Challenge
Philips Professional Display Solutions and their implementation partner brought up a major issue in the hospitality industry: the guests stopped watching hotel TV because they would rather use their own devices – phones, tablets or laptops. Plenty of interesting content can be easily found on the internet – that's why linear TV lost its relevance in the digital transformation era, and hotel TV is a perfect example of this process. Our task was to reverse that trend using professional TV’s with Android TV operating system, that were just brought out by Philips PDS.
Solution
We began the discovery process utilizing design thinking methods heavily. We wanted to find out what’s the condition of hotel TV at the moment and what are the demands of hotel guests. After two months of thorough work on product strategy and user experience, we managed to discover a wider context of the way that hotels function. It turned out that users as well as hotel staff want the smart TV to provide the possibility of reciprocal communication, presenting hotel’s offer in an engaging way and to analyze results from the data it gathers. The problem has been clearly defined and we were ready to dive deeper into design. Design-wise, our main goal was to create a modern looking platform and cohesive CMS tailored to the hospitality industry. The target audience were the guests of four and five-star hotels, so the app had to look and feel premium. Another immense challenge was coming up with a multifunctional interface that can still be navigated intuitively by a simple remote control, which has also been designed specifically for that project. The platform provides positive user experience on every step of the way. It pleases both guests and hotel stuff with such features as the notification system, personalized recommendations, the weather forecast, express checkout or reservations at a hotel restaurant or a conference room. From visual perspective the system looks just great. Even though designing for smart TV is a difficult task (because of limited design patterns), we created a one-size-fits-all solution that feels premium and is inclusive enough so that users of all ages feel comfortable using it. We managed to develop an interface which runs smoothly, even despite a large number of visual fireworks appearing all over the app. Additionally, the system can run not only on local networks, but also in SaaS model, and is integrated with industry standard property management systems and calendar formats.
Results
After almost a year of work, we managed to come up with a solution which can revolutionize the hotel TV and solve a major business problem of the hospitality industry. The platform also enables analysis of the data it gathers due to the statistics module built in the system – such informations are priceless for any business, no matter the size of it. Philips PDS’ project was one of the most challenging and innovative tasks we have ever worked on. We can proudly say that we achieved a solution, which satisfies everyone involved in the process, but our work doesn’t stop here. The smart TV app will still be developed by us, and adjusted to the constantly changing needs of hotel guests and staff.
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