Hilton Experience Design Internship 2022

Growing up, I always saw Hilton Hotels and associated the Hilton brand with excellence. Years later, having the opportunity to be an intern in this company and working for the experience design team has been nothing short of surreal. The entire experience taught me a lot, and the team made me feel welcome from Day one. My biggest support was my manager Jill Mugge who helped me through my projects and advised me on ways to improve my skills. Over the past few weeks, I have worked on several projects with the accessibility, content, and research team to help improve the customer experience on the digital front. I was able to learn the importance of the experience design team in contributing to the customer's first impression of Hilton while booking through the website.

As a Hilton Intern, I spent the most time working with the website accessibility team. I worked on a project where I researched how many people with a disability stay in Hilton to be able to provide data so the company can better advocate for disabled customers. From this experience, not only was I able to learn the importance of having accessibility, I was able to share my experience with my peers to spread the message. I also worked on a competition analysis project, and compared hotel booking flows. There were many findings, and I was able to share my progress with the directors and managers of the XD team like Nicole Bergstrom, CPACC, Sarah Poe, and Roy Wells. Content also had a similar project of competition analysis based on the area of the hotels. Another content project was to audit images on Hilton's luxury brand's property websites to have them pass through various criteria which I worked alongside Laurie Cameron-Back.

My recent rotation was with the research team, where I worked on several projects like SALT analysis and user testing under the management of Paula Sappington and Cali White. Another project I worked on under Darby Siscoe was analyzing how to create a qualtrics survey. I was able to give feedback on the instructions by testing them out so that it can be easier for the team members. Throughout my internship, not only did I learn many skills, but I also got to connect with many executives. I had the honor of meeting Chris Silcock and Mike Gathright in the Dallas office and hearing their perspective on how much Hilton shows hospitality not only to the customers but to their employees. Being part of this company for this period has helped immensely. I've learned so much from listening to others' success stories and the journey they took to be in their roles. I am truly grateful to all the Hilton team members for making this an incredible experience. #UTDBSITS #JSOMINTERN #JSOM #TEAMHILTON