Maybourne is a collection of iconic luxury hotels including Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley. I led the website redesign, translating a heritage hospitality brand into a refined, editorial digital experience that lets the properties, food, and stories breathe, while making booking and exploration feel effortless.
Overview
The project goal was to successfully transform the digital experiences across six hotel websites and their corporate site, from discovery through to definition. The project focused on enhancing usability, visual appeal, and user engagement, while maintaining brand consistency across the group’s diverse properties. The new designs emphasise clarity, accessibility, and user-centric functionality, resulting in a cohesive online presence for the entire Maybourne Hotel Group. The redesigned websites aim not only to improve user satisfaction but also to increase direct bookings, boost engagement, and strengthen the group’s online presence as a whole.
The Process
1.Discover
2.Define
3.Ideate
4.Design
5.Test
Stakeholder interviews
Measurement framework
User surveys
User interviews
Competitor analysis
User personas
Empathy mapping
Customer journey
Card sorting
User flows
IA & Sitemap
Tree testing
Concept exploration
Wireframes
Design system
High fidelity designs
Functional specification
Prototyping
User testing
Design Iterations
1.Discover
2.Define
3.Ideate
4.Design
5.Test
Stakeholder interviews
Measurement framework
User surveys
User interviews
Competitor analysis
User personas
Empathy mapping
Customer journey
Card sorting
User flows
IA & Sitemap
Tree testing
Concept exploration
Wireframes
Design system
High fidelity designs
Functional specification
Prototyping
User testing
Design Iterations
Discovery
Hopes and fears workshop
The Hopes and Fears workshop was designed to explore both the aspirations and concerns of guests and stakeholders. By understanding these emotions, the workshop helped inform a design that aligns with user expectations while addressing potential challenges, ensuring a more personalised and impactful experience across Maybourne’s properties.
Stakeholder interviews
The Immersion Day and Stakeholder Interviews involved in-depth exploration of the brand’s values, guest expectations, and operational goals. These activities gather insights from key stakeholders, providing a comprehensive understanding of both the customer experience and business needs. This helps guide the design process toward a solution that aligns with the vision while enhancing guest satisfaction.
Measurement framework
The Measurement Framework workshop focused on defining key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to track success. Led by the Data team, this session allowed stakeholders to identify measurable goals aligned with user experience, engagement, and organisational objectives. For the UX team, this session was crucial as it ensured the project’s impact could be effectively monitored, providing a clear roadmap for post-launch analysis and ongoing improvements.
User interviews for existing site
User interviews for the existing Maybourne Hotel Group site gathered direct feedback from current users to identify pain points, preferences, and opportunities for improvement. These insights play a key role in refining the design and functionality of the website, ensuring it better meets the needs of guests and enhances their overall digital experience.
Competitor analysis
A competitor analysis was carried out across leading luxury hospitality brands to benchmark digital experiences, identify content patterns, and surface opportunities for differentiation. The findings informed editorial direction, navigation structure and the overall content strategy for Maybourne.
Define
User Archetypes & Personas
The user archetypes and personas were created by synthesising insights from user interviews and research. These profiles represent key guest segments, highlighting their needs, behaviours, and motivations. By understanding these personas, the design can be tailored to better serve distinct user groups, ensuring a more personalised and relevant experience for each guest.
Customer journey mapping
The customer journey map captures the guest experience from initial discovery to post-stay engagement. It highlights key touchpoints, addresses challenges such as inconsistent digital interfaces, and identifies opportunities to improve booking, personalisation, and communication. The goal is to deliver a seamless, luxury experience that reflects the essence of the Maybourne Hotel Group, ensuring guests feel valued at every stage of their journey.
Ideate
Card sorting
Card sorting was conducted to better understand how users categorise and prioritise content. By involving users in the process, this technique revealed natural patterns in information grouping, which informed the design of a more intuitive navigation structure. This approach improved user flow and ensured that content was organised in a way that aligns with user expectations, ultimately enhancing the overall digital experience.
User flows
User flows were created to map out the step-by-step paths users take to complete key tasks on the digital platform. This process helped identify potential friction points and streamline navigation, ensuring a smooth and efficient experience. By visualising these flows, we are more able to optimise the user journey, making it easier for users to achieve their goals while enhancing overall usability and satisfaction.
IA & Sitemap
Information Architecture (IA) and site mapping were developed to structure and organise content in a way that ensures easy access and navigation. The IA process involved defining clear categories, labels, and hierarchies, while the site map provided a visual representation of the entire website’s structure. Together, these tools optimised the user experience by making it intuitive for users to find relevant information, ensuring a logical flow and seamless interaction across the site.
Tree testing
Tree testing was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of our newly proposed information architecture by testing users’ ability to find content using a simplified, text-only version of the site’s structure. This method helped identify areas where users struggled to navigate or locate information, providing valuable insights for refining the site’s organisation. The results informed design improvements, ensuring a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.
Design
Concept exploration
UI concept exploration for both corporate and hotel websites focused on developing diverse design ideas that align with user needs and brand identity. This involved experimenting with layout structures, colour schemes, navigation styles, and interactive elements to create visually appealing and functional interfaces. The goal was to balance professionalism for corporate users with a welcoming, intuitive experience for hotel guests. These concepts helped refine the design direction, ensuring brand consistency.
Design system
Creating a design system for both corporate and hotel websites involves defining a cohesive visual language and consistent user experience across platforms. This includes standardising typography, colours, icons, buttons, and layouts to align with the brand while ensuring usability. The system must cater to diverse user needs, from professional corporate stakeholders to hotel guests seeking an intuitive booking experience. It ensures consistency, scalability, and efficient development while allowing for customisation based on each site\u2019s unique requirements.
Wireframes
Wireframing for both corporate and hotel websites involved creating low-fidelity layouts to map out structure and functionality. It focused on organising content, navigation, and user flows to ensure a seamless experience. For corporate sites, the wireframes prioritised clarity and professionalism, while hotel sites emphasised easy booking and engaging visuals. These wireframes served as a blueprint for further design development, enabling efficient iteration and alignment with user needs.
High fidelity designs
We then worked on the high-fidelity UI for both the corporate and hotel levels, ensuring a seamless balance between the six distinct hotel UIs and the overarching corporate identity. The challenge was to create individual designs that reflect the unique character of each property while maintaining a cohesive brand presence across the entire group. By carefully harmonising elements like typography, colour schemes, and layout structures, I ensured that each hotel’s interface felt tailored and luxurious, yet still aligned with the unified, premium identity of Maybourne as a whole.
Click below to view the live websites:
Test
Prototyping
Prototyping the designs for user testing involves creating interactive, high-fidelity mockups that simulate the final product’s functionality and user flow. These prototypes allow users to engage with the design in a realistic, clickable environment, helping to visualise key interactions, navigation, and the overall user experience. During testing, users perform specific tasks, such as booking a room or exploring amenities, while providing feedback on ease of use, clarity, and responsiveness. This stage helps uncover usability issues, validate design decisions, and refine the product before development, ensuring the final design is intuitive, efficient, and aligned with user expectations.
User testing
User testing of the final designs involved gathering feedback from real users to ensure the interface is intuitive, functional, and aligns with user needs and expectations. During this phase, users interact with the final product in real-world scenarios, providing valuable insights into usability, navigation, and overall experience. The feedback collected helped us to identify friction points, areas of confusion, and opportunities for improvement, ensuring the final product delivers a seamless, user-friendly experience that meets both business goals and user satisfaction.
Test
Prototyping
Prototyping the designs for user testing involves creating interactive, high-fidelity mockups that simulate the final product’s functionality and user flow. These prototypes allow users to engage with the design in a realistic, clickable environment, helping to visualise key interactions, navigation, and the overall user experience. During testing, users perform specific tasks, such as booking a room or exploring amenities, while providing feedback on ease of use, clarity, and responsiveness. This stage helps uncover usability issues, validate design decisions, and refine the product before development, ensuring the final design is intuitive, efficient, and aligned with user expectations.
User testing
User testing of the final designs involved gathering feedback from real users to ensure the interface is intuitive, functional, and aligns with user needs and expectations. During this phase, users interact with the final product in real-world scenarios, providing valuable insights into usability, navigation, and overall experience. The feedback collected helped us to identify friction points, areas of confusion, and opportunities for improvement, ensuring the final product delivers a seamless, user-friendly experience that meets both business goals and user satisfaction.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this UX/UI project for Maybourne Hotel Group successfully elevated the digital experience by prioritising intuitive design, seamless booking flows, and personalised guest interactions. Through a comprehensive process of research, wireframing, prototyping, and user testing, the final design effectively balanced user needs with business objectives, creating a refined and luxurious experience that aligns with the brand’s high standards. The insights gathered from user feedback played a key role in fine-tuning the interface, ensuring it was both user-friendly and efficient. As a result, the project not only enhances booking efficiency and customer satisfaction but also strengthens Maybourne’s digital presence, ensuring its online platforms reflect the same elegance and excellence as its world-renowned hotels.
