Watsons Bay hotel

Our Role in the Project

User Experience

Innovation Consulting
Research
UI/UX Audit
Stakeholders workshop
Rapid prototyping

Design

UI/UX Design
Visual design
Website design
User testing
User engagement testing

Development

HTML/CSS/JS
Wordpress theme development

Post-Launch

Stakeholders workshop
Product strategy
User testing
User engagement testing

Technology Used

WordPress

Sass

jquery

Advanced custom fields

MySQL

WP Engine

Project Overview

The website for Watsons Bay Hotel needed an overhaul that would breathe new life into the brand by creating a design that was aesthetically pleasing, while still being streamlined and easy to navigate. It was paramount that the services of Watsons Bay Hotel were conveyed to visitors in a visually engaging way, leaving users with a strong positive impression. EB Pearls came up with a design that was able to satisfy both the website visitors and the client.

The major goal when recreating the website, was to fascinate users who were looking to enjoy luxurious accommodation and organise events in Watson Bay Hotel’s pristine location. The end product was developed with a minimalist design that used interactive pictures and thumbnails to depict the beauty of Watsons Bay Hotel and its surrounding areas.

User Problems

The website for Watsons Bay Hotel was not visually engaging for their users. Watsons Bay Hotel sought to improve the user experience of their website, making viewers more likely to want to visit the hotel. EB Pearls designed the end product using design best practices and used interactive and visually appealing pictures and thumbnails that draw users to them.

Business Problems

Users of the Watsons Bay Hotel website were not being attracted to the venue through the website. This meant that the hotel was losing potential customers due to their website. Watsons Bay Hotel needed a way to update their website to make viewers excited to visit their hotel.

Project Mangement

Backlog Creation

We developed a prioritised backlog of tasks designed to make release and iteration planning easy. This backlog of tasks was used by our team to create an easy way to keep track of all the tasks that the team plans to spend time on. Once the backlog was created, it was regularly maintained as tasks were completed, making sure the project was worked on efficiently and completed within the planned timeframes.

Backlog Grooming

Throughout the duration of the project, feedback from the clients was collected. This allowed our team to make adjustments to the task list, refining the project and making sure that the correct components were being worked on. The task list was also maintained as tasks were completed, ensuring that the team were aware of what had already been completed. This process allowed us to effectively communicate to the client the progress of their project.

User Experience and Design

Incorporating all the services of the Watsons Bay Hotel and making it intuitive as possible for the user, was one of the key goals for our UX designer. Analysing the offerings and the target audience for each offering, we outline a user journey for each customer section and outline a wireframe and user journey map. Then, we conducted user testing on our low-fidelity prototype.

Design Sprint

Based on the interactive wireframe and considering the persona of the user, our design team created a design concept for Watsons Bay Hotel. It was an interactive and collaborative session with the client, where we were able to complete the entire design of the website in 1 design sprint.

Internal Testing

To get feedback and improve further, internal testing was done. After the testing, the most important part was easy navigation, allowing users to reach their desired screen, as well as the uniformity in the screens.

Highlights

Web Design Through Visual Immersion: A visually engaging aesthetic. The prime reason why people use the Watsons Bay Hotel for holidays and events is its pristine location and luxurious accommodation. The website needed to show this. To accomplish this, it was important to engage visitors through an immersive visual design that did not overwhelm the user with too much information. The end product was a minimalist design that used subtly interactive pictures and thumbnails to depict the beauty of Watsons Bay Hotel and its surrounding areas.
Following modern and emerging design principles: It is important to convey all the services offered by Watsons Bay Hotel to the users without overwhelming the visitor. For the new Watsons Bay Hotel website, all unnecessary text content was removed in favour of a picture-orientated approach. The idea was to make the website seem more like a gallery where visitors scroll through a predefined and streamlined path. Overall, this redesign proved to be more fitting with the beauty of Watsons Bay Hotel and its surroundings.

Retrospective

EB Pearls has managed to breathe new life into the Watsons Bay Hotel by making the new website more visually-oriented and more immersive through a thoughtful redesign to match modern trends and design principles.