The Brief
Modernize Shangi-La Hotels dated site experience. Make the booking experience best-in-class.
Approach
Simplify the site architecture removing extraneous, text-heavy pages. Make the site experience a tool for travel inspiration by filling it with rich content and storytelling.
Simplified Menu System + Booking Experience
One of many problems we set out to fix with Shangri-La's digital experience was a complicated menu system. Pain points were surfaced during user testing that required us to solve how to simplify a deep site structure that contained multiple hotel sub-chains. The challenge had us put on our business and pleasure travel hats to streamline the booking funnel removing unnecessary steps and copy clutter.
Hotel specific landing pages would now include integration with 3rd party travel reviews, quick access to hotel directions, concierge contact info and authentic UGC content pulled in via social hashtags.
A New Booking Experience
Shangri-La's hotels and guest rooms are meticulously designed and filled floor-to-ceiling with luxury. Image galleries of the hotel and rooms were buried on their existing site. With Shangri-La's new digital experience we wanted the booking process to be a visual exploration that celebrates the 5-star quality and gives the consumer a feel for their future accommodations.
Shangri-La Magazine
Whether you're planning a trip for business or pleasure research has shown that travelers are always looking for recommendations to get the "local" experience. So as part of Shangri-La's new digital destination we proposed a travel and leisure focused digital zine that made the hotel chain's world-class concierge the tour guides giving prospective travelers an authentic look at Shangri-La destinations.
SL Hotel locations are carefully chosen to be surrounded by local beauty and cultural diamonds. Modular article templates were designed to give content authors creative control allowing each story to come to life in their own unique way.
Roles:
Creative Direction, Strategy
Partners:
Creative Team / Ernie Bin, Wells Stringham, Damir Kulic, Mitsuaki Yajima