IRONHACK Challenge 3: Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign
Evolve is an important step in every person’s life. The same counts for Products like Apps. Today I’m going to conduct a usability evaluation and redesign a travel app to be more useful for specific users.
For this Challenge, I will be going to jump into the shoes of world travelers. The goal is to visit one of the seven wonders of the new millennium and I choose Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro as a reference for our redesign and base for the interviews.
There is a big variety of users in this case and I choose a Backpacker for this exercise.
Worldtrotter, Backpacker — 18–38 y/o (1)
You’ve decided to finally go visit that wonder that has been sitting in your dreams for a long time now. Yo don’t have a long time to plan but also you don’t need it. You’ll be traveling in 6 months and are open to almost any possibility but have a budget constraint. You are price-cautious and prefer experiences where you have a chance to meet people and make acquaintances to enjoy the wonder together. You are not picky and you can accommodate the most affordable, adventurous, genuine experience.
Let’s discover the destination
There are two Airports in Rio de Janeiro:
“Rio de Janeiro-Antônio Carlos Jobim” and “Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont”
It’s a big city, but the airports are very close. Jobim is the main Airport, and the primary the one you arrive at, and Dumont the smaller second one but directly next to the Centrum of Rio de Janeiro.
From Airport to Center:
Rio de Janeiro-Antônio Carlos Jobim — 24 minutes by car / 1 ½ hour by public transport.
Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont — 11 minutes by car / 20 minutes by public transport
- The Currency in Brazil is the Real (R$, BRL) but a lot of hotels and restaurants also accept the euro and us-dollar. The downside here is the worst exchange course.But you can exchange your money directly in the city for the daily courses. Credit Cards and Maestro are also a legit way to pay for your trip.
- As a German citizen, you don’t need a visa to travel 90 days in Brazil. The Only Thing is a passport that is valid 6 months before the travel. Also, you don’t need any vaccinations but there some recommendations for example measles or yellow fever. In the times of COVID-19, you need a valid negative test not older than 72 hours
- Rio de Janeiro is a tropical place and the average temperature is around 27 degrees Celcius.
- You can see the highlight of Rio de Janeiro in 2 days inclusive Christ the Redeemer
Benchmarking some competitors
For this challenge, I compared 3 different travel apps (Kayak, Skyscanner, Trip Advisor) on the basis of Heuristic Evaluation by Jakob Nielsen and found the best fitting app for my user.
Here are the 10 principles of Heuristic Evaluation
1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
10. Help and documentation
I start to benchmarking applications for my user group
After I compare all 3 Apps for the needs of my user am a clear winner with Trip Advisor. The Design of Kayak and Skyscanner is very simple but the big con is you can’t search for tours, attractions or you have no communication platform with other tourists. There are simple booking apps. My user group travels alone, wants to meet new people, and is very spontaneous. So TripAdvisor fits very well as an all-in-one user experience.
Trip Advisor benefits for my User Group
- You can very easily organize your trip and spontaneous looking for an attraction and restaurant reviewed in the App
- A lot of opportunities choosing the right place to sleep
- Simple Review System
- A Forum for travelers where you can ask a question or maybe organize a hangout
User Test
I choose three people who fit my user type for a user test. Before I interviewed users, I made them do a “5 seconds test” to get a feeling how good the app communicated her business.
5 Second Test
Here you can see the home screen of my chosen App TripAdivsor. My Interview partner looking for 5 seconds this image and answer the following questions:
- What did you see?
- What can this tool do for you?
- Where would you search for a flight?
Here are the answers of my interview partners. Everybody could understand what this app can do for you and remember where they can search for a flight.
Person A:
A1: A travel application
A2: Booking Flights and Hotels
A3: The Airplane Icon
Person B:
A1: An App for planing my trip
A2: Show me POI next to my location
A3: There wa a Airplane Icon in the middle
Person C:
A1: Booking vacation
A2: Book flights and hotels
A3: Airplane Icon in the middle
The Interviews
Next step was interviewing the same users and doing a usability test. I asked them to do the following tasks:
You are planning to visit Brazil to finally see the Christ Redeemer Statue and combine this with exploring the city for a few days.You travel alone and want to meet people and enjoy Rio de Janeiro together.
- What kind of budget do you have?
- What is the most important when picking a flight?
- Can you find any hotels or Apartments in your price range?
- Can you find something helping you see the Christ Redeem?
- Is there a way connecting with people
- How would you choose a restaurant for dinner?
- How do you feel using the App? Was there anything hard to do?
Results:
The test users are not in big trouble to accomplish the tasks, but I noticed all got problems with the following parts:
- The Filter and Map Button
It’s difficult for the user to recognise the filter and map button on the bottom overlapping with information. - Setting a price range for booking a hotel
There is no way to set a price range in the filter. So every test user goes lower price first but skipping till the reach the personal price range - Feedback for your filters
All users got problems with understanding if the set the filter correct. The Feedback is not very good - Using the Map
The map was for 2 of 3 people not useful and more frustrating. All interview partners don’t want to use this feature because of the overwhelming User Interface.
With this pain points I decided to improve the user flow finding a Hotel.
Redesign
First, I drew a rapid prototype by hand. The main things I changed are the Map and Filter Icon for more consistency to the top of the screen.This was the main problem for the most user. After this I start to tidy up the layout. A good way to do this for me was the Guideline of Google Materials Design that I learned a few months ago. I stick to these guidelines for all Wireframes to give them more consisten
The second big part of my User interviews was the filters. The system is not very efficient and I start to redesign it from scratch and give the user a signifier after he sets up the filters. You can also find a Prototype here.
Conclusions
This challenge was a good step to improve my skill set and get a good start doing a Usability Evaluation for a more common thing like a travel app. Benchmarking the Apps by using the Heuristics was a big challenge for me but let me understand how the working. I also did interviews before but it was so interesting seeing how people are using the app and how difficult UX is to be fit for everybody. I had a lot of fun creating the wireframes and (I hope so) evaluate the TripAdivor App in a good way. I appreciate any Feedback about it and maybe you can tell me how you should do it.
Thanks for reading and I’m looking forward to starting my bootcamp in 2 weeks!
