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Context
Sr. UX Designer at Hyatt, leading wireframes and prototypes in an iterative test-and-learn process, partnering with UX Research, designers, and engineers.
Problem
World of Hyatt rewards members didn't know where or how to use their award points to book hotels. Points were going unredeemed, and the product lacked a discoverable, map-based browsing experience to bridge that gap.
Options Considered
The initial hypothesis centered on map clusters to indicate hotel density and guide navigation. Userzoom research — combining online surveys, field research, and card sorting — was used to validate the approach before investing further. Research revealed that clusters were actively blocking users from comparing hotels, making them counterproductive to the core goal.
Trade-offs
Early constraints ruled out search, dates, and pricing — limiting the MVP's utility. Clusters were the other key trade-off: they seemed logical for dense maps but research showed users strongly preferred seeing all hotels at every zoom level to enable comparison. Pricing remained unresolved due to system constraints around retrieving hotel prices at high zoom levels.
Outcome
Research findings directly reprioritized the product roadmap — clusters were removed, a search field was added, and additional hotel details were surfaced. The map and list components were extended to hotel brand sites and destination pages to support organic traffic growth.
What I'd do next:
Resolve the pricing constraint — too many hotel prices to retrieve at high zoom levels was a documented system limitation — and address the remaining desired features surfaced by research, including ratings and reviews, nearby airports, and a flexible dates calendar.
First iteration
First iteration
Problem
Problem
Members don't know how or where to use their award points to book hotels. How might we make it easier for members to discover and book hotels using their points?
Hypothesis
Hypothesis
By displaying hotels on a digital map and enabling users to distinguish them by amenities, award point categories, and brands, we can make it easier for them to discover and book with their points.
Capabilities
Capabilities
Display hotels with Google Maps API
List hotels for SEO and Accessibility
Filter by regions, award categories, amenities and brands
Link hotels to property websites
Show numbers of hotels by location
Initial constraints
Initial constraints
No search field, dates or prices
Single hotel view (without amenities)
Workshop
Workshop
Slideshow
UI Designs (Desktop view)
UI Designs (Desktop view)
Slideshow
Map page
Used Google Maps API with 'clusters' for indicating numbers of hotels and zoom navigation.
Hotel details initially constrained to show one at a time.
Filter Map and List by region, hotel award categories, amenities and brands.
List page
Separate page for SEO and an accessible index of hotels organized by region, country, and state.
Userzoom hybrid and closed sorting used to discover region categorization: United States & Canada, Carribbean & Latin America, Europe, Africa & Middle East, Asia, Australia & Pacific
Top-Line findings
Top-Line findings
Combined findings from online surveys and hotel field research revealed key missing information for decision making.
Must-haves:
Look and work like Google Maps
Compare and filter hotels by amenities, brands, and reward points categories
Ability to compare cost of hotels in points and points with cash
Desired:
Use a search field to jump to specific cities and states
Additional filters such as 'beach hotels'
Ratings and reviews
Hotels listed side by side with map
Nearby airports
Flexible Dates Calendar
Recommended hotels given points balance and preferences
Not desired by research participants:
A text listing of all hotels
Map clusters
Most participants were either indifferent or dissatisfied with map 'clusters' because they were blocked from comparing hotels when there were both clusters and hotel pins presented together.
Instead, said they preferred an easier way to compare and view hotel details at any zoom level.
Outcomes
Outcomes
Research findings influenced product capability prioritization.
Added search field and additional hotel details.
Clusters would later be removed in favor of showing all hotels at all zoom levels so that users could compare hotels at any level.
Pricing unresolved due to system constraints.
Too many hotel prices to retrieve when viewing the highest zoom levels.
Additional applications
Additional applications
Given the need to increase organic traffic, both the list and map would also be leveraged for the hotel brands and destination page websites.
Slideshow
Google Sites
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