Ironhack Challenge 3: Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign

In the challenge, I have to redesign a travel App to suit the user type which I will be choosing. To achieve that, I have to do the following things:

• choose a user type;
• Choose a destination and do research;
• compare some travel apps and choose which one will be most suitable for the user type;
• Test the app with users;
• Redesign.

1. User type

Here I chose:-

Young group — 20–40 y/o (4)
You and your friends have decided to invest and spend some quality time together. You are planning your trip one year in advance to really make it happen and accommodate everybody’s schedules and needs. You’d like to share as much time together and plan for a lot of fun. You’re interested in a mix of culture and leisure. You have all saved for the last year for the trip so, while you’re still price-conscious this is the opportunity to spoil yourselves.

The young group of friends consists of Benny, Wing-ni, Flori, and Catrina. They are all between 30 and 35 years old. They worked in the same company in Berlin doing monotonous work and became good friends.

They will be travelling to Osaka, Japan.

Photo from The Invisible Tourist

They are planning to try out all the ramen from booths to the most famous shop, and experience some adventures in Osaka. They all earn fairly so they will have a fair budget by the time they travel. The travelling date will be from January 10 to 24, 2022.

2. Research on the destination

• There are two airports in Osaka: Kansai International Airport (KIX), another international hub; and Itami Airport (ITM), which is entirely domestic.
• The currency is Japanese Yen (1 Eur = 126 JPY)
• Visa: Wing-ni holds a Hong Kong passport, while Benny, Flori, and Catrina hold EU passports. They do not need a visa and can stay up to 90 days once the entry is allowed.
• Vaccination: Generally speaking, visitors to Japan do not require any special vaccinations. While it will be only a short stay in Osaka, a major city in Japan, vaccination is considered not required for all of them.
• January is a cold month in Japan. The temperature will be around 2–8 degrees Celcius. Winter jackets and clothing will be needed.
• Since they can do sightseeing in nearby cities, 14 days would be ideal for a relaxing trip in Osaka and some day trips at neary cities at the same time.

3. Benchmarking — Comparison of Existing Travel App

I have summarized the characteristics of four existing apps (TripAdvisor, Skyscanner, Kayak, and Hopper) in the following points:

• TripAdvisor allows users to view flights, hotels, things to do, restaurants, shopping, and more information. There is also a wide range of recommendations as to what travellers can do during the trip by just scrolling further down at the home screen.
• Skyscanner allows users to choose flights, hotels, cars, and holidays, and options for the users to explore where (e.g. recommended cities to travel) and when (quick getaway and next three months) to travel. The outcome will link to the flight and hotel information/ price, but not to the attractions of that particular place.
• Kayak has very similar functions to Skyscanner, with one additional feature noticed, which is the “Guides”, whereby some people shared their travel recommendations.
• Hopper is even simpler, with just functions to choose flights, hotels, and homes. No recommendations whatsoever.

I have eliminated Skyscanner and Hopper because there is no way to search for attractions. Further by adopting the Heuristic Evaluation, I have benchmarked the apps:

Heuristic Evaluation

My user type is a group of young friends with a wish to taste all the ramen and be adventurous during their stay in Osaka. Even though Kayak has a section including some recommendations, those are not connected to a searched location, but a space for sharing of information, which is quite limited. Not to say that the section is also hidden in the menu which is not simply not visible. Whereas in TripAdvisor, users will only have to choose a location, then all the related attractions will be shown by just scrolling down the screen.

Therefore, TripAdvisor is more suitable for my user type.

4. User Test

I have chosen 4 persons who fit my user type. First I invited them t do the 5 seconds test to review the home screen of the app.

Questions Asked:

• What do you think this App is about?
• What is your immediate impression of the App?
• What is the most impressive button/word/function you can recall?
• What do you see you can do there from the screen?

Answers to the test:

Instructions to the users:

Find flights, hotels, and attractions for their stay in Osaka. After the experience, I invited them to tell me their views.

5. Insights

Problems floated…

• The filter button is not easy to spot. Even though the button was found, a user could not find how to set the price from low to high. Because of this, she stopped searching for hotels in the app.
• The map showing the location of the hotel is actually good. But it took a while for them to find the map button, as it is also associated with a confusing icon.

Diagnosis 1: Filter and map buttons are at the bottom of the screen, which might be originally thought for the thumb to reach. However, users have overlooked it.

Diagnosis 2: Users care about the price. “Price from low to high” is hidden in Filter>Sort By. Also “Best Value” is pre-selected. While the filter button is already down at the screen, it is harder for them to find the price filter.

• Two users shared the same views that the given results are just random and not trustworthy.

”I don’t like the random results. I would rather go back to use my trusted website to find deals. “ by Flori

“When it comes to booking a hotel or flight, the app redirects me to some booking sites, of which the booking procedure is not always transparent. When I clicked on a flight deal that says 765€ per person / budgetair, I was redirected to “flugladen.de” which is very confusing and overall made everything less trustworthy. I don't think I would get the best deal in the app.” by Benny

“Trusted website”… “not trustworthy”…

Diagnosis 3: While users do not trust the given results, the filter should have options to only filter results by their trusted websites.

Diagnosis 4: The reason for having a bunch of random results (at least it gives the feeling) is perhaps, the filter is too much of an dropdown design. They have not noticed the filter button at the first place, and then not noticed the filter options in the dropdown settings.

6. Redesign

Here are the screens I am going to make some changes to:

Here are the wireframes of my ideas:

Overall, it would be most ideal if the filter selected at TripAdvisor could stay as the users’ choices at all times. Users would not want to reselect the filter again, even if a redirection is inevitable.

Key things I have learned throughout the process:

• Asking the right questions is very important to help find out the problems.
• Not all users are the same, they have different opinions and preferences. Sometimes, we cannot make everyone like something, but we can strike a balance.
• A user is not equal to all users. Sometimes, we have to make judgments.
• Identifying my users, doing research, benchmarking, interviewing, testing, redesigning. Faced difficulties and had them solved. It is just a full process of learning! I have enjoyed the process and felt that I have learned something new again!

Thanks for reading!