Digitalising world-class hospitality
Employer
Aleph-Labs
Role
Creative Director – Lead in Designs & Experience
Lead Initial Proposal & Pitch
Feb – Oct 2019
Project Scope
UI/UX | Interaction Design | Research
Link
www.centarahotelsresorts.com
Centara, a leading global hospitality group offering enriching Thai-inspired experiences worldwide, recognized the need to adapt in the ever-changing digital landscape.
Collaborating with us, they undertook a comprehensive website revamp, enhancing the booking experience through an intuitive, multi-brand relaunch. To uphold Centara Hotels & Resorts’ renowned reputation, CHR and its sub-brands’ websites required updates with new designs and features.
Our task was to reimagine and future-proof Centara’s platform, ensuring users receive distinctive, personalized, and memorable brand experiences.
Goals
1. Discovery
To comprehensively grasp the brand’s challenges and assess its websites, we conducted extensive research on both local and global competitors, examined online travel agencies (OTAs), and studied industry best practices.
Our approach involved a meticulous analysis of Google Analytics data, usability testing of the existing website, and interviews with users and stakeholders. Leveraging our findings and expertise, we conducted a heuristic evaluation of the current websites.
This holistic process provided invaluable insights into user and business pain points, guiding the identification of necessary changes to the websites and shaping the overall business strategy. By anticipating challenges in advance, we laid the groundwork and established a solid foundation to initiate our design thinking process
2. Ideation
We led customer journey mapping workshops, formulated user personas, and conducted thorough user research to pinpoint our primary targets. Delving deeper into their preferences, we elevated the experiences by identifying additional benefits, including membership rates and discounts on their preferred travel destinations.
Prioritizing our users’ needs, our research aimed to deliver a foundational booking experience that not only fulfilled their desire for a delightful travel journey but also exceeded expectations at every stage..
3. Create & Validate
Unmatched travel experience
We embarked on a meticulous design journey, crafting wireframes and concept designs tailored to resonate with each brand’s unique identity. By leveraging interactive prototypes, we engaged a diverse group of Centara guests, both loyal and prospective, to gather invaluable insights that would shape our design direction.
Our approach was methodical and user-centric, employing task-based testing, comprehensive usability evaluations, and rigorous information architecture assessments. This iterative process enabled us to refine our designs continually, ensuring they not only met but exceeded Centara’s strategic objectives.
The culmination of our efforts was a transformative digital overhaul. We introduced a streamlined booking process, characterized by its seamless navigation and enhanced user flexibility. Guests can now effortlessly personalize their travel experience, utilizing detailed filters to uncover the ideal options that Centara has to offer.
Additionally, we enriched the Centara website with a vibrant community review section, inviting guests to share their cherished memories and discoveries, further enriching the user experience. Additionally, our focus on mobile optimization has made it simpler than ever for users to arrange both corporate and social events, ensuring Centara remains their go-to travel partner.
Through this project, we not only elevated the user experience but also demonstrated the power of thoughtful design in connecting and engaging with users on a deeper level.
4. Build
Having narrowed down the wireframes and design concepts, we spent the next 8 months delivering the designs for keytemplate journeys for each brands under Centara Hotels & Resort Group.
To ensure that each designs sprints is completed with success,
we tested each designs and user journeys with new users.
Meanwhile every update was made into a design system with the documentation for development.
End Result
Redefined travel through digital
The result was a redesigned website that transformed the end-to-end user travel booking experience, while further pushing digital boundaries through improved interactions and touchpoints on mobile. We’ve redefined the experiences of Centara’s users to match their world-class hospitality.