Steps to Stay - Sustainable Management for hotels

Three questions for the project team

What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
At the start of the project, it quickly became evident that sustainability in the hotel industry is a highly complex topic. Conducting comprehensive research within the time-frame of a Master's thesis posed a significant challenge. Thus, it was crucial throughout the project to maintain a focus on the bigger picture and avoid getting lost in minor details.

This complexity also made it challenging to design distinct interfaces for the three different target groups—hotel management, staff, and guests. Each interface needed to display only the information relevant to its audience while also encouraging sustainable actions through clearly recognizable benefits. Particularly for the hotel management application, the challenge was to present the extensive information and various aspects of sustainable hotel management in an appealing and organized manner.

What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
My personal highlight of the project were always the moments when I engaged with my target audience. During my research, interviews with hotel managers and other industry representatives provided fascinating insights and introduced me to various perspectives on the topic. This helped me develop an understanding of the diverse challenges in implementing sustainability in the hotel industry and allowed me to create a concept aimed at addressing these issues. A particularly gratifying moment was when I presented my initial concept to some of my interviewees, and they were already enthusiastic about my concept even though I just had rough wireframes.

Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
Since this project is a Master's thesis developed single-handedly in just a few months, I am aware that implementing "Steps to Stay" will require significant development and programming effort, especially given its complexity as a tool. Nevertheless, I would be delighted if some of the core features, such as the dashboard or the action catalog, were adopted by the industry or integrated into existing programs in the coming years.

Personally, I hope that in five years, I will still have the opportunity to work on such complex and highly relevant topics, and to create value for both people and the environment through my work.