Marriott Hotels Usability Study

As part of the UXD program at Kent State, we were tasked with learning about users that book travel through hotel websites and the overall usability of the Marriott Hotels website. Through user research we were able to better understand users of the Marriott website and why they were using the website in specific ways. These insights provided us with a deeper understanding of key action points and issues users experienced. What we think we know about our users is not always accurate and through research we can confirm or disprove our hypotheses. Furthermore, user research can save money by ensuring that products meet user’s expectations, reducing the need for drastic changes later in the product development life cycle.

Project Goals

• Understand how users book hotel rooms, how they select rooms, the importance of hotel search criteria and why some users abandon

incomplete reservations.

• Gain a deeper understanding of why users choose to join, how users typically sign up for, and users’ requirements of loyalty programs.

• Learn what motivates users to book certain hotel brands and why they choose one brand over another.

• Understand users’ needs and motivations when packaging a hotel with a flight through a single transaction.

Research Methods

A usability study and User interviews were employed to help Marriott determine which direction to take the redesign of their website. Since a new design for the site did not yet exist, user interviews helped us inform workflow and feature ideas, providing a solid foundation for future user experience initiatives and design work. By incorporating insights we collected from interviews with those from the usability study, we were better prepared to make recommendations and suggestions for the project moving forward.

All three participants were male, college graduates and were highly reliant on technology in their professional and personal lives. The participants ranged in age from 28 to 39. Each interview was conducted in the conference room at our corporate offices in Columbus, Ohio. We obtained informed consent & non disclosure agreements for each participant, allowing each session to be recorded. During the interviews we asked participants a series of predetermined questions with progressive follow up questions that changed based on participants’ responses. These questions were designed to helps us inform our research goals and understand what participants are willing to use, what they believe they would use and their goals and motivations for using hotel websites.

Analysis

Once all interviews had been completed, the process of analyzing the recordings for each participant began. Facial expressions, quotes or general responses that could provide insight into the research were noted. Once the data had been amassed, it was analyzed for similarities and patterns across participants using a basic matrix. We then used open card sorting, a method where researchers sort the findings based on similarities, which helps to organize findings. Where participants aligned on different topics we began to see clusters in the data. Through this analysis and much discussion, the synthesized data helped inform the business and research goals as well as the ultimate recommendations for the project.

Recommendations & Next Steps

1. it is recommended that more in-depth usability testing and research is undertaken to help understand where more friction points exist for users and how the overall usability can be further improved. Implementing more rigorous testing will accomplish the following:

• Reduce friction for users trying to book hotels thereby increasing the overall number of digital properties booked.

• Increase the number of users that are booking Luxury and Premium hotels by understanding issues users face when attempting to search the website by brand and associated search filters.

• Help users understand loyalty program benefits by identifying issues users may face with accessing loyalty program information. This will help increase the number of users that choose to join the BonVoy program.

• Understand issues users have with the overall hotel booking process so that we can reduce abandoned bookings after the redesign.

2. A comprehensive competitor analysis of Airbnb. Every participant in the study mentioned Airbnb with one participant remarking how much he “loved Airbnb”. This analysis will garner insight into why users like Airbnb and any potential opportunities to incorporate new features and functionality into the Marriott website.

3. Perform open card sorting to help understand how users feel the information on the site shoul be organized and to help determine a foundational structure for the redesigned website. This activity will help accomplish the following:

4. Understand navigational issues on the site and how they have impacted users’ understanding and use of the BonVoy loyalty program. This will inform our design decisions to help us acquire more BonVoy program members.

Site Enhancements

Finally, we recommend some enhancements that should be incorporated into the site based on the research that has already been completed:

• Add hotel comparison functionality so that users can compare hotels in ways similar to websites like Expedia, hotels.com, and Travelocity. Every participant mentioned this functionality in the user interviews.

• When presenting users with the opportunity to book a hotel and a flight together, show the value proposition along with the opportunity - at the same time. Users want to see how much they will save in order to feel comfortable and move forward with a package deal.