For Context

I was tasked with migrating the entirety of Loyalty from the Aries platform to the new improved Phoenix platform. I took into account every single facet of the membership experience including integrating mobile app in my decision making for consistency and seamless experience across both platforms. Backed by over 15 rounds of UX research, I was able to successfully redefine nomenclature, content hierarchy, and overall usability across all loyalty specific experiences. These ranged from the my account section which is specific to loyalty only to whole standalone experiences sprinkled across the entire Marriott experience.

 

The primary requirement was to enhance the hierarchy and visual design based on user research, while keeping the data points unchanged and not introducing any new functionality within the project scope.

 

To approach this, I started by closely examining the user research findings to understand where users are struggling with the current design. Identify the key pain points related to hierarchy and visual design. Then, I prioritized content to determine the most important elements that need to stand out based on the user research. Afterwards, I aimed to improve visual consistency across the entire interface, ensuring a clear visual hierarchy. Them I tested extensively on usertesting.com with different iterations to find the one that most resonated with our users.

ROLE

UX Designer

KEYWORDS

Responsive Web/Redesign

CATEGORY

Hospitality

DESIGN TOOLS

Figma, Sketch, Adobe CC

YEAR

2023

Current State and the Opportunities for Improvement

The entirety of the loyalty experiences required a comprehensive revamp but I was limited by the MVP scope so part of the work involved improvements that would be pushed forward post MVP as “MVP Plus”.

ARIES PLATFORM

Speaking Holistically

To narrow the focus of this case study, I'll concentrate on the tabbed My Account section, which is exclusive to signed-in users. This is the most critical aspect of the loyalty program, as it drives ongoing user engagement.

Activity and Earned Rewards

In this section, my priority was organizing information and establishing a clearer hierarchy. The goal was to make the content easy to understand while ensuring that the grouping of actions was intuitive and beneficial to the user. The aim wasn’t to alter their understanding of the page but to enhance their experience by optimizing the information hierarchy.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Account Details

Research showed users found this information very useful so there was no need to rearrange the information but there was room to improve the visual design to be more modern and reflect the member level color to improve brand identity.

Earned Rewards

Users found this section useful but felt that it made more sense in the My Trips section. This improvement will be made post MVP as it isn’t currently in scope.

Print Page

This CTA only takes a screenshot of this page which users didn’t find useful so opportunity for deprecating this feature.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Account Details

Research showed users found this information very useful but there was room to improve the visual design to be more modern and reflect the member level color to improve brand identity.

Earned Rewards

Users found this section useful but felt that it made more sense in the My Trips section. This improvement will be made post MVP as it isn’t currently in scope.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

My Trips

This section contains the user's Upcoming and Cancelled trips. Research revealed significant opportunities for visual and hierarchical improvements, as users found the property card unappealing and lacking key information. Additionally, our business partners emphasized the importance of promoting secondary partners and activities to enhance the user experience at the properties upon arrival. This wouldn't involve adding new functionality, as it already exists on the card but was hidden in the code for unclear reasons.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Property Card

Researched showed that users found this card layout confusing and did not think it prioritized the information they were looking for.

Earned Rewards

The ability to collapse and expand the card was a functionality users found very useful so keeping this was vital.

Print Page

This CTA only takes a screenshot of this page which users didn’t find useful so opportunity for deprecating this feature.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Favorites

The Favorites section, despite being the least interacted with among the My Account tabs according to metrics, received the most feedback during user research. It became evident that the lack of a visually engaging design and limited functionality led users to overlook this section. Users found the full-width cards overwhelming and felt that the cards could offer more features. Based on this feedback, we redesigned the section by switching from full-width cards to a three-card layout on desktop and incorporated a carousel scroll for property images. This allows users to explore properties directly on the page without needing to navigate to the property’s individual page.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Property Card

This Property Card tested very poorly with users as it provided no additional functionality and they didn’t find the design aesthetically pleasing.

Full Width Card

Research indicated that users would have preferred to see more cards at once, rather than having to scroll through a long list to find additional properties on this page.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Promotions

Lorem ipsum

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Hero Image

Research showed that users didn’t find the hero image useful as not only did it not set the tone for the page with imagery but it also did not contain any CTAs which just pushed important content further down the page and necessitated scrolling every time.

Cobrand Card Placement

While the credit card ad tested poorly, it was vetoed by the business for it to remain as it constituted over 30% of the business revenue.

Promotions Card

Although users found the progress bar useful, they struggled to understand the progress and remaining requirements. Clearer messaging would have significantly improved their experience.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Putting it All Together in Overview

Lorem ipsum

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Page Heirarchy

Research showed that users found the page hierarchy confusing as it did not prioritize information relevant to their experience.

Property Card

The property card tested poorly as it did not elevate a photo of the property but instead the city the property is located in.

Promotions Card

Although users found the progress bar useful, they struggled to understand the progress and remaining requirements. Clearer messaging would have significantly improved their experience.

Member Snapshot

This being the most important information to the user was too far down the page which caused frustration for the user.

Unclear Sections

Users occasionally felt uncertain about the grouping of certain items and believed that a clearer callout of these items would improve their experience.

Easily Missable Promotions

The promotions card was too thin and was constantly missed by users as they incorrectly identified multiple times as the cobrand banner.

Favorites Card

The favorites card took up too much space and was inconsistent visually with how it is represented in the Favorites section.

Offers Section

Although metrics indicated that this section was rarely interacted with by users, it was a business requirement. To address this, I focused on demonstrating value to the user in an effort to boost engagement and increase interaction.

ATTEMPTING TO ADDRESS PAGE HIERARCHY

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Profile

Lorem ipsum

A GLIMPSE INTO THE RESEARCH

Next Steps

Lorem ipsum

Research Plan

Next Step: Part Two

Part One

Next Project

For Context

I was tasked with migrating the entirety of Loyalty from the Aries platform to the new improved Phoenix platform. I took into account every single facet of the membership experience including integrating mobile app in my decision making for consistency and seamless experience across both platforms. Backed by over 15 rounds of UX research, I was able to successfully redefine nomenclature, content hierarchy, and overall usability across all loyalty specific experiences. These ranged from the my account section which is specific to loyalty only to whole standalone experiences sprinkled across the entire Marriott experience.

 

The primary requirement was to enhance the hierarchy and visual design based on user research, while keeping the data points unchanged and not introducing any new functionality within the project scope.

 

To approach this, I started by closely examining the user research findings to understand where users are struggling with the current design. Identify the key pain points related to hierarchy and visual design. Then, I prioritized content to determine the most important elements that need to stand out based on the user research. Afterwards, I aimed to improve visual consistency across the entire interface, ensuring a clear visual hierarchy. Them I tested extensively on usertesting.com with different iterations to find the one that most resonated with our users.

ROLE

UX Designer

KEYWORDS

Responsive Web/Redesign

CATEGORY

Hospitality

DESIGN TOOLS

Figma, Sketch, Adobe CC

YEAR

2023

Current State and the Opportunities for Improvement

The entirety of the loyalty experiences required a comprehensive revamp but I was limited by the MVP scope so part of the work involved improvements that would be pushed forward post MVP as “MVP Plus”.

ARIES PLATFORM

Speaking Holistically

To narrow the focus of this case study, I'll concentrate on the tabbed My Account section, which is exclusive to signed-in users. This is the most critical aspect of the loyalty program, as it drives ongoing user engagement.

Activity and Earned Rewards

In this section, my priority was organizing information and establishing a clearer hierarchy. The goal was to make the content easy to understand while ensuring that the grouping of actions was intuitive and beneficial to the user. The aim wasn’t to alter their understanding of the page but to enhance their experience by optimizing the information hierarchy.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Account Details

Research showed users found this information very useful so there was no need to rearrange the information but there was room to improve the visual design to be more modern and reflect the member level color to improve brand identity.

Earned Rewards

Users found this section useful but felt that it made more sense in the My Trips section. This improvement will be made post MVP as it isn’t currently in scope.

Print Page

This CTA only takes a screenshot of this page which users didn’t find useful so opportunity for deprecating this feature.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Account Details

Research showed users found this information very useful but there was room to improve the visual design to be more modern and reflect the member level color to improve brand identity.

Earned Rewards

Users found this section useful but felt that it made more sense in the My Trips section. This improvement will be made post MVP as it isn’t currently in scope.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

My Trips

This section contains the user's Upcoming and Cancelled trips. Research revealed significant opportunities for visual and hierarchical improvements, as users found the property card unappealing and lacking key information. Additionally, our business partners emphasized the importance of promoting secondary partners and activities to enhance the user experience at the properties upon arrival. This wouldn't involve adding new functionality, as it already exists on the card but was hidden in the code for unclear reasons.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Property Card

Researched showed that users found this card layout confusing and did not think it prioritized the information they were looking for.

Earned Rewards

The ability to collapse and expand the card was a functionality users found very useful so keeping this was vital.

Print Page

This CTA only takes a screenshot of this page which users didn’t find useful so opportunity for deprecating this feature.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Favorites

The Favorites section, despite being the least interacted with among the My Account tabs according to metrics, received the most feedback during user research. It became evident that the lack of a visually engaging design and limited functionality led users to overlook this section. Users found the full-width cards overwhelming and felt that the cards could offer more features. Based on this feedback, we redesigned the section by switching from full-width cards to a three-card layout on desktop and incorporated a carousel scroll for property images. This allows users to explore properties directly on the page without needing to navigate to the property’s individual page.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Property Card

This Property Card tested very poorly with users as it provided no additional functionality and they didn’t find the design aesthetically pleasing.

Full Width Card

Research indicated that users would have preferred to see more cards at once, rather than having to scroll through a long list to find additional properties on this page.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Promotions

Lorem ipsum

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Hero Image

Research showed that users didn’t find the hero image useful as not only did it not set the tone for the page with imagery but it also did not contain any CTAs which just pushed important content further down the page and necessitated scrolling every time.

Cobrand Card Placement

While the credit card ad tested poorly, it was vetoed by the business for it to remain as it constituted over 30% of the business revenue.

Promotions Card

Although users found the progress bar useful, they struggled to understand the progress and remaining requirements. Clearer messaging would have significantly improved their experience.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Putting it All Together in Overview

Lorem ipsum

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Page Heirarchy

Research showed that users found the page hierarchy confusing as it did not prioritize information relevant to their experience.

Property Card

The property card tested poorly as it did not elevate a photo of the property but instead the city the property is located in.

Promotions Card

Although users found the progress bar useful, they struggled to understand the progress and remaining requirements. Clearer messaging would have significantly improved their experience.

Member Snapshot

This being the most important information to the user was too far down the page which caused frustration for the user.

Unclear Sections

Users occasionally felt uncertain about the grouping of certain items and believed that a clearer callout of these items would improve their experience.

Easily Missable Promotions

The promotions card was too thin and was constantly missed by users as they incorrectly identified multiple times as the cobrand banner.

Favorites Card

The favorites card took up too much space and was inconsistent visually with how it is represented in the Favorites section.

Offers Section

Although metrics indicated that this section was rarely interacted with by users, it was a business requirement. To address this, I focused on demonstrating value to the user in an effort to boost engagement and increase interaction.

ATTEMPTING TO ADDRESS PAGE HIERARCHY

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Profile

Lorem ipsum

A GLIMPSE INTO THE RESEARCH

Next Steps

Lorem ipsum

Research Plan

Next Step: Part Two

Part One

Next Project

For Context

I was tasked with migrating the entirety of Loyalty from the Aries platform to the new improved Phoenix platform. I took into account every single facet of the membership experience including integrating mobile app in my decision making for consistency and seamless experience across both platforms. Backed by over 15 rounds of UX research, I was able to successfully redefine nomenclature, content hierarchy, and overall usability across all loyalty specific experiences. These ranged from the my account section which is specific to loyalty only to whole standalone experiences sprinkled across the entire Marriott experience.

 

The primary requirement was to enhance the hierarchy and visual design based on user research, while keeping the data points unchanged and not introducing any new functionality within the project scope.

 

To approach this, I started by closely examining the user research findings to understand where users are struggling with the current design. Identify the key pain points related to hierarchy and visual design. Then, I prioritized content to determine the most important elements that need to stand out based on the user research. Afterwards, I aimed to improve visual consistency across the entire interface, ensuring a clear visual hierarchy. Them I tested extensively on usertesting.com with different iterations to find the one that most resonated with our users.

ROLE

UX Designer

KEYWORDS

Responsive Web/Redesign

CATEGORY

Hospitality

DESIGN TOOLS

Figma, Sketch, Adobe CC

YEAR

2023

Current State and the Opportunities for Improvement

The entirety of the loyalty experiences required a comprehensive revamp but I was limited by the MVP scope so part of the work involved improvements that would be pushed forward post MVP as “MVP Plus”.

ARIES PLATFORM

Speaking Holistically

To narrow the focus of this case study, I'll concentrate on the tabbed My Account section, which is exclusive to signed-in users. This is the most critical aspect of the loyalty program, as it drives ongoing user engagement.

Activity and Earned Rewards

In this section, my priority was organizing information and establishing a clearer hierarchy. The goal was to make the content easy to understand while ensuring that the grouping of actions was intuitive and beneficial to the user. The aim wasn’t to alter their understanding of the page but to enhance their experience by optimizing the information hierarchy.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Account Details

Research showed users found this information very useful so there was no need to rearrange the information but there was room to improve the visual design to be more modern and reflect the member level color to improve brand identity.

Earned Rewards

Users found this section useful but felt that it made more sense in the My Trips section. This improvement will be made post MVP as it isn’t currently in scope.

Print Page

This CTA only takes a screenshot of this page which users didn’t find useful so opportunity for deprecating this feature.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Account Details

Research showed users found this information very useful but there was room to improve the visual design to be more modern and reflect the member level color to improve brand identity.

Earned Rewards

Users found this section useful but felt that it made more sense in the My Trips section. This improvement will be made post MVP as it isn’t currently in scope.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

My Trips

This section contains the user's Upcoming and Cancelled trips. Research revealed significant opportunities for visual and hierarchical improvements, as users found the property card unappealing and lacking key information. Additionally, our business partners emphasized the importance of promoting secondary partners and activities to enhance the user experience at the properties upon arrival. This wouldn't involve adding new functionality, as it already exists on the card but was hidden in the code for unclear reasons.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Property Card

Researched showed that users found this card layout confusing and did not think it prioritized the information they were looking for.

Earned Rewards

The ability to collapse and expand the card was a functionality users found very useful so keeping this was vital.

Print Page

This CTA only takes a screenshot of this page which users didn’t find useful so opportunity for deprecating this feature.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Favorites

The Favorites section, despite being the least interacted with among the My Account tabs according to metrics, received the most feedback during user research. It became evident that the lack of a visually engaging design and limited functionality led users to overlook this section. Users found the full-width cards overwhelming and felt that the cards could offer more features. Based on this feedback, we redesigned the section by switching from full-width cards to a three-card layout on desktop and incorporated a carousel scroll for property images. This allows users to explore properties directly on the page without needing to navigate to the property’s individual page.

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Property Card

This Property Card tested very poorly with users as it provided no additional functionality and they didn’t find the design aesthetically pleasing.

Full Width Card

Research indicated that users would have preferred to see more cards at once, rather than having to scroll through a long list to find additional properties on this page.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Promotions

Lorem ipsum

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Hero Image

Research showed that users didn’t find the hero image useful as not only did it not set the tone for the page with imagery but it also did not contain any CTAs which just pushed important content further down the page and necessitated scrolling every time.

Cobrand Card Placement

While the credit card ad tested poorly, it was vetoed by the business for it to remain as it constituted over 30% of the business revenue.

Promotions Card

Although users found the progress bar useful, they struggled to understand the progress and remaining requirements. Clearer messaging would have significantly improved their experience.

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Putting it All Together in Overview

Lorem ipsum

WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWED

Page Heirarchy

Research showed that users found the page hierarchy confusing as it did not prioritize information relevant to their experience.

Property Card

The property card tested poorly as it did not elevate a photo of the property but instead the city the property is located in.

Promotions Card

Although users found the progress bar useful, they struggled to understand the progress and remaining requirements. Clearer messaging would have significantly improved their experience.

Member Snapshot

This being the most important information to the user was too far down the page which caused frustration for the user.

Unclear Sections

Users occasionally felt uncertain about the grouping of certain items and believed that a clearer callout of these items would improve their experience.

Easily Missable Promotions

The promotions card was too thin and was constantly missed by users as they incorrectly identified multiple times as the cobrand banner.

Favorites Card

The favorites card took up too much space and was inconsistent visually with how it is represented in the Favorites section.

Offers Section

Although metrics indicated that this section was rarely interacted with by users, it was a business requirement. To address this, I focused on demonstrating value to the user in an effort to boost engagement and increase interaction.

ATTEMPTING TO ADDRESS PAGE HIERARCHY

IMPROVED DESIGNS

Profile

Lorem ipsum

A GLIMPSE INTO THE RESEARCH

Next Steps

Lorem ipsum

Research Plan

Next Step: Part Two

Part One

Next Project