Can we design Experience? Especially in hospitality and tourism?

Searching for an answer to this question brings us to a new expression in the management lexicon. It is known as User Experience – in short UX. It is about designing products and services to deliver great experience to the user.

As a management tool, UX is nascent, but gaining popularity in various industries among the most well-known user centric companies of the world. These companies are exploiting the value of User Experience as a prime driver of demand of their products and services. And they come from divergent fields like Nokia in telecom, Amazon.com in on-line retail, Disney Hotels in hospitality, among others.

The Soft and the Hard of UX Designing

User Experience of any design artefact, be it in the dominion of electronics or hospitality, retail or using software, exists in the realm of both the physical and the behavioural world. The outcome of any design usage is the behavioural, experiential and emotional response of the user. The matter of experiencing a design is therefore rooted in cognitive science.

Consequently, for the designer, it becomes important to understand not just the usability, functionality and aesthetics of the design, but also the larger social and physical context within which the designed product or services is intended to be used.

UX in Hospitality and Tourism

Nowhere is this truer than in hospitality and tourism. For here, much of the product is experiential. But who owns User Experience in a hospitality or tourism organisation?

User Experience should deliver equilibrium of value. Means, that UX should benefit both the user customer and the organization. In the dynamics of many organizations, we come across competing agendas among the different functional divisions. Sales and Marketing have their eyes on retention, loyalty and maximizing return on channel investment.

There is nothing wrong in that per se, but for that the Revenue Management is focused somewhere else while Front-Office is on their toes real time. The recession has not helped to make things any easier. But this may well be the opportune moment to garner practices that deliver long-term value.

Can we increase personalized touch-points without increasing cost? Can we deliver higher value and at the same time reduce costs? Can we make on-line and physical experience seamless? Well, these are some of the questions organizations like Disney Hotels and Amazon.com have asked. Disney Hotels have achieved breakthrough in check-in process incorporating UX maxims that delights both the customers and Disney treasury.

More recently, Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts have launched their "Arrival Experience" initiative which has been hailed as the 'Best Innovative Concept in Full Service Hotels' at the Worldwide Hospitality Awards in Paris.

Designing and delivering great experience to the user need not remain privy to the few enlightened organizations. With suitable initiative and expertise, it is possible for any organization to develop and offer its products and services that delight the user in using them. And drive profit as well.

Ashis Dutta straddles the worlds of software, business process and hospitality and tourism. He is a consultant, trainer and researcher on User Experience. His research paper on applying User Experience in Hospitality and Tourism has been published in Conferences in Europe and Asia and reviewed by Texas A&M University in USA. He can be contacted at ashisdutta@gmail.com