Ironhack Challenge 3: Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign
This case study is about a young couple in their 30’s, planning for their next trip. After I identified the most suitable platform for them, I performed usability testing with few people matching the user-type to understand how the platform could get even better. Based on the insights, I will propose changes in order to fix the pain points through an interactive prototype.
User-type: young couple in their 30’s
My user-type is a young couple planning a trip to visit Mexico and in particular, the historical Chitchén Itzà. From the 4 couples interviewed I draw this persona:
Platform benchmarking
I used Nielsen’s heuristic principles to compare Kayak, Hopper, Skyscanner and Trip Advisor. Skyscanner and Trip Advisor met more criteria than the two others. I chose to analyze Trip Advisor because, well, the name says it all “trip+advisor”, so I thought it would be interesting to test the product promise! The platform is pretty thorough, and the interviewees all mentioned they would end up on Trip Advisor at some point in their trip organization. So let’s see if it meets the “usability’s 5 quality components”.
Testing
As an introduction to the usability test, I asked them to take the 5-second test to get first insights.
From these little quotes, I could see that 2/4 testers did not realize they could book flights from Trip Advisor website and the 2 others assumed a vague answer. That is very interesting because that’s what I will ask them to do later on. Also, in 5 seconds it’s more the visual design that has been picked more in details: the graphics, background, logo.
Then, I asked them to do 3 things on Trip Advisor:
- Book return flights for a week: Paris to Cancun
- Book one accommodations in Cancun or in the area
- Book a day-trip to Chichén Itzà and other activities if they want
I recorded their screens while they were performing these 3 easy tasks and took note of their conversation and loud thoughts. I used the “usability’s 5 quality components” to analyze their journey on the website.
Learnability. Booking flights was the hardest task to accomplish as all testers took few seconds to find out where the “flight” menu was. As patience is not part of our behaviors towards digital platforms anymore, after literally 2 seconds they were complaining!
So annoying! I had to click quite a few times before finding the flight section! Why isn’t it on the homepage in the first place??
Hotel and activity bookings were pretty intuitive, as they were clearly on the top menu of the website. For both of them, the badge “Traveler’s choice” on the photos seems to be a great help to identify the “best” options.
Efficiency. Once they found the flight page, the testers find easy to compare flights to Cancun. The 2 other tasks were also performed quickly. The filters are very thorough and allow high level of customized searches. It was also appreciated that new tabs open when clicking on “see offer” so we don’t lose the search results page.
Memorability (here the memorability was not weighed as I observed their first use of the platform)
Errors. The testers didn’t encounter much errors. In the process of booking a flight, one tester selected “direct flight only” under the search bar and when results came up, she didn’t understand why no direct flights were on the list. There actually was a warning message bar on top of the results list but not visible at all.
Satisfaction. The global experience was positive. The website is nice to browse, the amount of choices is appreciable, the ratings help a lot in the decision making process and the imagery is attractive. They liked that when moving from flight search to hotels search the platform saved their dates and destination, someone said he was “scared of typing them again”. However, the flight section is not intuitive at all: testers used different way to access this page: typing the destination in the search bar, clicking everywhere to find the section, typing “flight” in the search bar…They also testified that it would be even more convenient if we could book flights and hotels directly on Trip Advisor instead of being redirected to other websites (it is possible for the activities).
Room of improvements
Homepage menu: half of the testers didn’t know they could book flights through Trip Advisor. On top of that, when I asked them to do so, they struggled! This first pain point is easy to solve: add the flight section on the homepage menu. This way, the users see the main things they can do to book their next trip at a glance. Someone even suggested that the flight page should be the website homepage.
Error or “no result” notification: when a users’ request has no result or is mistaken, the message should be clearer and suggesting an alternative can ease the experience.
Being more than just an advisor: testers would have liked to be able to book flights and accommodation on the website as they can do for the activities. All these bookings could be stored in the “My trip” page.
Prototype
Please find below the flight booking flow prototype from the new homepage.
Key learnings
Benchmark and testers
Again, so many learnings! This usability evaluation and redesign process was very interesting. I first learned how to benchmark platforms to find the most suitable one for my user-type but I think I should be more thorough in the analysis with Nielsen’s principles.
Finding the testers matching the user-type was easy as travels speak to many! I wonder how to find testers for a more specific areas.
Tests
The 5-second test is very surprising: I didn’t expect to have first clues of the pain points at this stage (maybe I was lucky with my testers?).
The website testing to accomplish a list of tasks was very revealing. The richest insights I got were when they mumbled and thought out loud. Meaning, when they were not properly answering questions but just doing what they were asked and being natural.
Redesign
I decided to wireframe only the improvements that needed to be done based on the interviews, and mix them with the “good” things done by Trip Advisor. I’m not sure if I proceed the right way, that’s how I felt the work should be done. Once again, please feel free to share your comments and advice.
Thank you.
