Reshaping hotel experiences.
At a Glance
Aquent Studios empowered Marriott to rethink and streamline the end-to-end digital guest experience, from registration and booking to check-in and in-room services.
Capabilities Engaged
- Design Operations
- Design Systems
- Mobile App Design
- Product Design
- UI Visual Design
- User Research
- UX Design
Project Overview
Challenge
As the largest hotel business in the world with a global portfolio of brands, locations, websites, and apps, Marriott had an ambitious digital strategy—to unify and improve the digital experience for its 100M customers across every touchpoint. Marriott’s transformative digital experience strategy was stuck in concept form and presentations left by expensive digital agencies, and the digital services team faced an FTE headcount freeze. They needed extra UX horsepower and brainpower to make their vision a reality, and they needed a flexible workforce solution.
Approach
Marriott called on Aquent Studios for help. Within a week, we consulted with Marriott’s UX leadership and developed a plan that would meet their needs and challenges. In less than 12 weeks, we mobilized and embedded a 15-person UX team consisting of a Design Manager, Product Designers, Mobile Designers, Visual Designers, Design Systems Specialists, and Researchers.
What We Did
UX Research & Design
Improved the customer experience
Designed and delivered new iOS and Android applications with improvements to booking, check-in, and loyalty redemption flows to 100M users.
Unified core flows across platforms
Unified and delivered design improvements to core flows (reservation, my trips, check-in, loyalty) across web, mobile, and in-room platforms.
Informed design through research
Leveraged research and rapid prototyping across teams to deliver better experiences, for example, helping the mobile dining team research, optimize, and launch a new food ordering experience.
Design Operations & Leadership
Optimized team performance
Advanced overall design operations and operational maturity through continuous improvement work, team recognition, process documentation, issue tracking, and knowledge sharing.
Improved design system
Accelerated implementation and effectiveness of their global design system, improved the triage process, resolved feature gaps, and facilitated better cohesion between design standards, creative studio, and product teams.
Delivered rapid transformation
We helped Marriott get unstuck and deliver a game-changing digital experience on an aggressive timeline. By providing expert leadership, talent, and know-how, we enabled Marriott to transform and unify its guest experience across web, mobile, and in-room properties.
