Outrigger Hotels & Resorts

Refreshing a legacy hospitality brand for a new generation of travelers

Role: Design Lead, Concept, UX, Brand
Tools: Figma, Sketch, Invision
Year: 2022

The Strategic Challenge

Outrigger — a hospitality brand founded in 1947 — faced a pivotal moment: post-COVID traveller expectations had shifted, brand identity had grown stale, and the existing website suffered from low usability and inconsistent brand standards. The key business goals: refresh brand image, improve digital conversion, and build a scalable platform that would support global growth.

Approach & Leadership Actions

  1. Launched a brand-workshop series onsite and remote to surface core values (Ke ‘Ano Wa‘a – “The Outrigger Way”) and align all stakeholders around a refreshed vision.

  2. Developed a data-informed user journey map, combining sentiment surveys, onsite visits, competitive analysis, and usability sessions to locate key friction points.

  3. Defined and implemented a UX Ops & content strategy framework:

    • Created a simplified site map that streamlined user flows from discovery through booking.

    • Introduced advanced search and contextual content modules to serve relevant messages / offers through the funnel.

  4. Championed the technical platform migration: working with engineering to re-platform the site for performance, scalability and modular brand components.

  5. Led a cross-discipline team of designers, content strategists, engineers and brand managers — fostering shared KPIs, weekly sprint reviews and real-time feedback loops.

Business & UX Impact

  1. Improved conversion rate on the main booking funnel by 46%

  2. Increased user sentiment (post-launch survey) to 4.5 / 5 (from previous baseline of 3).

  3. Reduced time to book by 30% through simplified navigation and clearer CTAs

  4. Unified brand and digital interfaces across 38 global properties, enabling consistent brand experience and design reuse

  5. Elevated UX maturity: Established a living design system + content governance that scaled across multiple digital channels

Reflection

This project exemplifies my leadership principle: design at scale is not just about UI. It’s about culture, process, and business alignment. We didn’t simply give Outrigger a fresh coat of paint; we transformed how they think about digital experience, governance, and brand-first design at enterprise level. Such a shift positioned the organization for future growth and iterative product enhancements with UX as a key strategic partner.

Why This Matters for Your Next Role

This work demonstrates my ability to lead brand-driven digital transformation — balancing storytelling, design systems, and measurable ROI.
If you’re looking for a Director of UX who can:

  • Connect brand emotion with product experience, turning visual identity into user trust and conversion,

  • Lead multi-disciplinary teams through change while keeping creativity high and rework low,

  • Deliver enterprise-level design operations that improve both experience and efficiency,
    then this project is proof.

I don’t just modernize interfaces — I modernize how teams think about digital experience.