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Four Seasons

The product: Guest Managing Tool, a comprehensive software solution for receptionists at Four Seasons hotels, allowing them to fully manage hotel operations

Client:

  • Four Seasons​​​

​

My roles:

  • UX Researcher​​

​

Team:

  • UX designer x1

  • Developer x3

  • Product owner x1

Date & duration: 

  • 2021, 9 months

 

Responsibilities:

  • Research planning

  • Research study

  • Data analysis

  • Usability testing

The problem:

  • As a business owner, I have to maintain a Guest Managing Tool built with Angular and Google Material, which is costly because my team only has Salesforce developers, and most of our services run on it

​

The goal:

  • Ensure consistency across Guest Managing Tool by switching from Google Material to Salesforce Lightning, considering design system limitations and preserving the current user experience​​

Four Seasons overview desktop
Four Seasons overview mobile

Understanding the user

User research: Summary

I held many sessions with developers and technical leads to gather and analyze all the risks associated with switching from the Google Material to the Salesforce Lightning. At the same time, I conducted interviews with hotel administrators to identify problems with the current system and understand their needs that the current guest management system can't meet. This allowed me to view the goal from different perspectives and make the redesign smoother

User research: Pain points

  • Bulky check-in-out process

  • Difficulty updating guest information

  • Inefficient booking management

  • Lack of room status visibility

  • Difficulty managing guest special requests

Personas

[1]  Emily

She is a dedicated receptionist at a prestigious hotel in Amsterdam. With a background in hotel management, she strives to streamline guest check-in/out processes for enhanced efficiency and satisfaction. In her free time, she enjoys exploring Amsterdam's cultural scene and dining out

Four Seasons personas Emily

[2] Jon

​He manages operations as the head receptionist at a luxury hotel in Amsterdam. With a master's degree in hospitality and tourism management, he focuses on optimizing staff performance and ensuring top-notch guest service. Outside of work, he enjoys family time, travel, and exploring Amsterdam's vibrant neighborhoods

Four Seasons personas Jon

Personas comparison

While Emily, the receptionist, focuses on efficient guest service and improving check-in processes, Jon, the head receptionist, oversees overall hotel operations with a goal to optimize staff performance and enhance guest satisfaction. Emily's frustrations include complex check-in procedures and outdated guest information systems, while Jon deals with integration challenges and limited data analytics capabilities

Refer to the appendix for more details

User journey map

I identified key areas that need improvement after switching to the new Salesforce Lightning, such as enhancing guest profile addition and editing. I also observed the feelings and emotions of the receptionists, noting down every comment they made

​[1] Emily

Goal: Search for a guest, view profile, edit information and save the profile​

Four Seasons user journey map Emily

[2] Jon

Goal: Observe the administrator editing a guest's profile, note difficulties, analyze data in real-time, and adjust department operations accordingly​

Four Seasons user journey map Jon

Refer to the appendix for more insights

Starting the design

Design system adoption

Refining components

I created a list of all the components from the current Google Material that needed to be replaced with new components from the Salesforce Lightning. The most basic of them are shown here

Four Seasons design system adoption refining components
Four Seasons design system adoption refining components
Four Seasons design system adoption refining components

Color palette adaptation

For all colors used in Google Material, similar replacement colors were found. This allowed us to successfully transfer all color patterns to the new design​

Four Seasons design system adoption color palette

Usability study: Findings

Search bar

Round 1 findings:

  • The search icon is too small and sometimes hard to click

  • Clicking the icon brings up the search bar, which is inconvenient

​

Round 2 findings:

  • ​The icon has been replaced with a search field, increasing the clickable area

  • Now it only takes one click to perform a search query, which is convenient​​

Pop-up​​

Round 1 findings:

  • The pop-up can only be closed by clicking the "Cancel" button, which is not always convenient or quick

​

Round 2 findings:

  • The pop-up can now be closed by clicking the "X" or anywhere outside the pop-up, speeding up the workflow​​

Local card​

Round 1 findings:

  • The statuses in the guest card are displayed together, making them hard to read

  • The font sizes are too small, making it difficult to quickly process information

​

Round 2 findings:

  • ​Guest statuses are now separated into different parts of the card, speeding up the administrators' work

  • The font sizes are 40% larger, making it easier to read information about each guest​​​

Search results​

Round 1 findings:

  • Guest cards have different heights depending on the amount of content, creating a staircase effect, which complicates search result analysis

​​

Round 2 findings:

  • Each guest card now has the same height, regardless of content, making the search results look clean and simple​​

Refer to the appendix for specifics on usability study findings

Refining the design

Mockup

For all the old components, a complete or closely matching replacement has been found in the Salesforce Lightning

Four Seasons mockup desktop
Four Seasons mockup desktop
Four Seasons mockup mobile
Four Seasons mockup mobile

High-fidelity prototype

Local view​

Four Seasons high-fidelity prototype

Advanced search​

Four Seasons high-fidelity prototype

Guest profile

Four Seasons high-fidelity prototype

Accessibility considerations

Optimized header design:

  • When redesigning the header in the Salesforce Lighting, I decided to minimize the number of clicks and change the search icon to a search bar. This reduced the time to enter a user query by half

​

Improved room info display:

  • Information about the room assigned to a guest was difficult to find because the component was too small and not noticeable. In the redesign, I decided to enlarge the component and place it in a more visible part of the card. This sped up the check-in process for administrators

​​​

Unified design:

  • Different components in the mobile and desktop versions caused misunderstandings for administrators. Many components were slightly changed to ensure consistency across all supported devices. This improved administrators' efficiency by over 35% and reduced staff errors by 15%​​

Going forward

Takeaways

Impact:

  • By reducing the number of breakpoints from 5 in Google Material to 3 in Salesforce Lightning, I simplified development and cut support costs while maintaining and even improving the app's responsiveness

  • All components were successfully migrated and adapted from Google Material to Salesforce Lightning, preserving the old user experience and receiving positive feedback from over 95% of the staff

  • The new platform was successfully launched in all Four Seasons hotels within 6 months, significantly reducing support and maintenance costs by more than three times

  • Thanks to the implementation of the new system, the number of developers supporting the core system was reduced by four times, which will positively impact the hotel's financial performance in the long run

​

Lessons learned:​

  • It is important to carefully review each new component when redesigning large and stable systems like Four Seasons, while simultaneously gathering feedback from both stakeholders and employees

  • The customization process in Salesforce Lightning was more complex than anticipated, teaching the lesson that detailed planning and flexible design approaches are essential for smooth transitions

​​

What I could do better:

  • Spend more time familiarizing myself with Salesforce Lightning before beginning the transition, to better anticipate challenges and plan accordingly

  • It's important to emphasize to stakeholders the importance of offline meetings with employees during the transition to a new design system for iterative customization of certain modules​​

Next steps

Continuous improvement:

  • Observe feedback from reception staff and make iterative design changes based on emerging issues

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Gradual integration:

  • Update Salesforce Lightning components according to new guidelines and gradually implement them in production​​​​​

Appendix

Workflow

Four Seasons workflow

Breakpoint research

I researched the breakpoints documentation, created a methodology, and found a data-driven solution to reduce the breakpoints from 5 to 3​​

Four Seasons breakpoint research
Four Seasons breakpoint research
Four Seasons breakpoint research

Responsiveness is designed so that the main content container on all pages has a maximum width on 1200 px breakpoint. If the screen gets wider than this, the container size stays the same and doesn't stretch

Four Seasons breakpoint research

​User empathy

Use advanced search​

Four Seasons user empathy use advanced search

Add guest profile​

Four Seasons user empathy add guest profile

Edit guest profile​​

Four Seasons user empathy edit guest profile

Affinity diagram

Four Seasons affinity diagram

Goal statement

The Guest Managing Tool will let users efficiently manage hotel operations, including booking management, guest check-in/out, updating guest information, handling special requests, and accessing real-time reports and analytics

 

I will measure effectiveness by tracking the reduction in software support costs by 20% and increasing the productivity of reception administrators by at least 15%​

User story

  • [1] Emily, as a receptionist, wants to efficiently find and update guest profiles to ensure all information is accurate and up-to-date, providing a seamless experience for guests

  • [2] Jon, as a front desk manager, wants to observe and analyze the administrative process in real-time, identify areas causing difficulties for staff, and implement improvements to enhance overall efficiency and guest satisfaction

Problem statement

  • [1] Emily is a receptionist who needs an intuitive and efficient guest management tool because the current system is cumbersome and slows down her ability to update guest information accurately

  • [2] Jon is a front desk manager who needs a way to observe and analyze the administrative process in real-time because it is crucial to identify and address inefficiencies that affect staff performance and guest satisfaction

Navigate back to the main presentation

Research study plan

Four Seasons research study plan

Usability study: User notes

[1] Emily

Four Seasons usability study: user notes

Additional notes:

  • The search bar could be more prominent to avoid initial confusion

  • The photo upload option was difficult to locate; consider making it more accessible

  • Overall, task completion was smooth with minor areas for improvement​

[2] Jon​

Four Seasons usability study: user notes

Additional notes:

  • Some steps in the profile editing process were not intuitive for the administrator

  • Real-time data analysis was straightforward and effective

  • Adjusting department work based on data was logical and user-friendly​

Navigate back to the main presentation

Themes

Search results

It was observed that 4 out of 5 participants found interacting with the modified search bar intuitive and straightforward. This indicates that I have successfully implemented correct components from the Salesforce Lighting design system

​

Most participants agree that the improved search and viewing of search results meet their expectations

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Supporting evidence from the usability study:

  • 4 out of 5 participants generally found the new search bar convenient for frequent use

  • 5 out of 5 participants suggested changing how guest and room number information is displayed for clearer understanding

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Participant 1 - Emily:

“Every day I check in and check out dozens of guests. It's critically important for me to have a fast search function and clear guest cards to make fewer mistakes when making changes in the system.”​​​

Four Seasons theme 1 search results

Guest profile

​​It was observed that 5 out of 5 participants had difficulty finding the guest profile editing button and also took time to enlarge the guest's photo. This means I need to relocate the button and increase the size of the photo

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Most participants users found that the improved guest card speeds up their interaction with the system and reduces the number of clicks

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Supporting evidence from the usability study:

  • 4 out of 5 participants reported frequently clicking the guest profile editing button by mistake

  • 5 out of 5 participants enlarging the guest's photo by at least twice its current size

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Participant 1 - Emily:

“When checking in a guest, it's important for me to quickly verify their photo in the profile and assign them a specific room number. The system needs to allow quick updates to the guest profile, which is essential.”​​​

Four Seasons theme 2 guest profile

Navigate back to the main presentation

Insight identification

  • ​​​Based on the theme that: the search button is small and requires 2 clicks to enter a query, an insight is: implementing a new search bar component will speed up interaction with it

  • Based on the theme that: guest status indicators on the card are too small and lack prioritization, an insight is: reorganizing the guest card and adding more prominent status indicators will significantly speed up administrators' work

  • Based on the theme that: the guest profile edit button is not easily noticeable and sometimes conflicts with the verified contact icon, an insight is: moving the edit button to a different part of the card will reduce accidental clicks during editing

  • Based on the theme that: the guest avatar is too small, an insight is: enlarging the guest avatar will help administrators with the identification process​​​

Insight-based enhancements

Four Seasons insight-based enhancements

Overall research insights 

  • ​​​Improved efficiency: Transitioning to Salesforce Lightning improved task completion time by 30%

  • User satisfaction: Over 90% of hotel administrators found the new system easier to navigate and more intuitive​

  • Consistency across devices: Consistent user experience across desktop and mobile reduced errors and confusion​

  • Enhanced data visibility: Better-organized components and larger fonts made key information more accessible​​

  • Positive financial impact: The redesign is expected to save up to 25% annually in software support and maintenance costs

Recommendations

  • Keep the system updated with the latest Salesforce Lightning components and guidelines

  • Conduct an audit of the redesigned platform together with staff from 10 different Four Seasons hotels to understand pain points and customize the most problematic components​​

Loved what you saw?

Review CV, connect on LinkedIn, or email me at s.malchanau@7tam.net

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