goals

Business Goals

Design Goals

research & discovery via user interviews

• Stakeholder interviews: Hotel managers, front desk, room service, housekeeping
  
  

• Guest surveys: Frequent travelers from 3-star and 4-star hotel segments
  
  

• Competitor audit: Compared apps like Zingle, StayFlexi, and in-house CRMs used by chain hotel

mapping and aligning dual user journeys

Hotel staff/ Guest (Traveller)

Key Insights

For Hotel Staff:

• Manual handoffs between shifts often caused service drop-offs

• Front desk teams used fragmented channels: phones, WhatsApp, paper logs

• No system existed to track request ownership or task completion

For Guests:

• Delays in getting room service or amenities were common

• Guests didn’t know what services were available unless they asked

• Many preferred self-service for speed and privacy

problem framing

How might we streamline task management for hotel staff and enable guests to order and explore services without needing phone calls or wait times?

This question shaped our product as both a productivity tool for the hotel and a self-service concierge for the guest.

solution design

Initial wireframes

User flow & IA

We designed two tightly integrated systems:

Staff App (Admin PWA)

Roles & Permissions

• Role-based access (front desk, housekeeping, F&B)

• Managers could monitor all tasks; other staff saw only their responsibilities

Task Assignment

• Managers assigned tasks with deadlines and instructions

• Staff updated progress in real-time: pending → accepted → in-progress → complete

Guest Request Management

• All guest orders (food, cleaning, luggage pickup) synced to staff dashboard

• Notifications and reminders built-in for time-sensitive actions

  
  

Guest App (PWA)

Self-Service Ordering

• Guests could request housekeeping, order food, book spa or transport

• Checkout and request flows designed to be completed in under 3 taps

Amenity Discovery

• Guests explored available services, discounts, and hotel events

• Designed to reflect each hotel’s branding and offerings

Live Updates

• Guests received push-style updates as staff accepted and fulfilled tasks

• This reduced uncertainty and minimized front desk calls

ux & design approach

Accessibility

• WCAG AA-compliant color palette

• 44px+ touch targets

• Icons paired with labels for colorblind-friendly usage

• Readable at 6th-grade literacy level for hospitality inclusivity

collaboration & constraints

• Engineering trade-offs:

  We postponed chat and multi-language support to prioritize MVP deadline

  
  

• Hotel operations complexity:

  Had to account for shift overlaps, dynamic staff assignments, and no-show tasks

  
  

• PM & dev syncs:

  Weekly sprint reviews, mid-week async updates via Loom & Figma comments

outcomes

• >40% faster task turnaround reported by pilot hotels

  
  

• Guest satisfaction scores improved in post-checkout surveys

  
  

• UFF began onboarding 3 hotel chains for beta rollout within 6 weeks of MVP

reflection & learnings

This project taught me how to design for two personas with vastly different goals and constraints, while keeping the experience unified.

Key Learnings: