Trip Advisor Usability Evaluation & Site Redesign
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This piece is to present the process I followed for the 3rd challenge of the Ironhack UX/UI Design Bootcamp Pre-Work. I was asked to complete the following steps:
- Choose a user type and a scenario among the proposed options
- Research specifics of your destination
- Benchmark the 3 applications with Usability Heuristics Evaluation with Nielsen’s Principles and select the one that performs the best for your user group
- Conduct a 5-second test, design the task flow you want to improve, and observe your interviewees perform the tasks
- Find pain points and frictions to define what problem areas you want to improve
- Redesign wireframes with your proposed changes and make an interactive prototype
User Type
20–40 y/o (3)
Here are some facts about the user type:
- A group of 3, 30-something-year-olds that were ecstatic to still be called the “young group”
- It’s difficult for them to come up with a plan ahead that fits the schedule of all, especially with all the uncertainty with Covid-19
- They’re looking to have as much fun as possible while also doing some sightseeing as they’re proper grown-ups who can’t go wild every day. Now it takes at least 2 days to recover from any hangover. Balance is key.
- They want to spoil themselves but also be price conscious as they have mortgages to pay
Out of all the user types and scenarios I was presented with, this one was the easiest to find interviewees who fit the description.
Destination
Our “young group” is planning a trip to the Taj Mahal.
Nearest airport: Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi (DEL)
Currency: Our travelers have to exchange their Turkish Liras to Indian Rupees. 1 TRY = 9.83 INR as of today.
Pre-requisites: Turkish citizens need a tourist visa to enter India. All travelers are recommended to have Measles, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Typhoid, Cholera, Tetanus, and Typhoid vaccinations.
Days needed to visit the attraction: One day seems to be enough according to most content I checked.
Benchmark
For the next step I performed Usability Heuristics Evaluation with Nielsen Principles.
Skyscanner is the one app that passed all the tests without a glaring weakness. But I’d like to try to find way to improve the Trip Advisor as it’s more focused on the experience of a journey.
Testing
First I conducted a 5 seconds test. Basically I shared my screen via Zoom with then and showed the home screen for the Trip Advisor app and turned of screen sharing after 5 seconds. Next I asked them these questions:
- What did you see?
- What can this tool do for you?
- Where would you search for a flight?
According to UsabilityHub, “Five second testing is a form of usability testing that allows you to measure how well a design quickly communicates a message. This kind of test provides both quantitative and qualitative feedback that helps you optimize a design.”
The 5 seconds test didn’t reveal much for the 3 interviewees as they all recognized the app from previous usage. But 2 of them said they only use it to search for restaurants in an area rather than booking a flight, a hotel or a private tour.
Then I watched the interviewees as they performed the 3 task I’ve given them after a briefing about the user type I summarized at the beginning of this page.
I asked them to:
- Search for a cheap flight from Istanbul to the Delhi in May 2021
- Filter the number of stops to 1
- Find a hotel for the same dates
Insights
1One user had no problem or confusion when working on this task. The other two were also went mostly smoothly until it was time to view the deal otions. They were both confused with the non apparent clickable text that says “View all 7 deals from €443”. They mentioned they were expecting to see a list of deals from different providers but they were directed to one deal. The lack of options looked like an opportunity for app abandonment. They went back to the previous screen and figured it out after some time(there’s a big chance they would exit the app if this wasn’t a usability test).
2One of these two users mentioned he didn’t know all of the deal providers and a rating from previous users should be there to make a decision and he would’t proceed to purchase tickets from an unknown provider if he didn’t see the ratings.
So far we have two potential drop-off(highlighted in bold above)points at a very crucial stage(direction to the deal provider’s page for conversion)
Problem Area in the flight search flow:
3 In the hotel search flow the main issue was users’ expectation to see the filter close to the top of the screen. All 3 users questioned where the filter button was for a few seconds. This makes me think their expectations should be met.
Redesign
I believe gathering the insights was the main issue here. We might not need a super creative solution for any of these problems as all of them seem to be low hanging fruits.
I’d like to remove as much confusion as possible from the last two screens of the flight search flow.
1) Removing the ‘View deal’ button and creating an easy to detect button to see all the deals. I don’t know if there’s a mismatch between user and business goals here as showing one specific deal might be a monetization tool for Trip Advisor. That’s obviously something to consider in a real world application but for this challenge I’ll suppose there’s not a conlict.
2) To add social proof and remove as much anxiety possible from the process I’ve added ratings out of 5 star and an icon that shows how many reviews were submitted for that specific deal provider. I think this will make it easy for the user to make a decision and go on to purchase.
3) A simple repositioning of the filter/map button will tip the balance in our favor when it comes to perceived cost of taking an action and the perceived value of completing that action.
Prototype:
Key Takeaway
Keeping in mind that I’m not the user and trying to remain as objective as possible was something I took for granted. Something that seems like a pretty straightforward process to me may cause frictions in some other users, and vice-versa.
