Hotel Everywhere
Redesigning the multi-channel marketing platform and campaign management portal
Hotel Everywhere was an award-winning service from Thomas Cook that empowered hotels with a campaign management platform. Hotels could rely on Thomas Cook’s platform and specialist marketing team to deliver effective campaigns. Cyber-Duck was engaged to redesign the portal and marketing website.
Objectives
After the award-winning success of Lyk by Thomas Cook Money, Cyber-Duck was engaged to support more teams within the Thomas Cook Group. First in line was Hotel Everywhere, the multi-channel marketing platform and campaign management portal.
The service aimed to make it easier for hotels (everywhere) to market themselves to potential holidaymakers. Hotel Everywhere allowed hotels to choose a campaign package, build a campaign, target more potential customers and track their campaign’s success.
We were tasked with redesigning the entire digital experience for Hotel Everywhere. From the campaign portal to the marketing website, we would transform the whole experience to drive engagement and sales higher.
Then, we would deliver an intuitive design system that consisted of pre-developed components and a comprehensive pattern library. This meant Hotel Everywhere’s internal team could build the new portal themselves.
- Conduct in-depth research to inform a user-friendly design.
- Redesign the Hotel Everywhere campaign management portal.
- Reinvigorate the marketing website to drive more conversions.
- Produce an intuitive design system made of reusable components.
User-centred design strategy
First, we conducted stakeholder workshops with Hotel Everywhere to fully understand the company and its core product offering. We also wanted to know who the stakeholders thought their ideal users were, as well as these users’ needs.
We followed up the stakeholder workshops with persona research. This allowed us to distil Hotel Everywhere’s user base into several distinct user types (or personas) that detailed who these users were, what their problems were and what they expected of a campaign management platform.
Our designs had to meet the needs of hotels of all sizes, from small boutiques to larger hotel groups.
We had to ensure each persona type would find Hotel Everywhere useful and engaging, so to do that we mapped out user journeys to provide a seamless experience regardless of persona type or need.
Prototyping the new portal
Taking our findings from the persona research and user journey mapping, we designed all of the screens and interfaces for the new Hotel Everywhere online platform.
But the key thing was to make sure that these interfaces actually worked with the very users we had designed them for.
We tested the interfaces with real users so we could refine our designs and make the best possible user experience.
Through usability tests with users from a diverse range of hotels, we learned where our designs could be improved. Our UX designers then delivered effective solutions that would meet the needs and priorities of the users.
Developing a design system
We wanted to hand over the designs, yet help the Hotel Everywhere team retain the user-centric ethos we had created. The answer was an intuitive design system.
A design system is a collection of pre-developed components and patterns that an organisation can reuse in a range of combinations to design products at scale.
The Hotel Everywhere design system included reusable blocks and templates that made up the entire online platform.
Moreover, we delivered a full pattern library that would empower Hotel Everywhere to move beyond the designs we had produced. Hotel Everywhere could create further pages by harnessing reusable code snippets and on-brand patterns for a variety of interface elements.
Similarly, we also delivered a new design for the Hotel Everywhere marketing website. This new marketing website took the best parts about its predecessor and made it more appealing and engaging for the users. It aimed to drive conversions and bring more users to the campaign management platform.
Meet the new Hotel Everywhere
Ultimately, we delivered a comprehensive design system that empowered Hotel Everywhere to take their brand forward.
With user-friendly designs and accompanying principles for how to use them – including on how to use typography, colours, pre-coded patterns and full templates – Hotel Everywhere could scale and build new interfaces as and when they needed them.
Alongside the enhanced campaign management portal, the fresh, invigorating aesthetic of the marketing website could attract and retain more clients.
We were devastated to hear the news about Thomas Cook in September 2019. Our best wishes are with their staff and families.