Challenge 3: Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign
This is the third Ironhack Challenge, for which we have to jump into the shoes of a world traveler. It is nice to think about holiday in this Covid times, as it makes me remember the great moments that I have spent on holidays. We have to choose a traveler type, conduct interviews with interviewees that fit to the persona type and based on the findings, propose improvements.
1. User Type
From 6 different scenarios, I have focused on a young couple, because the people that I have planned to do the testing with, fall under this category.
Young couple — 20–40 y/o (2)
¨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.¨
1. Research
· Destination: Rome, Italy
· Nearest airport: Airport: Fiumicino
· Currency: Euro
· Exchange: 1.1 Chf
· Vaccination, visa, etc.: No. Also no Covid 19 quarantine requirement at the moment.
· Wardrobe recommendations: It is a city, dress accordingly to the following expected temperatures, given the chosen period. (Temperature Photo below)
· Days needed to visit attraction: At least 5 days
1. Benchmarking
After I have chosen the travel persona and made some research about the destination, I conducted a Usability Heuristics evaluation using Nielsen’s Principles on the three applications: Skyscanner, TripAdvisor, Kayak. For the evaluation, I have applied the following scale: 1 = good, 2 = middle, 3 = bad. I have used the total score, in order to choose the best app further for the case study.
After the evaluation of the features that our persona needs of all three apps, I have decided that Skyscanner is the best app for the selected user type. It adopts the needs of the user type: it is efficient, organized, gives the possibility to have a price overview, has many filters that may help the persona change the criteria and plan easy the trip from Zurich to Rome.
1. Testing
For testing, I have conducted interviews with three similar profile users, using the Andoid app and I have decided to divide the user testing in two parts. In part one I have used the ¨Five second test¨, which quickly measures how well a design communicates a message. I have showed to the users the Skyscanner app homepage for 5 seconds and afterwards asked them the following questions:
· What did you see?
· What can this tool do for you?
· Where would you search for a flight?
At the ¨Five second test¨ all the users have realized that it is an app where they can find and book flights, hotels and rent cars. It was easy for all of them to select what they what to search for.
In the second part I have given to the users the following two particular tasks, to see how they navigate in the app.
Task 1: Search for direct flights from Zurich to Rome from 01.08.2021 for 7 days, including luggage for two persons using Skyscanner.
Task 2: Search for hotels with at least 3 starts, which have review score min. 4 stars, in the city center with breakfast included.
1. Pain Points and Wireframes Solutions
These tests have provided qualitative feedback and helped me optimize the Skyscanner’s design. From my interviews, I deducted the following 4 pain points which will build afterwards the starting point for my proposed improvement.
PAIN POINT 1: The users needed some seconds in order to find how they can choose the number of travelers, as they didn’t realize that exists a filter called ‘Travelers’.
In order to solve this issue, I have decided to illustrate an action arrow at the filters, so that the users can see this filter easier.
PAIN POINT 2: The users wanted to be able to select luggage options, but they didn’t find this option.
Luggage option should be added as an additional filter criteria, when choosing a flight.
PAIN POINT 3: On the Calendar date picker for flights, two out of three users said that they don’t know what the grey color represents (with the other colors was no problem).
This issue can be simply solved, without major changes, by making the legend a sticky navigation when scrolling.
PAIN POINT 4:Two out of three users needed some seconds to find the Sort and filters button when looking for hotel.
When using the app for the first time, there should be a (pulsing) animation of the floating Sort and Filters button.
Learnings
In this challenge I have learned the following things:
· Selection of the appropriate user type, in order to test an app with a particular use case in mind and select the right testing audience;
· Performance of the Five seconds test to quickly measure how well a design can communicate a message;
· Perform user testing with predefined tasks to spot pain points;
· There is no perfect app, i.e. there is always something to improve;
· Last, but not least, I have future improved my wireframing skills in Figma.
