Duration: Aug — Oct 2016 (3 months) | Platform: Desktop
Disclaimer: This case competition was about 1.5 years ago, and the RWS website has changed drastically since then. Although I’m unable to show how the previous RWS website looks like, I will be illustrating our team’s thought processes. Also, this case competition tends towards marketing, and changing the look and feel of the website was a strategy our team came up with from our user research. This was my 1st attempt to design / edit the look of a website, so there are much room for improvement.
This programme is more special as each team consists of 2 SMU students and 1 Japanese university student. My schoolmate, Chui Fern, and I were strongly involved in ideation, while Tatsuya brought his knowledge of the resorts industry and the characteristics of Japanese tourists.
Challenge:
Maximise RWS profits in the hotel, F&B and attractions sectors, targeting millennials in China, Japan and Indonesia
1) Interview Respondents
1.We first conducted in-depth interviews (qualitative) with 2 millennials each from CN, JP and ID, to have a deeper understanding of how they perceive of RWS, the common platforms used and their willingness to pay
2.Next, we leveraged on some key points from the in-depth interviews, and sent out marketing surveys (quantitative) to 25 millennials from each country to further understand their knowledge of RWS and their spending habits
3.Consolidated our findings into 2 main pain points
2) Building Personas
Persona #1 : Keisuke
3) Jobs-to-be-done framework
Going beyond demographics and seeking to understand users’ motivations to get their jobs done give us a deeper understanding of their behavior.
4) Proposed Solutions
Because we derived our insights that 1) People are not aware of what RWS has and that 2) Website is dull, cluttered and not interactive, it was of great importance that we need to revamp the website and educate users about what RWS can offer. This will be further elaborated for each solution.
5) Solution 1: Revamping RWS website
Objective: Educate customers about facilities in RWS and improve customer experience on website
Proposed solutions
a) Changing the look & feel of the website
b) Add in new features : Interactive maps | Side panels | Virtual tour
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I will be illustrating a scenario with “Attractions”. Follow my arrow to experience the user journey, starting at the RWS homepage :)
Interactive maps : Users can look at all the available activities in RWS at a glance, and click on the respective activities for quick information. For example, users can click on “Adventure Cove” (left picture), and there will be a pop-up picture and quick snippets of information as relevant (right picture). Next click on “Universal Studios Singapore”, RWS tourist hotspot.
Interactive maps : Similarly to the previous map, users can look at all the available activities in USS at a glance and click for quick information. Then, click on “Hollywood” to be transported to a magical experience.
Side panels : Constantly remind users of the attractions available in RWS, as well as to facilitate easier navigation to other activities. Now, let’s visit our last feature, “Virtual tour”.
Virtual tour : Well-received by many businesses for leaving an impactful impression in users’ minds. After all, we want to increase exposure and brand awareness of RWS amongst users, hence giving users a visual taste of how fun RWS can be can generate excitement!
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c) Revamp information presentation and tabs
It was extremely confusing to understand about RWS membership as information is scattered and repeated at different tabs. Hence our team analyzed all the information and categorise into 1 tab.
6) Solution 2: Package deals on website
Objective : Generate sales across and increase awareness of hotels, F&B and attractions to customers, in June with high peak demand
Proposed Package to leverage on preference for customisation and high travel demand
With a high travel demand in June, it is the best time to capture sales. Coupled with our user research that users has a preference for customisation and value-for-money deals, this package deal serves to just do that, whilst educating users that there are attractions, hotels and fine-dining all in RWS. Marketing-wise, Key Opinion Leaders will get to experience the entire package for free, in exchange for extensive social media exposure.
To start, users get to choose their hotel, restaurant and attractions of choice. During the process, they can scroll and see the description of the respective options at the bottom of each step. After they select all 3 options, they will be led to an “Package Overview” page where users see the costs breakdown of their customised package.
Users can then opt to top up $200 for a more premium experience (left picture), and the unique algorithm will automatically transform users’ options into a recommended itinerary (right picture).
7) What have I learned from this project?
Granted, this is a case competition that revolves around marketing strategy and not primary on UI/UX design.
However, what is relevant is that I get to conduct user research, understand the different target market needs and habits, and leverage on the collected data to deliver user-centric solutions
- Revamping the website is one of our strategies since data has shown that website is a common medium amongst our target group
There is definitely much room for improvement for the website revamp. If I were to re-conduct user research again, I would have done these:
- For one-on-one interviews, I would have focused more about their intentions and needs on travelling overseas during the peak season, instead of limiting to perception of RWS itself
- Have the users spend time to really navigate the RWS website and identify places where friction is observed, rather than simply showing them at face value and asking for their quick thoughts
- Ensure a more consistent brand image
