AltiusPAR: A Mexico-based hotel chain goes global

By Alissa Fleet

How do you develop a world class hotel reservation system and call center environment that offers a superior user experience for the parent company and is compelling enough to be sold to leading hotel chains in a competitive global market? AltiusPAR, a pioneer in developing software solutions for the hospitality industry, engaged with gotomedia to do just that. Time to market, quality of work, and budget are all factors.

Contextual interviews with
call center representatives

Intuitive design starts with research

gotomedia began by conducting a research program to develop a better understanding of AltiusPAR primary users: call center agents.

We started with a legacy system that had been built by multiple teams of independent consultants. While the breadth of functionality was impressive, a number of counter intuitive design barriers prevented users from learning the program quickly. The amount of time per transaction was much higher than the industry standard. For a system that processed more than 8,000 transactions a day, an increase in speed and efficiency would result in measurable cost savings. We choose this as a top priority in our redesign effort.

Our research methodology was to engage in a comprehensive discovery process that included contextual inquiry, video recording agents in Spanish and English on actual calls, to see where the product was working well and to diagnose where exactly the lag times were. This helped us to identify the primary use cases for making new reservations, canceling and making changes to existing reservations, and other complex call center requests. A second goal of the contextual inquiry and observation was to report key problem areas in the user interface at the page level.

During this stage we held back on giving heuristic solutions, instead focusing on uncovering the usability pitfalls, and ensuring the user's voice was heard loud and clear.

Research meets design

Like many legacy systems, although the different modules could "talk to each other" page-based workflows mirrored the underlying database and did not make for an efficient/effective user experience.

Through the contextual inquiry and interviews, we determined how we could improve the experience — what was working within the current system, what areas could be improved and modified, and what flows needed to be completely rearchitected. We saw that different groups of users were using the application in very different ways. These differences extended to page flows, and even into the use of specific fields within the pages. This enabled us to begin redesigning the application to more gracefully handle the primary uses of the system.

The project required a cohesive information architecture across five different modules, working within the constraints of the legacy system's logic and programming. The solution we presented was a simplified version of the UI. We created a dynamic pane-based interface that minimized the down time between pane refreshes. Extraneous data was eliminated, so only necessary information was displayed as required.

Prototype and re-test

We built a functional prototype in flash and conducted usability testing in the United States and in Mexico. We had industry experts as well as users engage in usability testing. This research phase confirmed that the dramatically different UI treatment was working overall. This use feedback provided the input we needed to continue refining the new UI structure.

Provide "wow!" factor

The visceral experience of a product, from the first impression through to the daily experience, is one of the most often overlooked aspects of application development. Paradoxically, it is also one of the most important. However, the application must function efficiently for its customers and not allow "flash" to overcome "function." During the redesign we directed a large part of our attention to fine tuning this delicate balance.

Internationalize the application

Originally, the user interface included a combination of English and Spanish with an extensive use of complex and redundant technical jargon. The nomenclature was simplified to boost the usability and ensure that the application could be easily localized in other languages. The new design was made internationally versatile, ready for use by customers around the world.

The results

The solution involved an integrated approach to research and design. Frequent usability testing during the design cycles ensured that the new application was intuitive for call center agents, front desk personnel, as well as online customers. The end result was an elegant, user-friendly application that could be easily localized and provided AltiusPAR with a competitively differentiated product.