Usability Testing with Ironhack
Ironhack’s Prework: Emmanuel_Challenge3
Planning for travel is both an exciting and nerve-racking experience. The more someone commits to a destination, the bigger these emotions become. Planning for a family can bring even more anxiety. You would want to assure your relatives of a safe and enjoyable trip and would like to make the task of packing and commuting as smooth as possible. This could be your first family vacation, or maybe you’re planning for your second or third trip. But with global situations constantly changing, where do you start?
The Scenario
In this case study, we will be looking to improve the travel experience for a family of four. Eager to see all the beauties the world has to offer, they set their sights on the world’s seven wonders, starting with one of the most popular tourist destinations — The Roman Colosseum in Rome, Italy. This wonder seems like the perfect place to take the family after a long year. This destination is known to be a great tourist attraction, accommodating to visitors worldwide. Italy is quite the distance from where this family is located, but with ticket prices so low, the length is well worth it.
When planning for this family vacation, a few preliminaries are kept in mind. Departure times, exchange rates, medical conditions, even what to wear when touring the city. Most of these decisions, if not already intuitive, are made for the family as they are assumed to be financially prepared, have open schedules, and are in good health to move around comfortably. If everything checks out, The family can start booking with confidence.
The Booking Experience
When booking for this vacation, the family will need a travel app to buy any accommodations for their trip. And Kayak, Skyscanner, and Tripadvisor are some of the most well-known apps for booking. When considering the circumstances of this family, we will have to find the best choice when it comes to the quality of the app’s accessibility, propositions, and features. To see how these apps stack up to each other, I lined up each of their user flows.
Let’s Talk Heuristics
“In usability testing, we work to find solutions to problems with practical questions and methods. In turn, these methods need not be perfect. They don’t even have to make any sense. We just have to make sure the situations we create for testing are ideal enough for reaching an immediate solution or answer”
Most Visible
When the process of using these apps began, they all gave a good amount of clarity when taking travel information and displayed loading bars at appropriate times. Although it came as a surprise when redirected to a third-party to complete the booking process. I found that information already inserted had to be re-entered, making the status of my application confusing. Tripadvisor handled these transitions the best.
Real-World System
These applications did an exceptional job staying in line with their traveling target audience. Skyscanner worked to keep the present issues in mind, while Kayak had a strong theme throughout their application experience. But Tripadvisor was very considerate, and kept a broad scope, making their application the most relatable for users in both general and unique situations.
Freedom and Forgiveness
These apps make it easy to navigate through their software. But what made certain ones shine were how they remembered information when moving from one page to another. Kayak, to start, was very flexible when booking flights. But after being redirected to the unfortunate alert stating the selected fare was no longer available after confirmation, it seemed like a user’s decision would be changed unexpectedly. Tripadvisor came to the rescue with providing more available flights before those that were harder to obtain.
Consistency
One recurring issue all these applications share is the third party providers that a user gets redirected to. This is understandable from a business point of view, as planning for travel comes with booking not only for flights, but for hotels, car rentals, and wayfinding. With this consideration, it would be beneficial for an app to keep the general theme throughout the interaction of the interface. In this instance, Tripadvisor handles this with the most grace.
Error Prevention
These apps all handle errors in a unique way. Kayak brings you a few steps back to make changes, and Skyscanner makes it so you can save your searches in a personalized alert page. Tripadvisor seems to handle any errors behind the scenes, making it look like every input is saved until the order is complete or updated and for that, it makes it so errors are handled before they occur.
Recognition
Both Tripadvisor and Kayak keep any choices that were made prominent and aware at all times. The difference is so subtle, analyzing the way they present user information could come to a matter of preference. One factor that differentiates these two apps might be that Kayak looks to have this occurrence by accident. Although, Tripadvisor seems to strategically place needed information in front for the reason that it will be needed from the time the ticket is booked, to the moment one arrives at the travel destination.
Ease of Use
Skyscanner could have been the go-to when it came to ease of use. Unfortunately, it quickly made it harder to make decisions with the rigidness of its app. Ironically, it asks how the experience is going constantly, causing unnecessary halts in the navigation. With Kayak, the second part of the application that takes you to their third party partner is the beginning of an unfavorable experience. Tripadvisor makes it so you can be efficient enough to move through their application even if you have never used it before.
Aesthetic
From start to finish, the style and layout stay consistent with Tripadvisor in relation to the others. This is not to say there is anything seriously lacking in Kayak or Skyscanner. I can see one user being attracted to the bold colors of Kayak, and another user appreciating the subtle coolness of Skyscanner. But Tripadvisor stays the most consistent, making its design more admirable.
Error Handling
Kayak displays the most support for errors, as it prompts to help complete a booking, and presents a phone icon in the instance a user would like to talk to someone. Although this is only with the assumption there is someone on the other line ready to answer, it’s good to know support is not far.
Documentation
With some travel circumstances, come more policy updates and notices, and each app does its best to provide the information needed to use its services successfully. If I were to count the number of notices each app provided, Kayak would be the one that seems to give the most documentation. Tripadvisor does a good job assuring there is not much to worry about, and Skyscanner is informative on their specific features. But Kayak looks to be the most well rounded in with documentation, keeping one updated the majority of the time.
App in Scope: Tripadvisor
Going back to our family of four with Tripadvisor, the application that best suits their needs, we begin to take a look into how they interact with it, and if there are any hardships that arise while they use the app. Keeping in mind the general tasks Tripadvisor has to accomplish, it’s good to think about:
- How understandable this service is to them
- Any benefits from the service navigation
- How long it might take to get to the needed information
With this in mind, finding insight on any hardships that come up will be easy to notice. Being that most necessities are taken care of, one item that does not look like it is handled prior is baggage handling. It is not typical for a booking application to manage luggage. But if they are integrating a handful of features to make the experience combined, it would begin to feel like no luggage accommodation is strange. Fortunately, this feature isn’t too far from anything already applied and can be added rather quickly.
Final Thoughts
An app of choice can always change from user to user. This can reside from the urge to get something done quickly or how well it performs in any given situation. What I learned from this experiment that no matter how flawless an application looks at first glance, It would be a user that is in a difficult position, who knows exactly what they want, who can reveal a flaw that once resolved, can benefit more individuals that may have never known they needed it.
In these times, the uncertainties of travel have never been more immense. So wherever you’re going, and wherever life may take you, be safe and stay healthy!
