TOG Meeting rooms

TOG Meeting Rooms Booking System

Whether you’re handling a conference call or orchestrating an ideas session, find a space that’s accessible for all your attendees with a meeting room at The Office Group in UK or Germany.

The challenge

Up until August 2020 meeting room bookings at TOG were typically generated by phone or via the front of house teams, in-person. Benchmarking data demonstrated that meeting room sales were well below competitors’ average.

High level goals included:

Simplify booking meeting rooms for everyone, everywhere.
Give customers more control over their time and money.
Create a platform for ancillary services up-sell.

My role

As Head of Digital Experience, I led a small yet dynamic design team, consisting of myself, a user researcher, and a product design contractor.

On this project, I collaborated closely with the team, working hands-on across research and design to create an intuitive and efficient meeting room booking system. My approach combined strategic oversight with deep involvement in day-to-day design and user testing, ensuring we delivered a solution that seamlessly met user needs.

The Solution

I led a comprehensive redesign of the homepage, introducing a multi-purpose search functionality to streamline meeting room searches and improve navigation. The refreshed design featured enhanced navigation, inspirational imagery, and a modern aesthetic that better resonated with our users and brand identity.

Product Listing Page (PLP)

I designed a new split-view template combining list and map views to offer users a flexible and intuitive way to browse options. Enhancements included improved filter options with optimised positioning and live availability checks.

I also reimagined the product cards, making photos more prominent, highlighting essential location and room details, and introducing a convenient 1-click booking feature for logged-in users, streamlining the journey from discovery to reservation.

Meeting room details page – PDP

Facade & Entrance: Striking visuals of the building’s exterior set a welcoming tone.
Room Photography: High-quality images capture the room’s ambiance.
Room Details: Detailed specs on dimensions, capacity, and amenities.
Interactive Floorplan: Easy navigation to visualize event setup.
VR View: Immersive 3D room experience.
Live Booking: Real-time availability and instant booking.

Extra catering & Checkout

Enhance your event with additional catering options and conveniently complete your booking with a straightforward checkout process.

How we got there

Gathered insights from within the Business

Without pre-existing insights, my starting point was research. Similarly to many other companies TOG was ripe with customer insights and assumptions.

I run discovery workshops with the Contact center, Sales, Building and Marketing teams to learn a bit more about the typical meeting rooms customer and the key assumptions to debunk with research.

From those sessions I was able to create a three key Proto-Persona (or Ad-Hoc Persona).

Moderated customer interviews

I partnered with a user research participants recruitment company to find the right profiles and co-moderated three in-depth interviews sessions with existing and prospect customers.

The sessions were followed by an affinity mapping workshop with the team to identify emerging patterns from the ‘factoids’ we learned from the interviews.

From the affinity mapping sessions I was able to create the following UX artifacts:

Persona documents (which were later validated via survey)
Job-to-be-done documents
Customer Experience maps

The company PA

The company PA booking meeting rooms on behalf of others.

Overflow booker

The external customer booking meeting rooms as overflow option.

TOG member

The TOG member booking meeting rooms to meet external clients.

Job To Be Done: Book a meeting room

The Overflow booker books meeting rooms 2-3 times a year, he needs it team building, away-days or workshops. Typical rooms capacity 8 – 16 persons.

For this customer the room layout, the equipment and natural light are essential to a successful outcome of the meeting. The Overflow booker shortlists online, makes an enquiry to selected few providers and then visits them in person to ascertain that the ‘space’ is suitable. He/she would consider booking online only if it’s a repeat booking at a known location and provider.

Ideation workshops

I developed a clear problem statement and introduced user personas to set the stage for our brainstorming session. During the workshop, I led diverse idea generation, facilitated presentations, guided discussions, clustered similar concepts, and helped prioritise ideas with team input.

User flows

I mapped out the user flow that could cater for each identified persona needs and wants.

View full size document

Overflow Booker journey

Axure Prototype for Testing

Following the ideation workshop, I created a clickable Axure prototype for usability testing, focusing on:

User Journey
Search Filters
Grid Arrangement
Map Interactions
Time/Date Picker
Content and Layout

This prototype helped us assess and optimize these key aspects of the user experience.

Link to prototype: https://cs65by.axshare.com/

Usability testing results

User Journey: Users preferred direct access to meeting rooms in search results rather than browsing by TOG building, finding the latter too time-consuming. This journey was seen as more fitting for hotels with standardized rooms.
Search Functionality: Users expressed a need for meeting rooms nearby or in specific areas. I implemented geo-location and neighborhood filters, replacing traditional text-based search for a smoother experience.
Grid Layout: A 2x grid layout was widely favored over horizontal tiles, offering better visibility and simplifying room comparison.
Map View: The split grid/map view with geo-location was well-received, making it easier for users to assess room proximity to their location or HQ.
Date/Time Range Picker: All personas wanted live room availability before booking. Additionally, some users wanted to see all available rooms to gauge provider credibility. I introduced an availability filter linked to real-time data from the booking system.
Content & Layout: Large images showcasing room layout and A/V equipment resonated with users. I added an ‘Amenities’ filter on the PLP, detailed amenities lists on room details pages, and a 360° virtual tour.
Quick Booking: Frequent users wanted faster booking options for familiar rooms, so I introduced a “Save Favorite” and “Quick Book” feature accessible directly from the search results page.

Want to know more?

If you’d like to find out more about my work and experience, or to discuss potential projects, please get in touch!

Get in touch

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