TIMELINE
June 2024 - March 2025
FORMAT
Web & Mobile
ROLE
Senior Product Designer
Background
The Hospitality Request Portal is an invite-only platform that allows our business stakeholders to search for and submit requests for olympic hospitality packages they wish to purchase.
Responsibilities & Key Contributions
Product Design
I was brought on along with another product designer to lead a comprehensive UX overall of the pre-existing Hospitality Request Portal. I was responsible for the end-to-end UX/UI.
Design System Contributor
I built UI components, helped established the color palette, and typography.
Collaborator
I collaborated with the product manager, front-end & back-end engineers, the business analyst, QA, user researcher, and another designer to ensure alignment on all aspects of the design with both business and user goals.
Problem Identification
Through conversations with our team’s user researcher, the product manager, and through reviewing the past version of the portal, we identified key problems.
No clear user flow
It was difficult for users to submit and manage their requests due to redundant steps in the flow. There were also multiple entry points, with no clear distinction, that led to the same place.
No visibility into system status
Users have a limited number of package requests they can make. These request limits were not communicated at all in the interface so users had no idea when they reached their limit.
Inconsistent language
Users should not have to wonder about whether different words or actions mean the same thing. For example, there was an “Edit” and “Draft” button placed in close proximity. Both of those actions took the user to the same place.
Layout Issues
Managing requests is one of the main tasks in the experience. Ex. There were many instances of disconnected floating buttons with CTAs that didn’t match the action taking place
Lack of proper sorting & filtering
Requests that had already been approved were mixed into draft requests, pending requests, and locked requests with no way to prioritize. This made it difficult for users to track and locate the request they were looking for.
Goals
BUSINESS
Decrease error rates & increase task success rates
High error rates can lead to frustration, increased customer support efforts, and abandonment of the product.
Make our product offerings easily discoverable
We want to ensure that our business partners can easily find the packages they need.
Align the website visually with the Milan Olympic branding
The new site has to align with the branding standards set by the International Olympic Committee
USER
Easily find the status of their requests
Users want to know whether their request has been fulfilled along with what part of the submission process they are in.
A consistent client experience
Users want consistent terminology and actions used across the site to reduce confusion and uncertainty.
A clear pathway for browsing packages and submitting and managing requests
Users want to complete the request process with ease.
Impact
42%
Increase in task success rate
38%
Decrease in error rates
Audience
Our clients consist of corporate stakeholders, sponsors, and more. They are not tech-savvy, but have an in-depth knowledge of the olympics and the package request process.
Process
Discovery Meetings
I went through a series of discovery meetings with the product manager and the other designer to learn more about the project - the goals, current problems, the reason behind the redesign, timelines, and the project scope.
The PM originally wanted to limit the scope to a visual redesign with some minimal UX changes. However, the current site was not designed in a way that would support our new package offerings for the Milan Olympics. The confusing user flows along with the implementation of these new complex packages would result in a site that’s not usable. We were able to convince the PM to allow us to do a complete overhaul on the site’s UX.
User Flows
We determined what the key tasks would be based on product requirements and the previous version of the site. We then mapped out user flows for these key tasks.
Information Architecture
We used the user flows to help inform the IA for the site and vice versa. We focused on the user goals and what elements needed to be included to achieve those goals.
Homepage
We designed the homepage first because it would inform the design of all other pages on the site. We created multiple iterations of the home page to determine the best layout. We settled on one that had the best emphasis of the user’s requests list.
Create a Request
This is one of the most important actions that takes place on the website. It allows the users to add olympic hospitality packages to a request that they submit to us for approval. There were multiple changes to the product offerings and sales rules that impacted our designs. We had to go through several iterations of this flow.
Review Request
The page allowed users to view the details of their request before they submit it.
Design System
We created the typography and color scheme based on branding guidelines from the International Olympic Committee. We then created multiple components that would allow the site to scale for future games such as the LA Olympics. The homepage informed the creation of the design system as well.
