A full redesign of KPMG's Lakehouse App, from brand alignment to integrating highly requested new features.
TIMELINE
June - August 2023
ROLE
UX/UI Design Intern
TEAM
SKILLS
Figma, User Research, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Business Thinking
SUMMARY
By the end of this project, I had defined the app's problems, designed new features to solve them, delivered high-fidelity wireframes, and presented my designs to design leaders.
Synthesized 4 Months of Guest Feedback
Grouped hundreds of survey responses into themes, then mapped the end-to-end guest journey to find where the app was falling short.
Presented to Design Leadership
Brought the research, concepts, and final wireframes in front of KPMG's design leaders for sign-off.
End-to-End Design
Took the work from user flows through high-fidelity wireframes ready to present.
THE PROBLEM
The KPMG Lakehouse mobile app plays a crucial role in forming visitors' first impressions of their stay, yet its UX/UI felt dated and plain.
The KPMG Lakehouse in Orlando is the firm's "cultural home," where thousands of employees and partners gather for workshops, networking, and community. Its companion app is used from the moment guests land at the airport until they check out. However, bugs, features that didn't work as expected, and inequitable access across user types (international employees, Android users, non-KPMG visitors) were getting in the way of the stay KPMG envisioned.
How might we improve the functionality and accessibility of the Lakehouse app to meet the high expectations of all users, regardless of their user type or device?
RESEARCH & SYNTHESIS
After each visit, the Lakehouse experience team surveys guests. Over four months, my team and I worked together to complete an affinity map, grouping hundreds of responses from the last 4 months into themes to find what visitors needed most:
Big themes identified
The user experience must be prioritized
The app should be accurate, guide travel and activities, and help you connect with colleagues.
The basics need to work
No bugs, a seamless login, and wifi that works throughout the stay.
Access should be equitable
International employees, outside visitors, and both Android and iPhone users all hit different walls.
From there, I partnered with a teammate to map the end-to-end journey for two use cases — managing your stay (flight info, shuttle, room access, room requests) and staying connected with colleagues (attendee directory, contact info, social) — each mapped for the current app and for the one I was designing.
DESIGN ITERATIONS
From the usability tests with the interviewees, I tweaked certain features based on their experience with the prototype and general feedback.
Users wanted to quickly see the next thing to do on their schedule upon opening the app.
Users wanted to see participants who were at Lakehouse for the same program they were under.
Bugs with scrolling of prototype was fixed. Filter icon seemed clickable but wasn’t, thus it was removed. Users wanted an easy way to clear all filters if they had lots of filters set.
To be inclusive of Samsung users, the ‘Add to SAMSUNG Wallet’ was added to the digital key screen.
FINAL SCREENS
NEXT STEPS
Usability test the high-fidelity prototypes across all user types — long-time employees, new hires, international employees, and non-KPMG guests
Keep improving features based on what testing surfaces
Loop in cross-functional partners and push toward production
TAKEAWAYS
As this was my first design project for a large company, I honed my foundational UX/UI design and user research skills. From this internship, my big takeaways were:
Start ideation, design, and testing earlier.
Ask for feedback at every step, and take detailed notes.
Learn Figma's design systems, variables, and components sooner.
Loop in engineers and PMs for their feedback too.