Ellevate Digital Solution

The Problem

There was a 150% increase in the number of customers complaining about the morning bottleneck with elevators. Guests kept saying it was difficult to get down to the first floor during peak times since there are long wait times between 7:00-10:00 am. Additionally, there was no way for the elevators to asses how many individuals are in each elevator. So, they were stopping at every floor that had pressed the request button, regardless if the cab was filled. This caused further delays since no other guests could fit in the elevator.

The Project Role

As the sole person working on the Ellevate project, I served many roles including:

The project spanned 4 months to research, develop, test and finalize. The tools used were:

UX Researcher
UX Designer
UI Designer
Information Architect
UX Writer
Usability Tester
Product Manager

Figma design
Competitive Analysis
Screener surveys
Research interviews
Affinity maps
Moscow Matrix
User personas
Wireframes
Brand Guide
Prototypes
Usability Tests

The Design

Hand drawn sketches began the low fidelity wireframe phase after research insights were gathered.

Once the simple 4-step medium fidelity wireframes were created, I developed this prototype to test:

An Elevator request
An Elevator confirmation
How to set a favorite elevator

During the usability study, I was pleased with the ease users seemed to have with the Ellevate app. The process was straightforward to all participants with minimal hiccups.

Here is the working Ellevate prototype if you'd like to see what test participants used during the usability study.

Creating high fidelity wireframes was the final step with the project.

The Research

Through the use of screener surveys, I targeted those who work in hi-rise buildings, live in hi-rise condos, or stay in hi-rise hotels frequently for research interviews.

All interviewees agreed this digital product would change their morning travel routine for the better.

Competitive analysis proved there was an appetite in the hotel market with Marriott Bonvoy already offering a similar request service for bus transportation.

Research showed users wanted a real-time visual of the floors so they could see where elevator were located. Also deemed necessary were up to date notifications, favorite elevator selections and security reinforcements with prior consent login required.

The Results

Usability tests proved the digital product mobile application worked efficiently. However, slight improvements were made due to confusion on the wording of the settings' options. Additionally, users couldn't immediately figure out what the numbers to the left of the elevator shafts were, so I added the title "Floors" to increase understanding for the imagery.

Here is a link to the Figma file if you'd like to take a closer look at the project progression including wireframes, brand guide and prototype.

Research showed hotel brands like Marriott Bonvoy are using transportation APIs for bus service. I believe this could be a perfect option to partner with a developer and engineer to bring this to mobile app to life for hi-rise buildings. It surely would control traffic flow and provide bottle neck solutions, while offering elevator users more time in their morning routines.