Ironhack’s Prework: Challenge 3 Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign
BACKGROUND
The task of this challenge begins with comparing at least three different travel apps for a selected user group and scenario followed. Once the app is chosen, the next task is identify user pain-points, then complete redesign wireframes for the app.
1. USER TYPE
Mary and Brandon are a 40 year old couple who want to travel to Cabo San Lucas in May in order to enjoy relaxing by the beach and some excursions. They have each saved enough for the tickets and are planning to save as much as possible for the next 6 months for this trip. They want to be efficient and have everything they need organized ahead of time.
2. RESEARCH
The nearest airport to Cabo San Lucas is Los Cabos International Airport (SJD) 8 miles north from San Jose del Cabo and 23 miles from Cabo San Lucas. The Mexican peso is the official currency, but American dollars are also accepted. Los Cabos is a subtropical desert and maintains summer weather all year round. They are planning to stay for 6 days and 5 nights in order to have enough time to do at least one outdoor adventure.
3. BENCHMARKING
I compared three different travel apps including Kayak, Tripadvisor, and Hopper. For my selected user group, the app that performed better was Tripadvisor.
4. TESTING
For this challenge I interviewed 3 users adjusted to my selected user type. I conducted a 20 minute test and interview for each.
Look and Feel:
5 Second User Test- The user is given 5 seconds to take a look at the home screen of the Tripadvisor App. After 5 seconds, the screen is covered and the user is asked the following questions:
- What did you see?
- What can this tool do for you?
- Do you understand the service?
- Where would you search for a flight?
Tasks:
The user was asked to complete the following tasks using the Tripadvisor App:
- Book a round trip flight from San Francisco International Airport to Los Cabos International Airport
- Book a hotel according to desired location, amenities, and preferences in Cabo San Lucas
- Choose an outdoor adventure to add to the trip
5. INSIGHT
Pain Point 01: Users were not made aware that they would be “bounced” to different websites to complete booking rather than booking directly on the Tripadvisor platform before they invested time adding search criteria.
SOLUTION: Add a banner notification on the landing page.
Pain Point 02: The notification the Tripadvisor platform uses to notify users that bookings are offered by other providers is not clear enough under each search result.
SOLUTION: Enlarge text and add greater contrast to the notification so that it stands out to the user.
Pain Point 03: Users continuously used the “back button” to navigate back to Home screen.
SOLUTION: Make the Tripadvisor logo a call to action “home” button (this will also tie in with the logo’s usage on the website for the same purpose).
Pain Point 04: Categories for “Things To Do” redundant and overwhelming.
SOLUTION: Recategorize “Things To Do” to simplify options and filtering.
6. REDESIGN WIREFRAMES
THE TAKEAWAY
Me and Jakob Nielsen’s 10 general principles for interaction design need more time to get acquainted.
Out of this entire challenge, this is definitely where I panicked the most. Maybe I was just overthinking it…maybe not. Either way, I will most certainly be asking many clarifying questions when we go into detail on this topic.
Determining solutions for user pain points was another area I spent much time on. Mostly, I had to do a lot of verifying (and reverifying) that my solutions weren't already offered. But even when I came across instances where my solutions were already provided gave me some comfort because I knew I was on the right track.
