Walter's Hospitality
Walter's Hospitality is an event management company that organizes a wide range of events. They work closely with many outside vendors like florists, caterers, and photographers, and also manage complex internal planning and money matters.
Product Designer
12+ Month Project
Hospitality, Event Management
$1.578 billion (2019)
12
Challenge
Before this project, Walter's Hospitality struggled with old ways of working. They used many separate tools like spreadsheets, emails, and paper, which caused a lot of back-and-forth. This meant information was scattered, different teams couldn't easily share updates, and many tasks had to be done by hand.
Results
The most immediate and important benefit of the new platform is the expected reduction in time spent on manual tasks.
35%
Improved onboarding process
25%
Increase in user retention
84%
Increase in time spent on website
My Responsibilities
As the Product Designer for this project, which lasted 12+ months, I took ownership of key parts of the design process.
My main responsibilities included leading the user research, driving the ideation phase, and creating the complete UI design for the new event management platform.
Challenge
Walter's Hospitality faced several big problems that slowed them down and affected client happiness. A major issue was their messy and inconsistent way of managing vendors. This caused delays in event planning and led to different experiences for clients.
“Key findings showed that a single solution wouldn't work for all vendors. For instance, the floral vendor with pre-designed packages didn't need extensive inventory fields, while the custom floral vendor desperately did.”
Design Decisions
I conducted one-on-one interviews with Walter's event planners, administrative staff, and key vendors.
To handle the varied ways different vendors work (like florists, caterers, photographers), I created a modular vendor profile system. This design allowed each vendor type to set up its specific data fields, services, and communication methods.
Information Architecture: Based on the research findings, we restructured the app's navigation and content,
features and information according to user needs.
Synthesizing Complex Information
To turn the large amount of information from interviews and research into clear insights, Miro was an essential tool. This digital whiteboard helped us organise raw observations into meaningful conclusions.
Conclusion
Working on Walter's Hospitality's platform taught me a lot about complex enterprise design. A key learning was how to handle and bring together conflicting needs from different teams. This experience showed me that good product design in complex settings needs strong communication and the ability to build agreement, not just technical skills.
Potential Next Steps
Advanced Analytics & Reporting
Mobile App for Event Day Management
Integration with Event Tools
AI-Powered Features
