The Devil is in the Detail

Design and style are at the heart of the W Hotels brand. Two of the company’s goals are to help travelers “escape to where iconic design and contemporary luxury set the stage for exclusive and extraordinary experiences,” and to mix cutting-edge design with local influences to create “a place to play or work by day or to mix and mingle in high-energy spaces by night.” With such design-inspired goals, it’s no surprise that the company’s design principles have been applied to the brand’s website and social media platforms as well.

As some like to say, the devil is in the details. A perfect example of Starwood taking this mantra seriously is in the redesign of the W Hotel French Quarter in New Orleans. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, every detail of the hotel breaths the life and culture of New Orleans, from the witchy-poo wall paper to the tarot card inspired two dimensional art installations found in each room.

Witchy wallpaper lines a hallway at
W Hotel French Quarter, New Orleans

When it comes to the brand’s online properties the attention to detail starts with the look and feel of each platform. Black backgrounds with pops of fuchsia pink make them appear edgy, stylish and youthful; and the consistency of this look ties each property together to build the W Hotel brand.

W Hotel Twitter page interface.

•  Web: https://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WHotels
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/whotels
• Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60661210@N03

Each platform - website, Facebook, Twitter, flikr – employs the principles of balance, alignment, grouping, consistency, contrast and cross cultural design. Consideration of cross-cultural design is realized in two instances. First, Starwood enables consumers in the world’s second largest economy – China – to follow the W Hotels brand on that nation’s sanctioned social networking platform, Weibo (http://e.weibo.com/whotels).  Secondly, users of Weibo can enjoy content in language, giving users a “culturally deep” experience as described by Richard Johnson-Sheehan in his book “Technical Communication Strategies for Today,” Chapter 18.

The W Hotel 'Weibo' interface.
Weibo is a Chinese micro-blogging site.

Overall, I find that Starwood has perfected the principles of design when it comes to all aspects of its W Hotels bran, including its social media platforms.

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