great teamwork and communication.
Thanks for reading!
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Client: The Hoxton • Role: UX Designer • Date: January 2020