During 2015 we were delighted to be contacted by InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) to design a UI and UX style guide. Building this with the intention of implementing across their suite of applications and websites as part of a huge brand re-development.
We were invited to fly over to Atlanta, USA (Georgia, Atlanta) and meet their Development Team to begin scoping out the brief. Ultimately we wanted to facilitate an inclusive approach, where collectively we could determine exactly what they wanted to achieve. The brief was to produce a full user interface and user experience guide, working alongside their in-house front-end team. The style guides ultimate goal includes websites and applications for Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza and other chains within the group.
The InterContinental Hotel Group brief
Ultimately, the idea behind the style guide was to enable reuseable components across several different brands. Intent to deliver uniform components such as spacing, typograhy, colour schemes and iconography.
The end product was a 300-page user experience guide consisting of user journeys, user stories and components. This guide optimises the user journey to increase enquiries and bookings, and also offer the best user experience possible.
Key challenges working with InterContinental Hotel Group
The biggest challenge we faced during this project was keeping the integrity of the existing brands. All whilst delivering a style guide that was reusable across them all. Secondly, keeping a focus on accessibility and usability across a global audience.
The results
As a result the user interface guide was a 400-page document containing web interface designs and components. This consisted of elements included buttons, typography, feedback messages and form elements. Throughout the guide, each component displayed the required dimensions. Furthermore it indicated how each component would display when used across layouts on multiple devices. Finally the guide highlights the differences across the brands and how each component should appeaar when used for that brand.
View the full project here: IHG Branding
