Going Native
A CASE STUDY
My roles
Director of Mobile Experience Design, Marriott International
Engagement lead
Designer
Up until the redesign, Marriott had published its mobile products on the constrained and idiosyncratic Kony platform. Marriott's future business success depended on launching truly native iOS and Android apps.
Marriott's digital products were defined by the organization's legacy systems. Business rules were generally inflexible and occasionally inscrutable. Crafting a successful mobile app design required optimizing platform value while navigating the many practical limitations of room search, booking and Marriott Rewards systems.
Solution: Create a human-centered design strategy for the redesign
I designed the experience around content strategy, specifically the primary concept that the more we knew about the user, the more we could do to help them. That led to the design of four user states:
Not signed in
Signed in with no upcoming reservations
Signed in with an upcoming reservation
Signed in during a stay
Mapping how to leverage user goals to expand how we support them.
I also introduced four pervasive design tactics:
Design for fat fingers
Use platform conventions unless they hinder the experience
Help the user imagine wonderful hotel stays with strong imagery
Align with marriott.com design system standards, especially for branding
Outcome
The design strategy was a radical departure for Marriott mobile products and our development vendor resisted my approach and design tactics, but by constant stakeholder and design management, I was able to steer the solution through the organization. (The redesign launched a full year after I left Marriott, but the key aspects of the design survived through to implementation.)
