Hotel management platform/ MasterBorn Intern challenge

Niloo Fathipour

Completed work

UI Designer

User Researcher

UX Designer

Figma

Travel & Tourism

Hotel owners are losing reservations because they can't quickly find available rooms for walk-in guests, and the names themselves don't provide enough context for users to know which room a given row refers to. The current table is unreadable and difficult to navigate. My mission is to design a new version of the table that solves the identified problems.

Overview

Just because there is a ton of information in this table, doesn't mean that there has to be in my version too.

I was working on a hotel management platform that supports administrators of small and medium-sized accommodation facilities (3-50 rooms or apartments).

Good tables are the foundation of effective work with data - bad tables can discourage users from using the entire system.

Problem statement

I think that the biggest problem is finding free rooms.

Hotel staff are currently unable to efficiently identify and offer available rooms to walk-in guests.

Target group

Users are: receptionists and owners, who check the occupancy status of given rooms.

Expected outcome

Increased booking completions.

Reduced average time spent per walk-in guest search.

Metrics for improvement

Users complete the task faster, especially under pressure (e.g., walk-ins).

More walk-in guests are accommodated without system or user errors.

Size

The desktop version is 1440px.

The mobile version is not part of this task.

Project scopes

Part 1: Analyzing the current table

I conducted a heuristic evaluation for this hotel management platform to:

Uncover usability barriers that were slowing down one of the most critical user tasks without needing user testing at the initial stage — giving the team a clear foundation for improvement: helping receptionists quickly find and assign available rooms — especially for walk-in guests.

By stepping into the role of the user and applying Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics, I was able to pinpoint pain points such as unclear room status indicators, overwhelming table layouts, and a lack of real-time feedback during booking.

This method allowed me to rapidly identify design issues without needing user testing at the initial stage — giving the team a clear foundation for improvement. It also ensured that the redesigned solution would align with proven usability principles, enhancing task efficiency, reducing errors, and ultimately supporting a smoother guest check-in experience.

Identify usability issues that could prevent receptionists or hotel staff from efficiently finding and booking available rooms for guests, especially in time-sensitive situations like walk-ins. The goal was to improve the overall user experience by ensuring the interface is clear, efficient, and aligned with key usability principles such as visibility of system status, error prevention, and user control.

User persona

Receptionist

Photograph credits: Jake Nackos via Unsplash

The receptionist, Anna, needed a quick and clear way to check room availability and make fast reservations, especially for walk-in guests. She wants to suggest all availability first to customers and then use smart filters and easier access to rooms, while smart notifications prevent overlap by prioritising availability alerts. The focus is on making table use effortless with features like room availability, types of rooms, and price.

User flow

The receptionist logs in, opens the room section and checks the availability table, applies the “available now” filter, views rooms with simple and general information to explain quickly, and assigns a free room to the guest.