Smart Hotel App
June 2015
UX/Design, HAML, Scss, Bootstrap (Grid), jQuery
Challenge
A Hotel For You. Many hotel chains have loyalty programs to reward travelers who routinely stay with them. In our digital world of affordable home automation and streaming media, hotel rooms can be transformed into customizable environments which adapt to suit the preferences of their current occupant. Design a digital experience for a guest of such a hotel which will make them feel at home while away from home.
Process
I had a goal of spending only around 6 hours total on this project.
- Background research: 45 minutes
- Codepen - Bootstrap (responsive grid), jQuery
- Wireframe - Moqups, 45 minutes; grid, 10 minutes
- Begin prototyping - 1hr
- Refactor wireframe - 10m
- Complete prototyping - 4.5hr
Brainstorming
Room Settings
- Lighting
- Temperature (Day/Night)
- Bed
- Accessibility
Room Amenities
- Towels
- Pillows
- Fridge
- Drinks/Snacks
- TV
- Music
Others
- Floor
- Cleaning Schedule
- DND/Wakeups
- Magazines
- Valet/ Shuttle/ Car Service
- Dry cleaning
- Crib/Cot
- Apple TV
Potential Features
- Saved settings
- Saved Rooms
- Saved Cities
Research
Hotel References
- http://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/california/los-angeles-hotels/custom-hotel/
- https://www.rewards-insiders.marriott.com/blogs/customer-advocacy/2013/03/08/how-to-select-room-preferences
UX References
- http://www.smartthings.com/
- https://www.savant.com/products
- http://www.evolvecontrols.com/explore/automation-control
Conclusion
Elements I thought were successful include:
- choice of background image for a casual, welcoming, home-like feel
- iconography and tabbed sections workflow
- responsive at key breakpoints
- refactoring the wireframes after prototyping clarified my approach
If time allowed (goal was to spend ~6 hours total), elements I would change or do differently would be:
- in small screen/mobile view, have icons and related section visbile together on one screen
- complete Aria attributes for accessibility
- style range inputs
- experiment with alternate capitalization approaches (not all lowercase)