The app's concept is to make hotel services easier for hotel guests to order and to make it easier to communicate with hotel, or hotel staff in particular. The idea is to break the communication barriers in hotel services and let hotel guests shape the services.

In the app, hotel guest are able to order all available hotel services with couple of clicks only. They also will be able to find all necessary hotel information and to communicate with hotel staff the most suitable way - through their smartphones. The app will also break the language barrier for guests, whose language skills are not very advance, since the app is going to speak their languages. Hotel staff will benefit as well - there will be no more interactive phone calls and misunderstanding between parties, but all order will come in a proper table format.

We have started with exploring the competitor apps for a better understanding of what functions are lacking in already existing apps. The most popular hotel chains' apps were researched and then their advantages and disadvantages were highlighted.

Meanwhile, we've also created and launched an online survey about what hotel information people usually search upon coming to a hotel or already being inside, what they request the most often and what problems they face. The survey was pretty much the same as the information we sorted in our lists of observations. We've spread the survey in Facebook and Linkedin. In total, we've received 46 answers, where 29 of them were relevant.

The user research started with defining our potential users - who they are, where they're from, why they travel, how often do they travel. We also had a look at their hotel inquiries - what preferences in terms of hotel rooms, food, services they have, what services they use, what they face the most. Luckily, since me and my friend are working in hotels, it was easy, but a bit timely, to conduct all the necessary data.

Eventually, we had a long list with guests profiles. In a separate list we had collected the problems guests face the most and the list of top requested services. We're collecting these data for a while, until we've got an understanding that the information we've collected
is already enough to move on.

We kept away from the interviews in data research. The main point for that was that there were two of us, who faced potential guests all the time at work and could easily ask necessary information. We're not aggressive at all - when people are checking-out and a receptionist is asking "How was your stay? Was everything alright? Have you used our services X and Y?" these sound more like a nice hospitality gesture, rather than a survey.

Below you can see the site maps for the app. Since all services were separated by two groups, I've made the site maps division according to that.

I still prefer to start with an old-school way of designing wireframes with the pen and paper. It is fast, intuitive, and flexible for early stage conceptualising.

I try not to use any color while drawing in order to focus more at the skeleton of the system. I also doesn't focus on how beautiful my wireframes are, so they can be messy. I just give my thoughts a freedom to go.

After the pen and paper, I've switched into Figma to draw low-fidelity prototypes there, based on hand-drawn wireframes. After a bit messy drawings, it's time to put everything in order.

When the skeletons of the app's screen were ready, it was time to add some colours. I sticked to the original yellow primary color, which was selected earlier. Even yellow is not a very popular colour, I like such selection because it's a warm and dominant colour, which was also interesting to work with.

Sketch was used at this stage. I didn't want to add a lot of colours, especially at the first stage, because we're creating an MVP and the most important was to have a good app's structure. The UI part of the design will be still improving further.

The very basic interactions were added to the prototypes afterwards. The main aim was to show how the screens are linked and how to navigate within them. However, couple of beautiful animation was added for the true app feeling. There are many many paths the tester can go, which will create a feeling of using the real app.

I've made an interactive prototype in Invision app. This program also has a smartphone app which is very helpful for the future usability testing.

Presently, I'm preparing for a next step of the process - the user testing. I create various paths and write down the goals users should reach during the test. I also prepare the feedback questionnaire for testers to fill in right after the test.

Both my colleague and I are looking for the potential users. I would prefer to have both face-to-face and online user testing, because these both ways will be relevant. Online testing could be implemented with the help of a program, for example Maze. To start with face-to-face usability testings, I'm thinking of using a Guerilla research technique. The method is to skip the formal participant requirement process and ask members of the public to take part in your research session. The whole thing is very informal and hardly requires preparation.