Connected Room / IoT

Hilton Connected Room

I built the UX/UI from zero, traveling to hotels for on-site research and standing up a small design team to define the look, feel, and system behind the world's first fully connected in-room hotel experience: check-in and check-out, a customizable TV, hotel amenities, and the back-of-house tools staff use to run it.

CompanyHilton Hotels

RoleLead UX/UI Designer

CategoryConnected Room / IoT

ImpactDesigned for 800K Rooms Worldwide

Scope of work

/UX/UI/User Research/Design Systems/Motion Design/Video

Challenges

Nothing like this existed yet, and then the pandemic hit right as it launched.

Every workflow, screen, and interaction had to be defined from a blank page: there was no existing pattern for hotel IoT to build on. Getting a system like this in front of guests meant working closely with engineering, marketing, product, and hotel staff and management at every stage, and negotiating polished, on-brand integrations with every streaming partner involved. The rollout was designed to reach 800,000 rooms worldwide. Then COVID hit right as installation began, disrupting that scale-up at the exact moment it was meant to happen. It's since gone into 3,800 rooms worldwide, from budget-friendly Hilton Garden Inn locations to luxury suites at Waldorf Astoria.

Key Product Features

Welcome

Check in, and the room already knows who you are. The welcome screen plays a video reel of the property and its surroundings, wrapped in that hotel's own branding, with your name across it, and your Netflix, Spotify, and other streaming logins are already signed in. The lights and temperature are set to whatever you saved from your last stay.

Hotel Amenities

Hotel staff keep the amenities screen current with whatever's happening on property, so booking a spa day, reserving a dinner table, or grabbing a bike for the afternoon is always right there on the TV.

Your Streams

Every major platform is already on the TV: music, movies, and shows from Netflix, Showtime, iHeart, and the rest, signed in the moment you check in and signed out the moment you leave. No Chromecast, no hunting for the right cable to hook a laptop or phone up to the TV. It's already set up.

Focus on Guest Experience & Scale

Everything On the TV

Check-in and check-out live on the same screen as entertainment, alongside a full directory of hotel amenities: dining, the gym, the sauna, valet, and local museums and shops, all browsable without a binder or a call to the front desk.

Room Controls, Right From the TV

Guests can adjust the thermostat, lighting, and sleep timer directly from the TV, no need to hunt down a separate remote or wall panel for every system in the room.

Live TV, Organized Like Streaming

Live channels sit right alongside the streaming apps, browsable through a full channel guide instead of flipping through numbers on a separate remote.

Video On Demand

An included library of movies and shows is available on demand at no extra cost, its own branded catalog sitting right alongside the guest's personal streaming logins.

Running the Building, Not Just the Room

A full back-of-house system gives maintenance, housekeeping, and the front desk the tools to keep hundreds of rooms running, not just the guest-facing surface.

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