User-centered design and a brand strategy for the hotel subscription startup
Service
Webdesign, Branding, UI/UX Design
Year
2021 - 2024
Website
www.myflexhome.de
Client
MyFlexHome
Tools
Figma, Photoshop, Keynote
The Challenge (why)
MyFlexHome, a start-up from Munich, with an innovative hotel subscription for people in hybrid working models with separate living and working locations.
Compared to conventional hotel booking platforms, MyFlexHome offers exclusive subscription benefits, a flexible monthly term and lower hotel prices.
The challenge was to communicate a new concept (hotel subscription) simply and clearly, to improve their existing user experience and to give their brand a professional, consistent branding.
My Process (how)
UX Research & Customization
To understand MyFlexHome 's challenges, I first conducted a thorough analysis of their product, target group and competitors. Using documented interviews in Miro with potential customers and business partners (personas), I identified the biggest weaknesses in their communication, UX and customer journey .
There were many minor UX adjustments that could be implemented immediately to improve the user experience and directly give the brand and product more professionalism.
The startup didn't need an extensive UI pattern library or re-branding, so I created a “minimum viable brand” that only contained what they really needed. In a workshop we worked out their values, polarities, vision and mission. They then received a brand guide to give their brand a consistent visual design, for which I defined new slogans and messaging to better match the language of their customers.
For the new web design, I first created wireframes, prioritized sections and reduced everything to what was really important in order to get users into the product quickly and easily: Select city + nights, choose hotel and book.
Their focus in 2024 was increasingly on B2B sales. For this, I created an extremely targeted pitch PDF, which explained the advantages of MyFlexHome concisely and convincingly and served as a door opener for sales.
My Solution (what)
Thanks to the new branding, clear communication and improved website, MyFlexHome is equipped for its further growth as a start-up.
The new brand guide sharpened the brand, defined a mission and vision, and communicated values that build trust with the target group.
The strong slogan and targeted customer approach struck a chord with the target group and helped to better market the product.
The redesigned and mobile-optimized MyFlexHome website led to a significant improvement in user experience and conversion rate. Customers now understand the innovative hotel subscription more quickly and are more likely to opt for the service.
A targeted campaign for the Germany-wide launch significantly increased awareness of the product thanks to a uniform design language and clear communication.
My Learnings
Using the impact-effort matrix, I learned early on in the project how to categorize tasks and topics based on the available resources.
Before optimizing a new, innovative product such as the hotel subscription, it was clear to me that I first needed to smooth out and define communication internally and externally. People don't buy the best product, they buy the product that they understand the quickest and that works the easiest.
I then learned to sort the different target groups of MyFlexHome according to most-impactful-customer in order to grow as scalable as possible as a startup.