Project background

In 2011 Hotels.com began developing their first fully native smartphone app to replace their basic mobile web offering. To ensure a quick release into a competitive market, a minimum viable product was identified that was both simple and quick to use whilst still incorporating key functionality from their huge e-commerce platform.

Image: iOS hotel details screens

Core user flows, including finding hotels, refining search results and viewing property details, were redesigned from scratch to make full use of the native iOS and Android platforms. New functionality, such as short listing and easy-click reservations, would be incorporated and the app made available in 30 languages, from Arabic through to Vietnamese.

Image: iOS search journey

This design had to provide both a solid foundation for future releases moving forward and the flexibility to allow for further channels, such as loyalty and merchandising, to be added at a later date.

Our role

As the project's visual design leads, we were responsible for blending the Hotels.com digital brand identity with the native iOS and Android design principles to produce a product both consistent with their core web service and instantly familiar to users of each mobile platform.

Image: Android hotel details screen

As well as providing input into the overall user experience we helped foster new relationships between the Hotels.com user experience team in London and their offshore development partners, working directly with them on-site in Budapest before managing the remote delivery of assets and interaction guidelines from the UK.

Outcome

The app was a success, being featured in both in the App Store and on the Google Play homepage on release across multiple countries, including the US and UK. A marketing campaign was built around the fact the app was so fast and easy to use that a hotel room could be easily and quickly booked from almost anywhere at the last minute, even whilst falling 15,000 ft from an airplane at over 115 mph.

Image: Still from Hotels.com TV advert featuring the iOS app

The video features the North American release of the app. Following Hotels.com decision to consolidate their two existing brands into one single, global identity, Clearnegative Design were approached to provide a new visual treatment for the apps and their website.

Please feel free to get in touch if you'd like to hear more about this particular project or about how we could help your business design native apps and software for mobile platforms and devices.

Alternatively, you can read more about how we helped UBS, Barclays, B&Q and Vodafone.