This isn’t a cruise ship or a tiny home, this little cubby is a $600 per night room at a Marriott property in Menlo Park. It’s a new concept that epitomizes the marriage of money, design and tech that has no grounding in the user experience.
1. Check-in kiosks. After 7 hrs of air travel and 60 minutes on the road, this is what every weary traveler is looking for. A smile emoji from a tablet. Privacy concerns abound with this check-in process but there’s no one to ask, your tired so you snap the picture of your drivers license so you can get to bed. And, if you were wondering, you have to activate your own card key, neat.
2. This room was designed by Royal Caribbean. The bed in the picture represents the entire width of the room. Shower, closet, vanity, all in the same width. TV controlled by a tethered iPad ish device.
I could go on, you get the picture. It was designed to be almost completely self serve, reduce labor costs. Maximize the number of rooms to optimize profits in peak times.
I’ve stayed in smaller rooms. I’m not complaining about that. I’ve checked myself in at a kiosk before, no biggie.
The thing im afraid of is that we will continue to design things without consideration for those that use the product or service.
Just rambling on this Wednesday morning.