Challenge 3: Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign
THE CHALLENGE
Create a UI/UX case study: We had to testing and redesign a travel app using performing usability testing to understand how it could get even better and help people travel the world!
First of all, I have chosen to use Tokyo and surroundings (Japan) as the destination of my research.
1. User Type
I decided for the user type Young couple — 20–40
You and your partner decide to go to a special place next summer. You realize you have both saved enough for the tickets and are planning to save as much as possible for the next 6 months to do this trip. You want to be efficient and have everything you need organized to enjoy at 100% while there. Even if you’re young, you want to have special moments to celebrate being together.
In regards to the user type, I have created a Couple Personas that fit the profile:
2. Research
Find out the specifics of your destination:
Nearest airport / most convenient airport to destination.
There are two Airport in Tokyo: Narita international Airport and Haneda Airport. Both of them have a International Terminal.
Currency and exchange from your own currency.
Yen, 1yen= 0,0077€
Medical needs: vaccination, visa, etc.
Japan did not require any kind of vaccination before 2021, but after the COVID pandemic, PCR certificates or a COVID passport might be necessary (the exact documentation is still undergoing changes).
Wardrobe recommendations.
The summer months in Japan can be quite rough, especially in Tokyo due to the humidity. The recommendation is: wear light, airy and cool clothing that keeps you cool and pleasant.
Days needed to visit attraction.
Two weeks is usually the recommended days that foreigners usually spend in Japan if their only goal is just for sightseeing and traveling purposes. From that two weeks, visitors usually spend around 5 days in Tokyo and spend the rest in the surroundings, like Hakone, Kamakura, Nikko and Mt. Fuji and all of them can be easily visit for a day trip or staying one night
3. Benchmarking
I compared four different travel apps Kayak, Skyscanner, Trip Advisor and Hopper. I started by conducting Usability Heuristics evaluation with Nielsen’s Principles.
The apps
In the table below you can see the summary of my analysis in which I have been pointing out each of the principles and how Good / Medium or Bad they are adapted to the App mentioned above.
Finally, I decided on the TripAdvisor app, since my User Persona is a couple who have already been saving for plane tickets, and who now want to enjoy their stay in Tokyo to the fullest, so this app that focuses more on experiences, things to do, where to eat, is the most appropriate.
4 . Testing
I conducted tests with 4 users with a similar profile.
- Cristina and Carola, Barcelona (30,33)
- Jordi and Fatima, Barcelona (34–33)
- Alessio and Cristina, Varese, Italy (37–31)
- Beatriz and Roque, A Coruña, Galicia (36–36)
I asked them to realize different tasks through this application.
Task 1 : 5-second-testing
This task helps to determine the user’s first impressions about the app. :
- What did you see?
- What can this tool do for you?
- Where would you search for a hotel?
- What are the elements you remember?
All my users understood that the application they were presented was a travelling-related application, that would help them book their trip, compare prices and provide useful information about their travel destination. The features that stood out the most at first glance were the search for accomodations, and the top-things to do lists for their jouney.
Task 2 : search accomodations prices
Conditions: well comunicated, comfortable and pleasant for couples, baggage forwarding, 24-hours reception, breakfast included.
Task 3 : Planning a Trip
5. Insight
While flowing through the menus to create a trip, and search for accomodation prices, I took the following notes about their comments and reactions, to know the most remarkable pain points:
Search for accomodations (Pain Points):
- Does not save ‘recently searched’ destinations. You have to rewrite everytime you want to search. Only appears in the menu “Search” but not in Explore.
- Which filters are selected is not so evident at first glance, the black border blends together with the black&white design of the other widgets and does not catch the eye.
- The hotels are presented both in a sorted list view, and a map view. The latter displays all hotels at once, but it is lacking a feature to easily locate one particular hotel in the map
Planning a trip (Pain Points):
- As search a hotel, Does not save ‘recently searched’ destinations. You have to rewrite everytime you want to search. Only appears in the menu “Search”.
- At the moment of creating the trip, it does not give you the the option to enter the travel dates, in case you already know them concretely and start planning your trip, day by day. you have to explore first and then, when you came back to your planning trip, left you to choose the dates.
- Once you have explored things to do or hotels, then you can assign them to days, but you can’t select a day and start looking for the plan of the day from there. If you already know the exact days you are going to be there, it is much easier and organized to the user to select from each day.
- It is not possible to change or customize the cover image of your trip,
The image of the first activity or hotel that you you saved is going to be the cover image of your trip. when you have several trips it is not very intuitive.
6. Redesign Wireframes
To solve pain points of Search for Accomodations
To solve pain points of Planning a Trip
The image of the first activity or hotel that you you saved is going to be the cover image of your trip. when you have several trips it is not very intuitive.
Pain Point: At the moment of creating the trip, it does not give you the the option to enter the travel dates, in case you already know them concretely and start planning your trip, day by day. you have to explore first and then, when you came back to your planning trip, left you to choose the dates.
Pain Point: Once you have explored things to do or hotels, then you can assign them to days, but you can’t select a day and start looking for the plan of the day from there. If you already know the exact days you are going to be there, it is much easier and organized to the user to select from each day.
Conclusions
The aim of the project was to redesign a Travel app using performing usability testing to understand how it could get better. The key element of the study was to use people’s opinion of the app that better fit to the user case to reveal possible problems and then eliminate them or fix them in design.
I realized that it doesn’t matter how known an app is, there is always something to improve to facilitate the user experience.
