The laboratory for user testing in Hotels.com is packed with state of the art technology, from ECG monitors to scanners for decoding micro expressions using Ekman’s theory of universal emotions. Sometimes work in the lab has produced some remarkable discoveries that lead to a profound understanding of how the travel business touches people across the world.
A participant during user testing was casually discussing how they interacted with the loyalty program of Hotels.com at random times throughout the session. And while the main conversation centred around using a specific piece of UI that was being tested, the entire recording was sprinkled with breadcrumbs of audio leading to insights of customers that the business was simply unaware of.
Transcribing the audio from the 20 minute session, I collected everything necessary to tell the incredible story of how the loyalty program is having an unusual impact on someone’s life. The audio is a little scratchy and I’ve pixelated out the user from the the end of the clip to maintain her anonymity here, however my original video was shared by the leadership team throughout the wider business as an example of how we must all become better storytellers to help drive business with our knowledge and skills, before speakers were brought in to run workshops with guidance on how to craft a better/stronger narrative.
