Hostmaker Interiors

  • Carmen De Marco
  • Ariadna Romeu
  • Martín da Costa

After keeping our interior design studio separately for almost a year, we decided to integrate it with the core Hostmaker product to give a consistent and seamless experience to our hosts and win internal efficiencies. Some of the integration key initiatives were the Interiors brand rebranding and the website redesign.

Interiors Rebranding
As we changed our service offer -from tailored design to interiors packages, we wanted to reflect the change visually, with a less artistic approach and a more modern and minimal one, prioritising functionality and consistency between all Hostmaker’s products.
To build a strong visual connection between Hostmaker and Hostmaker Interiors, we kept the same colour code and main elements (typography, layout style, etc.). However, we decided to go with a bolder aesthetic, playing with black and white contrast and adding fresh details with our primary colour, as customised interior design illustrations and other visual elements.
But most importantly, we gave particular importance to the pictures, carefully selecting them for their lightning and perspective, as they are essential to sell and get customer interest.
Website Redesign
The Interiors website was mostly the second touchpoint with our user. They usually contact the sales teams, which redirect them to the site, where they started the signup process. As the service offer changed, we weren’t sure about changing the website UI or starting a complete website redesign.
Phase 1: UX Research
We started doing an audit of the old Interiors website better to understand the existing web site's information architecture and continue with a benchmark in our main edesign platforms competitors.
We also did some interviews with our primary internal stakeholder - sales teams-, to get their feedback; “Was the website useful for our stakeholders? Was the information clear and structured?” We discovered that people found the old website “very nice and attractive” although “the service and its pricing was confusing”. They also feel “overwhelmed” when navigating through it.
Architecture Information
With the insights in hand, we decided to redesign the website from scratch. We began defining the site structure. Instead of using a single landing page, we structured the content in four simple main pages (Homepage, Pricing, Case Studies, Projects and About us ) and removed unnecessary sections.
Wireframe
Based on this, we made a few wireframes, ensuring relevant information was provided and highlighted in each section. E.g. In the pricing sections, was crucial to explain clearly the new interior packages offer and to be able to compare them.
In terms of the homepage, it was essential to explain the new interiors positioning, service offer and its benefits. It was also important to add Hostmaker presence on the homepage. We did it through a banner, that we updated with seasonal Hostmaker advertising campaigns and that links with the Hostmaker main website.
We also try to make the projects reachable from different website sections, as they are essential when selling the product.
UI
Accordingly, the new brand visual guidelines, we finally developed the website UI.