Responsive web app facilitating quick, actionable marketing advice for travel and hospitality based businesses, from seasoned experts.
Meet A.M.E.
The idea for A.M.E. (Ask the Marketing Expert) was born from my journey as a graphic designer in travel and hospitality marketing. It connects users directly with marketing experts, offering quick, actionable advice for travel and hospitality businesses.
As I delved into UX design to advance my career, I saw an opportunity to address a common industry challenge: many small hotel owners struggle to access affordable, specialized marketing expertise. A.M.E. bridges this gap, allowing me to apply design thinking to a real-world problem I encounter daily, balancing company goals with user needs to create a functional, user-centric solution.
Role: UX/UI Designer
Tools used: Figma, Optimal Sort, Lyssna, Sketching (Pencil & Paper)
UX / UI methodologies:
User surveys
Competitive analysis
User personas
User / task flows
Prototyping
Iterative testing
A.M.E. Demonstration
What’s the Problem?
Small hotel owners need an affordable and accessible way to learn effective marketing strategies to help increase sales and guest engagement.
Large hoteliers may need extra help for marketing projects, without the ability to sign a long-term contract. Many of these businesses, both large and small, may also lack the budget to hire a marketing firm or lack the knowledge on where to start first. All of these questions can make it intimidating and risky to invest in a marketing firm without guaranteed ROI.
Competitive Research
In my research, I did not find specific travel marketing expert apps, but I did identify potential competitors like Intro and ADPList. Intro connects users with A-list celebrity experts but lacks focus on the travel and hospitality market. ADPList offers free mentorship for digital and technical design careers, but nothing directed at hospitality. This leaves a unique opportunity for A.M.E. to fill the gap with a specialized service.
Both apps inspire with their use of in-app video chat and calendar integration, simplifying user-expert connections and enhancing engagement. While we may not start with celebrity experts, democratizing access to travel marketing experts is appealing. ADPList’s free mentorship model also provides inspiration for future product expansion.
With such an open field, and the opportunity available to fill in the market gap, the web-app will offer a unique service connecting those in travel and hospitality looking for more direct access to marketing experts. Properly marketing our web app and our experts will help us become known before others enter the arena.
S.M.A.R.T. Business Objectives
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Build a web app connecting travel and marketing experts to travel and hospitality business owners.
Measured by initial user sign-up and retention rates within the first 6 months.
Delivered by 6 months of launch date. -
Gain 25 new clients within 6 months of launch date.
Measured by new paying account sign-ups.
Delivered by 6 months after launch date. -
Provide actionable marketing tips for users through blog posts and social sharing.
Measured by social media engagement through new bi-weekly blog posts sharing.
Delivered by 6 months after launch date.
Conducting Research
To better understand user behavior and preferences, I aimed to identify the tasks users want to complete with an expert app, document their pain points with existing marketing advice methods, and gather data on the contexts in which they would use such an app. Additionally, I explored which apps users currently enjoy and whether hoteliers rely on various ad-hoc research methods for marketing advice.
Resource Needs
Users want to learn marketing in small, manageable bites and appreciate having resources like blogs to guide them. They prefer to take a DIY approach to their marketing efforts, making it an integral part of their work. Additionally, users seek a more straightforward path to advice that helps them feel less overwhelmed in the process.
Connecting with Others
Users thrive on learning from their peers and appreciate connecting with others who understand their challenges. They seek diverse sources of marketing advice and value face-to-face networking opportunities. Ultimately, users aim for business success and look to their peers for support in achieving their goals.
User Preferences
Users prefer intuitive search tools that simplify finding what they need and appreciate apps with clean, uncluttered layouts. They favor recognizable icons for easy navigation and enjoy simple chat groups for communication. Additionally, users value the option to connect with multiple experts, enhancing their access to diverse insights and support.
How can A.M.E. capitalize on the gap in the travel and hospitality market?
By offering quick, actionable marketing advice without requiring a retainer contract.
A.M.E. addresses a critical market need by offering small hotel owners and hospitality businesses an on-demand, low-risk platform for expert marketing advice. Unlike traditional agencies with long-term contracts, A.M.E. provides flexible, immediate access to tailored guidance. By connecting users with experienced marketing professionals through video consultations, A.M.E. aims to become the go-to source for accessible, high-quality marketing expertise in the travel and hospitality sector. This approach not only establishes A.M.E.'s authority but also caters to the specific needs of its target market, attracting a diverse user base.
Finding a Solution
With an understanding of the problem small hotel owners face in marketing their businesses, I knew where to start developing A.M.E.
The app addresses the need for affordable, expert marketing advice in the hospitality sector. By connecting small business owners with industry experts through video consultations, A.M.E. offers a low-risk way to access tailored marketing strategies. This solution not only helps business owners but also provides opportunities for experts to monetize their knowledge flexibly.
Understanding the User
Taking my user research, I created two design personas that focus on my intended user motivations, behaviors, and challenges. They are a great story telling tool, helping me to understand why the user engages with the web applications in the way they do, and helps me to maintain a user-centered design process.
Meet Mary and James.
My design personas, James and Mary, were shaped from my extensive data collection and user interview research. Both want to create wonderful guest experiences, and build brand awareness, while also leaning on experts to help guide them, but differ in their goals and needs.
Each persona reflects key findings from my research. James is in the earlier part of their career owning a resort with several sister properties and restaurants, he’s in a popular tourist area but lacks focus on which marketing ideas to stick with before jumping into the next. Mary embodies a mid-career innkeeper that wants to build brand awareness, find a way to further connect with other innkeepers, while creating an immersive guest experience.
Through them, I can better understand and design what my target users need and want, pushing towards a successful web app launch.
User Journey Maps
User journey maps help to visualize the processes a user goes through in order to accomplish a goal. While our personas will both use our app, they have two different end use goals in mind. James would like to use our app to network first before meeting with our experts, while Mary would like to dive right in, and speak with an expert to help her build stronger guest experiences.
Let’s focus on Mary as she is the Primary User Persona that I developed to illustrate the needs, goals, and motivations of my potential end-users.
I created user flows to help further visualize the user journey and how they are expected to move through the web app environment. This is beneficial to help make better decisions when we approach designing the actual web environment
Key Insight:
Through comprehensive user research and analysis, I gained valuable insights into the challenges faced by small hotel owners. This process revealed the need to foster personal connections between users and experts, create spaces for self-discovery, and facilitate one-on-one mentoring sessions.
By clearly defining user needs, goals, and motivations, I designed a user-centric solution that effectively balances business objectives with user expectations. Conducting upfront research allowed me to step into the users' shoes, develop user personas and journeys, and ensure that the solutions were both effective and empathetic, ultimately enhancing the user experience and preventing costly redesigns later on.
Information Architecture
After finalizing my user research, and before starting to sketch, I created my first site map and tested it with card sorting to help guide me in structuring A.M.E.'s information architecture. This crucial step allowed me to organize content in a way that would feel intuitive to our users.
The insights gained from this process were truly eye-opening, proving far more valuable than I initially anticipated. While some participants agreed with my initial category organization, I quickly discovered that consensus wasn't universal. What I thought was a logical arrangement actually led to confusion, making it difficult for users to find information where they anticipated it. This realization led to significant adjustments in key areas like Calendar, Calls, and Messages sections.
The finalized site map, shaped by user input through card sorting, reflects a user-centric approach that enhances navigation. By prioritizing our users' needs, A.M.E. becomes a more effective tool, enabling them to access the expert marketing advice they need with ease.
Iterations & Testing
Once I had the user flow established, I began sketching, which quickly evolved into detailed wireframes. This process was exciting as A.M.E. started to transform from an idea into a tangible reality.
In this low-fidelity wireframe, the focus is on booking a call with an expert where users have several entry points to search out an expert. In this example, the user is starting the process of searching through the expert database from the home user screen, and booking a call.
Refining my paper prototypes into a mid-fidelity prototype allowed me to see the user flow in a more detailed manner with almost the same level of visual details as a final product. While time consuming for a non-final product, this method was the next step to helping me to better understand what I am designing with the look and feel of a future product.
I explored various testing and validation methods which I found invaluable for ensuring my design met user needs. Usability testing, A/B testing, and preference testing provided crucial insights for making informed design decisions.
To ensure I wasn't making assumptions without user feedback, I set up a pilot test to review the web app with fresh eyes before moving to target audience testing. This step was crucial to verify that tasks, instructions, and processes functioned correctly.
I conducted six remote moderated usability tests via Zoom with participants from the travel and hospitality industry. These tests aimed to evaluate the app's usability for first-time users on mobile, focusing on key tasks like onboarding, finding and booking experts, and messaging.
The feedback from these sessions helped me refine the design, ensuring it was ready for more extensive user testing before finalizing the interactive design.
Key Insight:
Usability testing proved invaluable in refining A.M.E.'s design and functionality. Through various methods like A/B and preference testing, I uncovered crucial insights that shaped our design decisions.
Key findings included the need for clearer iconography, upfront pricing transparency, and more explicit calls-to-action during the booking process. Users also expressed interest in expert ratings or testimonials, suggesting a potential for increased trust and engagement.
While the overall user experience was positive, I identified areas for immediate improvement, such as diversifying payment options, as well as potential future enhancements like chat features and expert filtering capabilities. Tools like the rainbow spreadsheet and affinity mapping were instrumental in organizing this feedback, allowing me to prioritize changes that would most significantly impact user satisfaction and app functionality. This iterative process not only improved A.M.E.'s current design but also provided a roadmap for future developments to keep users engaged and satisfied.
Designing the Solution
I created a style guide to lay the foundations of the design for a more comprehensive design system. As the design evolved through multiple iterations, a clearer layout and aesthetic began to emerge. This progression naturally led to the development of a comprehensive style guide. This guide serves two crucial purposes: it helps me maintain design consistency throughout the project, and it provides clear direction for designers and developers who may work on the project in the future. By documenting my vision and design decisions, the style guide ensures the integrity of the design is preserved, even as the project changes hands.
So What’s the Solution?
A.M.E. Empowers You
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Find an Expert
Get your marketing questions answered by field experts booking 1:1 video calls.
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Book Your Calls
Use the calendar to keep track of all of your appointments, and view call history.
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Get Quick Tips
Get access to our blog filled with useful how-to’s, resources, ideas, and news tidbits.
A.M.E.
My extensive work with small hotel, inn, and resort owners has revealed a significant industry challenge: many struggle to access specialized marketing expertise that can fit comfortably into their budget. As marketing tends to always get the budget cuts first, knowing this firsthand led me to identify a unique opportunity to address this gap.
A.M.E. is designed as a solution to this real-world problem I encounter daily, applying design thinking principles to create a user-centric platform. By balancing business objectives with user needs, A.M.E. empowers small hotel owners to effectively address their marketing challenges without breaking the bank, bridging the gap between affordable expertise and actionable marketing strategies.
After several rounds of refinement, the design began to take shape. I focused on creating a flow that felt intuitive and accessible, while still maintaining visual appeal. This iterative process allowed me to fine-tune the key features, ensuring they were not only functional but also easy and enjoyable to use. The result was a design that balanced utility with usability, providing a seamless experience for users from onboarding to logging in to booking an expert.
Onboarding
Log in
Browse Experts
Key Takeaways
It all starts with understanding the user's problem. By identifying the challenges and needs of the user, in this case small hotel owners, I discovered an opportunity to provide quick, actionable marketing advice without long-term contracts. This insight led to the creation of A.M.E., a responsive web app designed to connect users with marketing experts. Through iterative design and user feedback, I developed a solution that is intuitive, accessible, and visually appealing, ensuring a seamless and valuable user experience.
A.M.E. is more than just a web app.
A.M.E. has evolved into more than just a web app; it's become a mission to democratize access to marketing expertise. At its core, A.M.E. is a practical solution for small hotel and innkeepers who need accessible marketing advice without the burden of long-term contracts. However, its potential impact reaches far beyond this initial goal.
By making expert marketing advice both accessible and affordable, A.M.E. has the power to fuel growth for businesses that might otherwise struggle to afford traditional consulting services. This democratization of knowledge not only empowers individual businesses but could also contribute to a more diverse and vibrant hospitality industry overall.
Developing A.M.E. has been a transformative journey for me, allowing me to evolve from my graphic design background into the realms of UX/UI and service design. This project has fundamentally shifted my approach to work, teaching me to slow down, focus on the user, and ensure their needs are at the forefront while still aligning with business goals.
The process of creating A.M.E. has reinforced the importance of iterative design. It's about making thoughtful, deliberate choices rather than rushing to the finish line. This mindset has deepened my understanding of user challenges and helped me develop solutions that truly resonate with them.
Ultimately, A.M.E. has the potential to become a valuable tool for small businesses while also generating new revenue streams for my company and the marketing experts involved. It's a testament to how applying UX/UI principles can lead to impactful, user-friendly digital products that address real-world problems.
This journey has shown me that design is an ongoing process of learning and improvement. As A.M.E. continues to grow, it will not only serve its users but also evolve based on their needs and feedback. I'm excited to continue on this path of growth, constantly refining and expanding A.M.E.'s capabilities to better serve our users and further democratize access to marketing expertise in the hospitality industry.
Taking it Further
The journey of creating A.M.E. has opened up exciting possibilities for future enhancements and expansions. Drawing from the insights gained through this UX course, I've identified several areas where A.M.E. could evolve to provide even more value to its users:
Community Building:
There's potential to foster a stronger sense of community among A.M.E. users. This could involve adding features that allow users to connect with each other, share experiences, or even participate in virtual or in-person workshops and networking events.Personalized User Experience:
Leveraging AI and machine learning, we could develop a more personalized experience for each user. This might include tailored advice recommendations based on the user's business type, location, or previous interactions with the app.Expanded Expert Interactions:
We could explore ways to deepen the connection between users and experts. This might involve features like live Q&A sessions or expert-led webinars.Data-Driven Insights:
As the user base grows, we could harness aggregated data to provide valuable industry insights and benchmarks to our users, helping them make more informed decisions.
These potential enhancements reflect the iterative nature of UX design and the continuous opportunity for improvement. They also demonstrate how the principles I've learned can be applied to evolve A.M.E. and other projects in my professional work, always with the goal of better serving user needs while achieving business objectives.
Design for Good
I love to help people, and as a designer, I always aim to create designs that not only look good and function well but also contribute positively to society. My apps focus was created by design to help those that for whatever reason do not have access to all of the tools for self marketing. I’d like to make that easier for them.
As design is everywhere, I think it's important to have guidelines to act as my north star. I would like to play the role of user advocate, always checking in on what users need, what will work and just as importantly, what will not work.
As I continue to grow as a designer, I would like to expand my focus into other areas I'm passionate about like veterans' healthcare, ocean conservancy, and sustainable travel to help in creating a more positive impact.
To follow is my personal code of ethics. It will continue to evolve as I do, and I’d like to be full transparent by sharing this document here, to help in keeping myself accountable.