Hilton’s Booking Experience
The Hilton Honors app provides access to travel planning tools before, during, and after your stay. Features include searching, booking, modifying your stay, digital check-in, digital room key, and digital check-out.
The Challenge: A Fragmented and Inconsistent Experience
Since the launch of Hilton Honors 3.0, the app had evolved into a patchwork of quick fixes and short-term solutions. Features competed for attention, and without a clear design direction, the search and booking flow became disjointed and inconsistent.
Key issues
Crucial information was buried within outdated layouts and dark UI.
Searching for a hotel felt confusing and cumbersome.
The booking summary lacked key details, making it hard for users to book with confidence.
Empathize: Discovery & Research
To inform our strategy, we started with user research to answer a few critical questions:
User Interviews Revealed:
What does the hotel shopping journey look like?
What information is missing or unclear when choosing a hotel?
Do users feel they have everything they need to book with confidence?
Define: Setting Priorities
From our research, we identified three main areas of focus:
A guided user flow through UX/UI improvements
A redesigned mini search widget and hotel cards
A more detailed and intuitive booking summary
Creating a More Guided User Flow
Refining the UX/UI
After mapping out pain points and opportunities, the UX designer and I redefined the user journey to create a more intuitive experience. Alongside this, I audited the visual design to ensure a more cohesive and confidence-inspiring interface.
Visual Cues for Guidance
Without forcing a rigid step-by-step process, I introduced large blue buttons as visual anchors to subtly guide users through the flow, improving clarity and ease of navigation.
Making Search Easier
Introducing the Mini-Widget
We wanted to give users the ability to tweak their search criteria seamlessly without disrupting their flow. The solution? A mini search widget.
What It Improved:
Users could quickly refine their search directly from the results page.
A modal treatment made the experience feel faster, as if users never left the page.
Over time, this allowed us to phase out the bulkier search widget from earlier in the flow.
Reworking Search Result Cards
Search results are a critical touchpoint, and I knew this would require the most creative exploration.
Design Enhancements:
Text was moved off images for better readability.
Pricing was made more prominent with strategic placement and color.
Thicker fonts improved legibility.
Clear hierarchy was established through size and contrast.
Improving the Booking Summary
Empowering Users to Book with Confidence
One of the biggest issues we uncovered was that users weren’t getting the information they needed to feel secure in their booking decisions.
Key Questions We Addressed:
Where can I find all my booking details?
What’s the cancellation policy?
Am I booking exactly what I expect?
Our Approach:
Added more reservation details upfront.
Prioritized key information to reduce cognitive load.
Organized content into clear, digestible sections.
Bringing It All Together: A Modern, Seamless Booking Experience
Through a few key initiatives, we transformed the Hilton Honors app into a modern, accessible, and seamless experience that made hotel booking faster and easier. By refining the UI with clear call-to-actions, adopting a content-first approach, and surfacing critical details more effectively, we gave users the confidence to book without hesitation.
During Development & Post-Launch
Throughout development, I regularly audited builds and conducted Q/A sessions to ensure design accuracy. After launch, I continued refining the visual design, fine-tuning interactions, and preparing future iterations for A/B testing.
The Fractal Design System
Learn more about my approach to creating a design system for iOS. Walking through step-by-step how I shaped the final system.