DISCOVERY & DEFINITION

UNDERSTANDING INTER-CONNECTED SYSTEMS

Much of the data for users of Viceroy’s Loyalty Portal was being pulled from GHA’s Discovery database, while at the same time the loyalty portal was being built and managed with NextGuest’s proprietary CMS. In addition, booking transactions and checkout flows were managed by a third-party booking engine. Thus, it was critical to have an understanding of how these three different systems would work together.

Many meetings were held to understand the cross-section of these areas. In addition, there was a lot of communication held specifically with the GHA team and our internal team to better understand capabilities within the Discovery Loyalty Program.

Although an initial set of wireframes had been completed by a consultant, I reviewed several other hotels portals participating in the Discovery program to get an understanding of the types of features that were possible.

I also adjusted the information architecture to simplify the understanding of the Discovery program. In several of the participating hotels’ loyalty portals, users had to make the distinction between nights stayed at a hotel that garnered points, which went towards a membership status; a particular membership status coincided with certain local experiences that were redeemed with Local Experience Awards. This was all very confusing. 

To simplify this, I gave less prominence to the ‘Local Experience Awards’ in the IA so users' attention went straight to Local Experiences. Using progressive disclosure ‘Awards’ was only referred to once users landed on the ‘Local Experience’ page.

I also created several userflows to 1) demonstrate to the client how users would access the loyalty portal as well as 2) to ensure the programming team and design team were in alignment on the intended user’s experience. Userflows outlined how users would either learn more information about the loyalty program or join immediately, access the portal if and if they did not remember their password, as well as redeem local experiences.

 EARLY DESIGN

LOCAL EXPERIENCES AT THE CENTER

‘Local Experiences’ are at the heart of Viceroy’s loyalty portal experience. One of the biggest incentives for membership is the opportunity to earn a free experience, such as a spa service, at a Viceroy location. Adaptations were made in design to drive users to viewing Local Experiences and facilitating efficient searching and redeeming.

The initial step was refining the first set of wireframes to create medium-fidelity wires with additional details and features.

Additional features were added to enhance the user experience, including a clear signifier for ineligible local experiences (based on membership levels) and personalized Local Experience recommendations (based on past user history).

 LATER DESIGN

ITERATIONS

Because of a limited timeframe, UX and visual design worked closely together to move from wireframes to mockups rapidly. Visual mockups were then presented to a multi-disciplinary internal team; recommendations were suggested that were used to further refine the product. I presented the designs to the client, whom offered feedback and made a few design change requests.

Some local experiences require a reservation at the particular hotel to enjoy the experience. Initially there was an understanding that the loyalty portal could automatically recognize whether a user had the relevant reservation.

Within the user flow, a member who did not have a reservation was guided out of the portal to quickly make a hotel booking. The challenge was then centered on how to ensure users could quickly jump back into the flow of redeeming a local experience after leaving the portal. In turn, a ‘Recent Activity’ section was added to the dashboard so returning users could quickly identify find the Local Experience they had previously selected.