The HHonors loyalty program had limited options for redeeming points for stays. In an effort to better serve their most loyal customers, Hilton found new ways for them to redeem their points. This included combining points and money, points for upgrades and so on.
Integrating these new redemption options was a very challenging assignment. Not only did the interactions need to be designed and thought through, but as I dug in, the complexities were peeled off in layers. Points redemption touches every step of a reservation funnel from the beginning of a search to the guest receipt. Designing this experience would require deep knowledge of the business and technical requirements along the path.
To accomplish this daunting task, I began by interviewing stakeholders. I also reviewed the current experience and evaluated the content for anything that might be effected. As I uncovered each piece, I worked with my Hilton customers to show what I'd found and for direction on where to find more.
Designing the experience was also a beast. I worked closely with our Creative Director to make this experience as simple and clean as possible. This meant allowing users to choose between viewing and not viewing the points while shopping. At times, I wore many hats from UX design to business and technical analyst. Despite the tight timeline, design elegance could not be compromised.
Of course, you can't call yourself a UX designer if you don't talk to users. So, we planned and executed a very successful usability test. To accomplish this, we had to rig up a usability lab in our office. I also had to build a working prototype and hire a usability analyst.
Oh, and did I mention ... this entire project from ideation to validation to production was accomplished in about two months?
