Challenge 3.
Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign.
Introduction
In this new opportunity, Ironhack challenge us to present a project in order to complete an interesting exercise, where the task that we have to accomplish begin into the shoes of a passional traveler. We were required to complete this pre-work exercise analyzing the follow tasks:
1- Choosing a travel destination for a specific user persona, this time has to be focus in one of the seven wonders of the millennia and find out the specifics of the travel destination.
2- Benchmark in 4 selected travel booking application in order to determine if those one follow the Usability Heuristics Evaluation based in the Nielsen’s Principles.
3- Conduct a 5-seconds test in order to determine in my interviewees the task flow to improve, and see their pain points throughout the process of booking and selected a destination.
4- Using the information provides by my user personas, after the detection of friction points, and then redesign a wireframes with our final proposal solution.
User Persona.
The user persona that I selected is this young american couple who live in Florida, they wants to celebrate their marriage anniversary and have a fantastic experience in a exotic and historical place.
Young couple — 20–40 y/o.
You and your partner decide to go to a special place next summer. You realize you have both saved enough for the tickets and are planning to save as much as possible for the next 6 months to do this trip. You want to be efficient and have everything you need organized to enjoy at 100% while there. Even if you’re young, you want to have special moments to celebrate being together.
Travel destination: City of Petra, Jordan, Middle East.
Airport: Most convenient airport Amman Civil Airport (AMM), Jordan.
Vaccinations: The typical vaccinations a traveler would need are: Hepatitis A/B, Typhoid, Malaria and the “routine vaccines” chicken pox, polio, measles, etc. plus all the additional measures for COVID-19.
Visa requirements: Passport and Visa are required for American citizens. Whereas for another world country citizens visas can be issued upon arrival, American citizen must in advance have possession of valid visa or an special entry permit.
Duration and best time to go: They just want to stay for one week and the best recommendable time to travel is in Spring or Autumn season.
Currency: $1 U.S. Dollar = $ 0.71 Jordanian Dinar.
The Booking Travel Application used: Benchmark and Testing
After comparing different booking travel apps thorough review of all pages on a website, we focus on collecting information about how each individual piece of content specifically fits into the customer journey using Usability Heuristics system with Nielsen’s Principles (Hopper, Skyscanner, Kayak and TripAdvisor)
In order to get the correct insights we conducted the questions for my 3 users based in a 5-seconds test technique and give them the chance to run the home screen of the metasearch already selected, that allows them to measure how well a design quickly communicates a message, and provide me a quantitative and qualitative feedback that helps to optimize this design. In that sense, I asked them the follow questions:
- What did you see from the different booking platform page?
- What kind of benefit did you received?
- Book a round trip flight from your location to Petra, Jordan.
After we tested all these travel booking app. in order to get this sorts of data on a range of alternative interfaces that have similar features, we realized that there are three particular pain points that were revealed and affect the process of selection for the users. The app Kayak and Skyscanner were the preference for the users when they started to book a fly.
That’s why I chose TripAdvisor for the best option in order to improve for my audience their deficient issues.
Pain Points and Proposal Results.
1: Not being able to Find Cheap Flights with Flexible Dates Calendar +/- days.
Using TripAdvisor app. 2 of the interviewees pointed out a lack in order to add flexible days on the Calendar. The flexibility to travel on different day can result in dramatically because Airfares change price depending on the day of the week or the month of the year.
TripAdvisor Example:
2: Not able to select the cheapest flight if it really doesn’t matter where you’re going.
Using Trip Advisor all the interviewer had the same issue. They try to search multiples destinations from a chosen departure point and date, trying to spot the cheapest deal quickly. This option was not available forcing the user to select a Final destination.
TripAdvisor Example:
3: Not able to see the price for Fare Options.
The airlines offers several fare options, so as a traveler we can choose what’s most convenient and determine if we can afford it, without affecting our budget. In this case we’re not able to see the price for Checked bags, Seat selection, Ticket change or Future Upgrades in our Fare in one category filter. This means that the price shown is not the Total Flight Price causing confusion for select our trip budget.
TripAdvisor Example:
Solutions and Prototypes.
Solution to Pain Point 1: Adding into de the calendar a drop down button.
Adding this button allow the user in one click to display a drop-down list, (in this case different “days choices”) in order to find the most convenient flexibility when booking a flights we talk. Tracking economic prices and flexibles hours for the user are one of the most objective when they a searching a destination. We call this option as “Exact”
Solution to Pain Point 2: Change of misconception of final destination by free destination.
In this case, TripAdvisor almost force the user to select a final destination instead offer a free option when the user is trying to select multiples destinations in order to get a quantitive gamma of price and possibilities. So a little change in this conception can bring less confusion. The misconception “to where” for “anywhere” open the range of options.
Solution to Pain Point 3: Adding a button for Fare Options is a great advantage.
Upon this solution, we are looking for to offer a Fare option price related with the flight that the traveler want to choice before to arrive airlines websites, allowing a general knowledge of the cost and expenses for their travel among all the possibilities, and avoiding confusion with the final price. Set up this new fonction is a clear advantage in order to let the user to know the real budget that he gonna need for select a flight. We denominated this new fonction on the left side of this filter menu: Fare Price.
Final Thoughts
This one was a great challenge, the level of work that I had to do was high and the number of techniques and skills that I performed helped me to understand that creation in not the only thing in this field that matter, sometimes we have to improve a project already done, and that require a high level of expertise whereby in some case comes with years of experience or the will to practice everyday an always improve and update you knowledge. The interview process was fundamental and the conception regarding a product or service that the user has could be a great surprise. Finally, of course, I hope that this cute couple have a nice vacation in this incredible place.
