WHEEL THE WORLD
Wheel the World is a travel platform focused on accessibility, helping people with disabilities find, book, and enjoy accommodations, tours, and experiences that meet their needs.
As part of their interview process, I was given a design challenge: redesign the hotel search experience.
Asigned role
UI Designer (candidate)
Timeline
4 days
Tools
Let's start:
Research & benchmarking
Looked at competitors (Booking, Airbnb) to see how they structure information on hotel cards.
Noted what works in terms of scannability and visual emphasis.
Analyzed pain points in the current Wheel the World search experience.
Identified accessibility features that matter most to users.
Information hierarchy
Reorganized the content within each card: hotel name → rating → location → price → accessibility features.
Grouped accessibility icons so they’re always visible but not overwhelming.
Benchmarking
Information Architecture
Prototyping Tools | Figma
Team talk (Presentation)
User Flow Design
Visual Design Principles
Wireframing | Figma
Problem & goals
The hotel cards felt visually outdated and dense.
Information was not organized in a way that made it easy to scan or compare across results.
Accessibility features were included but not visually highlighted enough.
Overall, the interface lacked freshness and a clear visual system that could elevate the brand.
Redesign the hotel search cards so that:
They feel modern, fresh, and consistent with the brand.
Information is easy to scan at a glance (hotel name, price, rating, location, accessibility features).
Accessibility features are visually emphasized in a clean, intuitive way.
The cards work well across different devices and screen sizes.
Follow basic accessibility standards (WCAG): color contrast, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility.
Final thoughts
This design challenge showed me that:
Visual design and accessibility go hand in hand; even small UI tasks are opportunities to make a product more inclusive.
Re-styling is never just about aesthetics: it’s about clarity, usability, and brand perception.
While I appreciated the opportunity to take on this design challenge, I believe interview exercises of this kind should be paid work. They demand many hours of effort but rarely allow us to show the full depth of our expertise. A 30-minute presentation cannot truly reflect how we think, collaborate, or deliver in real work conditions.
In addition, completing a challenge doesn’t necessarily prove how someone will perform within a team. Candidates can (and should) seek feedback from peers, which is valid practice, but it means the output is not always a genuine reflection of how they’ll work day to day.
My personal takeaway is simple: someone presented or spoke about their solution better than I did, and that’s okay. Beyond that, the challenge itself only served me as a portfolio piece; not as a true measure of my skills as a designer.
This experience left me somewhat disillusioned with how UX hiring processes are currently structured, but also more convinced of the importance of advocating for fairer, more realistic ways to evaluate design professionals.
