Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign
Challenge 3 ironhack
This Ironhack’s 3 challenge consists in evaluating the user-friendliness and rethinking the design of a travel site.
First, where we go and with who ?
Rome with elder retired couples (a significant share in the tourism market).
Rome
Nicknamed the “Eternal City”, Rome is the capital of Italy. It has many points of interest to visit including one of the 7 wonders of the world, the collisé. 7,200,000 visitors a year stroll through the narrow streets with their many fountains.
Dates: 15 to 20 April 2021
Airport: Rome Leonard-de-Vinci Fiumicino Airport. Further away from the city centre but better served than Ciampino Airport.
Currency: Euro
Medical needs: No need visa and vaccination. See COVID-19 special conditions applicable.
Wardrobe recommendations: Rome has a Mediterranean climate. With its 2500 hours of sunshine per year it can be visited all year round.
Points of Interest: Collisé, Pantheon, Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Villa Borghese Gardens, Roman Forum etc… A great cultural and historical wealth.
Two elder retired couples (60–80 y/o)
You and your partner want to visit one of the wonders now that you’re retired. Looking for a tour or package with some flexibility that would allow you to enjoy while not dealing with many processes and decisions on your own.
BENCHMARKING with Nielsen’s heuristics
SKYSCANNER, HOOPER, TRIPADVISOR or KAYAK ?
Nielsen’s heuristics are a list of 10 usability principles issued in the 1990s by interface ergonomics specialist Jakob Nielsen. In UX, they are used in particular as criteria for assessing the interfaces of digital tools.
HOPPER is for a young target group for whom budget is an important criterion.
The search for flights on TRIPADVISOR is not easily accessible. When entering the destination, the application provides information about the destination (restaurants, hotels, activities) but not about the flights.
Too much information on this site does not facilitate navigation for the target (like the forum).
The search for flights and hotels in KAYAK is difficult to read and clear. Moreover their explorer function does not allow to prepare a trip by destination but not budget, date, distance and themes. This does not correspond to the target.
And the winner is … 🥳.
These application fulfils the most of the criteria below. Its strength is its ease of use, its readability and its explorer function is adapted to our target.
USER TEST
First test : 5 second testing on app USABILITYHUB
The user has 5 seconds to take a look at the home screen of the app. when time is over, 3 questions are asked :
1 What did you see?
2 What can this tool do for you? What is its purpose?
3 Did you find or look for a hotel / flight? a destination?
See the results by clicking HERE
Second test : Do a task
The user plan a flight and hotel trip and must record their preferences in a travel book (15 to 20 April 2021, plane tickets for Leonard-de-Vinci Fiumicino Airport, hotels according to their preferences, check on airport transfer).
INSIGHT
The answers were the same for the two couples :
Positive points : The search for flight, hotel and car is clear and efficient.The creation of a travel file to record favourite flights, hotels and cars is practical because it allows you to prepare your trip without feeling obliged to book right away and thus monitor price reductions thanks to alerts.
So, what is blocking the user to have happy results or the experience they expected?
Two main friction areas :
- In the travel file, it’s a pity that the application does not give any information about the city, no activities or restaurants are recommended. Having all the useful information in a single application
- Once you arrive in Rome, the user don’t whant to look for a way to get to his hotel from the airport. Skyscanner only offers car rental. The site could offer other means of transport between the airport and the hotel.
REDESIGN WIREFRAME on sketch app
Focusing on the target’s desire to plan in order to leave quietly.
To respond at this problem’s user, 1 tool is added “Travel guide” with suggestions of restaurants, destination informations and activities.
The functionality “Transfer” will be considered for development in the next version.
TRAVEL GUIDE
This tool will allow the user to benefit from additional information about his destination once his travel book is created. He will also be able to access proposals of restaurants, outings and activities. The application will send information based on preferences previously entered by the user in his profile.
As with flights and hotels, activities, restaurants or places to go out can be booked and saved. So the user benefits from a complete travel book with complete planning.
TRANSFER FONCTIONALITY
This feature is planned to be developed in a future version. The “TRANSFER” tool will allow users to plan their transfer from the airport to the hotel.
SKYSCANNER MOCKUP
Testing the user flow with a navigation test.
Running the prototype on INVISION by clicking HERE
In this challenge, we understand the importance of the steps required to achieve a final error-free solution that ensures positive human-machine interaction.
Here, it was difficult to grasp the most essential thing for users: the constant need to be reassured by technology and to plan everything in order to leave quietly.
As for heuristic recommendations, they are common sense, but they are not enough to determine whether an application meets expectations or to quickly identify problems.
User tests are the best source of information on the effectiveness of an interface.
For next’s step ? It will be interesting to planned in a future version a tranfert fonctionnality. The “TRANSFER” tool will allow users to plan their transfer from the airport to the hotel.
For this exercise I learned new tools, SKETCH and INVISION … a challenge for me as I have been working on FIGMA since the beginning.
Thank’s for reading and 👏 me.
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