The team at The Annex approached us looking to redesign their current website with something that helped guests dive into the atmosphere, encouraging them to get inspired and have fun, while enjoying the comforts of home. I joined the project to take over designs from another talented designer who had already established the look and feel of a number of pages. To get me up to speed with the project, I started with stakeholder discussions and a deep dive into the physical space of the hotel, as well as thoughtful analysis of existing direct and indirect competitors, I worked towards completing the designs that would translate the physical space into a functional website. The challenge of bringing the feeling and physicality of the hotel into a digital representation was difficult, especially during the Pandemic when we couldn’t visit the space and had to gather knowledge based on photos, video tours, and discussions with The Annex staff.
Maintaining existing hotel branding (logo, fonts and colours), a careful selection of photo content sets the consistent visual atmosphere, keeping a recognizable visual connection with the general brand style of the hotel. The catchy visual details that were collage inspired helped the photo content give a more real-life, humanized emotional connection.
With contactless booking and check-in service, it was important that the website looked good and functioned on the diverse range of devices the guests would be using to browse and book. Diverse web animations supporting usability, navigability, and interactions were used to attract and engage prospective customers while making it easier for returning customers to find and book a stay. The booking flow was updated to provide a visually and emotionally appealing style, with clear, intuitive functionality. Interactive responses in the process of filling in the booking flow made the experience dynamic and fun.
Another consideration for guests was making it easy to explore local amenities and events. We built content to seamlessly provide users with an easy way to find a number of local options based on their needs and desires. Throughout the website, photos, layout, and animations harmonically combine and balance together. High quality visual content, clear visual hierarchy, readable typography combined with smooth scroll animations worked together for a dynamic and emotionally appealing experience.
The redesign of the Annex Hotel website provided an opportunity to elevate the guest experience and enhance the hotel’s online presence. Through careful consideration of the user interface and interactive experience, the redesign effectively communicated the hotel’s unique atmosphere, amenities and services.
Design with collaboration. It was inspiring to see how each team member was able to bring different perspectives and ideas during the design phase to help create a unique user experience.
Own the process, not the design. Taking over a design and executing it can be daunting to ensure you do justice to the original work while adding your own skills and experience to the project. At the end of the day, keeping the needs of users and stakeholders at the forefront of all design decisions remained the most important.