THINK DESIGN, THINK OUT OF THE BOX, WANDERLUST

It was on June 20, 1936, with the appearance of paid vacations, that the French discovered vacations. Today democratized, workers in France benefit from five weeks of paid leave per year. The opportunity to visit loved ones, go abroad, on an adventure, get a change of scenery, or simply take a rest.

In 2017, the world voted for the seven wonders of the millennium. These are very touristic places that condense unique beauty and are prepared with many services for everybody to enjoy.

To visit one or all these places, people have to organise their trip. Some people purchase their flights, and other people a complete holiday through some apps. There are a lot of applications to organise our holidays, we can even find the top 50 best application to travel. But do you know what is the best application ?

If I was in the place of the user, I think that the best experience will be to use one application to organise my travel from A to Z.

In reality, this is just a hypothesis, so to answer to this question, you have to keep on your mind, that you are not the user, but the observer …

REPEAT THE MANTRA : I’m not the user of the product, I’m creating and evaluating ”.

So what is the best app to plan your trip ?

To conduct the study, I have to do a usability evaluation and site redesign.

1. User Types

I focused on these user types :

● 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.

I created 4 personas to empathize with them :

2. Research

They plan to visit The Great Wall in China.

The Great Wall in China , credit photos @ NationalGeographic.fr

Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.fr/histoire/la-grande-muraille-de-chine-histoire-dun-fiasco-militaire

I Find out the specifications for the destination The Great Wall, China.

3. Benchmarking

To decide which one of three applications I will choose for the travel of the Young Group, I realise the Conduct Usability Heuristics Evaluation with the Nielsen’s Principle.

I identified that Trip Advisor performs better for my selected user type, concerning the features, like a social network to share recommendations, which help people to organise their cultural and hobbies trip, and the possibility to choose the best flight.

4. Testing

I targeted 4 users from my network identified in the user type of young group.

• I gave them 5 seconds to take a look at the screen home of the meta search of Tripadvisor. They did not know the name of the product, they understood it what a service of travel booking because they saw icons of hostel and airplane.
• Then, I made sure through my questions that they were my target, and I asked them to install Tripadvisor on their mobiles.

The main problems I found when I interviewed users were :

• The number of information on the home page : they are not reassured to have so much information, they need clarity. They are people who like organise travels : they distinguish between the plane reservation part, the accommodation reservation and the activities to be carried out. They take the time to read on forums the best places to go like on the Routard.
• They book their travel accommodation with specialised services, to be flexible during their trip. To book a plane with a travel accommodation means for them : stay in the same place, and enjoy like a tourist. But they need to visit during a part of their trips, some places.
• They need to optimise their time, so they don’t want to waste their time. It means they need to choose the best time to enjoy a whole day upon arrival. And they did not find this option on the application.
• They allocate a budget for the trip, so they need to have visibility about the budget.
• The quality is very important for them, so they can pay more, to travel with the best company, without wasting time, and they need to have visibility on the escale, and the duration.

I planned the redesign and solved this pain point.

I asked them to tell me how they plan their trips, and asked them to hierarchise their organisation, with TripAdvisor. The important point was to book the flights. Moreover, they book the travel accommodation, with an application dedicated to the accommodation.

I redesigned wireframes of the most important feature of Trip Advisor : I prototype on a paper and I asked them to test it, this is how I improve my prototype.

You can see the wire framing prototype on this link …and some pictures of the wire framing prototype with annotations. I focused on priorities of the users I interviewed, in regarding them trying to use the application Trip Advisor.

And some pictures of the wire framing prototype with annotations. I focused on priorities of the users I interviewed, in regarding them trying to use the application Trip Advisor.

I learned some key things, I will share with you!

I was wrong : my hypothesis that Trip Advisor is the best app for this young group, as they can book all in one application their travels is a mistake.

This is how I learned that “all I know is I don’t know anything”.

This study case demonstrates the importance to target the good people to interview, to hear their pains, to observe them testing some solutions. Moreover, even some solutions there are, here will always be features to improve. It proves the importance of the usability evaluation and site redesign, the principle of test and learn to improve.

Zora

IRON HACK CHALLENGE 3: USABILITY EVALUATION AND SITE REDESIGN