Baha Mar Resort Website
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Mission Statement
The Baha Mar Hotel & Casino is a 1,000 room hotel that incorporates the largest casino in the Caribbean. The resort is also comprised of key hotel brands including Rosewood, Grand Hyatt, and Mondrian.
The goal was to create an online experience that immerses the user into the Baha Mar resort from their first arrival to the site. The website should facilitate guest engagement through each of the five stages of vacation travel from Dream, Plan, Book, Experience, to Share.
As the Lead UX designer for the project, my responsibilities were
Research & UX Strategy
Participated in user research, competitor analysis, and best practices to inform UX strategy for the website.
Based on the UX strategy, proposed three concepts and alternative experiences.
Features & Functionalities
Defined features and functionalities for multiple phases based on business value and user value.
Wireframes of Booking Flow
Created wireframes of the framework and interaction models as well as the booking flow for the website.
Concepts for Future Website
Directed both UX and Visual concepts for future phases of the website. Presented to senior stockholders in person.
The team includes other 2 UX designers, 2 visual designers, and 1 project manager .
Results
40% increase in online reservations
Research & UX Strategy
Archetypes
To deliver on what each unique user needs, we had to understand what people want from Bahamar.com first. We decided to devise some basic archetypes by asking questions below.
Questions
What motivates people to come to the site?
How can we address the areas of opportunity?
How can we mitigate the potential pain points?
How can we design unique user journeys?
Competitor Analysis
Based on competitor analysis, we would be able to learn from their successes and failures and identify areas of opportunity. It would help us to set a benchmark to push further and improve upon what already exists.
Competitor Analysis covers
Cross-brand Integration
Booking
Room Results
Social Media Integration
Summary of things to consider
Integrate partner hotel brands in a consistent manner for a seamless web experience
Ensure that booking and key navigational items are easily accessible at all times
Set user expectations early by being transparent about the required booking steps
Utilize white space effectively for clean layouts and content display
Allow users to filter and find content easily for individual preferences
Provide more immersive ways for users to browse the resort and hotel rooms
Empower users to engage and share on their social networks for earned media
Summary of things to avoid
Disparate brand identities
Cluttered web layouts and interfaces
Manual form entry from users where smart detection techniques may be utilized
The display of unavailable hotel rooms
The use of the same or similar color treatment for different call-to-actions
Best Practices
To help inform the approach of the redesign, we took a look at innovative designs and interaction techniques used around the web. By not limiting ourselves to the direct competitor landscape, we were able to find a greater range of best practices that would establish a more user-centric foundation to guide all future efforts.
UX Best Practices Categories
Framework & Navigation
Web Layouts
Interactive Elements
Search & Discovery
Social Experiences
Responsive Design
5 Stages of the Customer Journey
Standalone Innovations
For Bahamar.com to evolve over time, we ideated on standalone innovations that could be launched iteratively through a phased approach once the core site is developed. We’ve created some high-level wireframes that map to the 5 stages of the customer journey, and asked the questions below.
Questions
How can we excite and motivate users to book travel?
How can we assist and delight travelers throughout the five stages of their vacation travel?
How can we allow for more customization?
How can we leverage mobile to provide value?
Taxonomy
We assessed the current site architecture and ideated on ways to enhance site navigation and usability with a new framework. We also focused on creating a captivating landing experience, but more importantly an exceptional booking flow while considering today’s interaction models. When going through the process of designing the key pages, we asked questions below.
Questions
How can we out-innovate others in the same space?
How can we inspire and excite consumers to book a trip?
How can we guide consumers through the booking process?
How can we best represent the multiple hotel brand offerings from Baha Mar?
UX Design Process
Features & Functionalities Matrix
After the research and connecting phase, we gathered the business requirements and users’ needs based on the archetypes, competitor analysis, best practices, and concepts evaluation to inform the features & functionalities matrix for updated and future phases.
The updated UX phase was to focus on creating wireframes of booking flows for rooms, flights and possible scenarios.
Wireframes Categories
Framework and Interaction Models
Booking Room Flow
Booking Flights Flow
Adding Services from Confirmation Page
Booking Multiple Rooms
Booking Multiple Rooms and Adding Flights
Member Pages and Registration Flow
Hotel pages and Hotel Room Details page
The most challenging task of this phase was to book multiple rooms, flights and add extra services.
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