A User Research Plan for

Digital Properties

by Alisha Kimberley, User Researcherakimber2@kent.edu

Stakeholders:James Murphy (PM), Sam Eisenschenk (Head Engineer)

Last updated 6/1/2014

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FindingsKnow what your users know.

User Research Executive Summary

With the results collected from the Nano Usability Test to build upon, we now move forward to more targeted research. We’ve uncovered some prominent user experience issues, where we know improvements are needed. Now, we’ll dig deeper into:

• The success of hotel search function.• How search results are being sorted.• How guests are looking for information on particular hotels.• How they are booking their choice hotel.• And how we can best call attention to other features Marriott boasts.

Our goal throughout this research will be to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Marriott.com’s user experience and uncover opportunities for improvement.

FindingsKnow what your users know.

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Prominent User Experience

Issues Encountered

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Issue: Hotel Search Function1) Guests do not notice they can change the way they view

their search results.

2) Users found no further benefit by using the Advance Search option because it did not feature additional options that they cared about.

3) Visitors wondered why they were not able to filter by function in the first place, not as a secondary level after their initial search already happened.

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Issue: Sorting Search Results4) Guests do not notice they can change the way they view

their search results.

5) Users would like to have been able to base hotel choice on a star-rating system. (Closest rating they could find was Brand and they weren’t even certain what that meant to them.)

6) When visitors found additional options to sort by, they did not understand what the options’ labels meant before actually clicking on each them.

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Issue: Seeking More Hotel Info7) Guests wanted more pertinent information to readily be

available about the hotel itself; and they wanted to be able to drill down for more information when needed.

8) Users did not readily see where they could look at photos of the hotel and made comments about the ‘stupid’ location of the link to them.

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Issue: Making a Hotel Booking9) Visitors felt the cost section of their reservation was

purposely de-emphasized.

10) They also thought the cost section of their reservation and the check-out screen were not as professional-looking as the rest of the website.

11) Guests noted the Pillow Preference option was nice, but kind of funny. They didn’t know why it was placed with the requested options since the preference was not guaranteed.

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Issue: Highlighting Additional

Features on Marriott.com

12) Visitors asked how they sign up for Marriott Rewards. They did not notice they could register as they booked their hotel.

13) They also did not understand the benefit of registering for Marriott Rewards.

14) Guests were not aware of the fact that they could book a flight and a hotel together.

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Building a User Research Plan

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User Research

Goals1. Improve upon the hotel search function.

2. Allow for easier manipulation of the hotel search results.

3. Discover what information users readily want to know about the hotels they are researching.

4. Determine what visitors expect and want to be provided with as they move throughthe booking process.

5. Drive guests to the additional features (other than the basic booking) available onMarriott.com.

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User Experience

Questions1. What is the demographic makeup of our user population?

2. How do people choose a hotel?

3. Why do people start a hotel search and then not complete a reservation?

4. When do people use the Marriott website vs. the mobile app?

5. What value are customers looking for in a hotel loyalty program?

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General Research

Questions1. What kind of distractions do users encounter as they are searching for and booking a

hotel?

2. Do guests prefer to use visit Marriott.com via their computers or their phones?

3. What are the most important features guests look for when selecting a hotel?

4. How do people enter data into the hotel search function?

5. When/where/how should the Marriott Rewards Program be introduced to Marriott.com visitors?

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Questions for Users1. Where are you physically located when you initiate a search on Marriott.com?2. What member of your party tends to book the reservation?3. What would make you decide to join a rewards program?4. How important is price when you book a reservation? (1-5 scale)5. What kind of hotel room preferences are you interested in?6. What kind of hotel amenities to you expect to be featured on Marriott.com?7. How much time do you expect it will take to make a reservation?8. How likely are you to ask for assistance if it’s available on the website? (1-5 scale)9. What makes you want to create an account while booking online? 10. Are you traveling for business or leisure?11. Do you visit more than one hotel’s website before making a booking?12. Will you be traveling with children? 13. Do you own a smart phone?14. What do you like about Marriott.com?15. What don’t you like about Marriott.com?

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What’s next?

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Business Goals for

Digital Properties1. Increase hotel booking via digital properties by 10%

2. Increase reservations for their luxury and Lifestyle Collection hotel categories

3. Gain 10,000 incremental members of the Marriott Rewards loyalty program in thefirst quarter after the redesign

4. Decrease by 20% the number of people starting and then abandoning a reservation

5. Increase by 5% the number of people choosing a hotel and flight package (vs. just booking their hotel alone)

Recommendations for Next Steps

Review the web analytics to find out information, like how often people visit the site and how long they stay. You can also identify where people abandon the site.

Since users did not understand some of the labels that were used to identify the additional options available when sorting the hotel results, we suggest a very brief competitive reviewof other hotel chains’ websites. See how the competition labels items and sorts them into categories. A formal card sorting session is unnecessary.

Lastly, conduct a survey built upon some of the questions offered within this report. Use a rating scale 1-5. Administer it to prior Marriott.com visitors, as well as potential visitors. Survey about 500 users.

Once the data from these three research methods is gathered, we’ll be ready to move forward with confidenceto re-design Marriott’s digital properties with both your business goals and your customers in mind.

FindingsKnow what your users know.