Usability Project
This post is about one of the projects of my prework for the UX/UI Design Bootcamp at IronHack Barcelona. The challenge is to create a user type/scenario, conduct testing and redesign wireframes.
I started off this task by doing a benchmark on Skyscanner, Tripadvisor and Kayak. As Skyscanner is the option I always go for personally when planning a trip, I decided that this was the best option to work on. The goal is to make sense of what to improve in a future iteration of the site.
During this project, we also looked into how to conduct Usability Heuristics, as it’s easily done and can help to establish the best corrective measures.
“Heuristics are experience-based techniques for problem-solving, learning and discovery. Heuristics allow you to think through the possible outcomes quickly and arrive at a solution that will work for your unique problem.”
Skyscanner
Skyscanner is a travel search engine, showing options of hundreds of airlines, hotel, car rental and travel agency websites, all in one place — a comparison website. Skyscanner helps to find the best price and best trip, thanks to the option of adding filters and customising the journey to show the best options from third party players.
User Research
To understand the users of Skyscanner, I chose to interview 3 people, ages between 35–50, two females and one male, two based in Sweden and one based in Barcelona. All three like to travel and have gone on trips multiple times. Two of them is a married couple and always travel together, while the other one likes to travel alone to discover new places. All three interviewees were familiar with Skyscanner — 2 had used it to book flights before, and 1 had only used it to browse flight options. None of them had used it to book a hotel room or rent a car. The tests were done on an iPhone, from the Skyscanner application. Only one of the users had actually used the app before, the other two have only used the web based app and website.
As they were familiar with, and users of Skyscanner, there was no issue for them to find their way around the app. I asked them to pretend to plan a holiday trip to Bali from Barcelona and that they were all on a budget, they would need housing and transport at arrival.
Important information to consider before going to Bali:
Airport: Ngurah Rai International Airport
Currency exchange: 1 Rupica = 0,000058 Euro
Visa requirements: For Europeans there is a 90 day Tourist Visa
Other recommendations: Bring sunblock, causal and airy clothing, hats
During the interviews I asked them both about the current experience with the app, and also about their previous experiences with Skyscanner. During the testing, the app itself wasn’t hard to use, however, some feedbacks were:
User Feedbacks
- When I was redirected from Skyscanner to the third party website, I had to re-enter all my search information again?
- Skyscanner showed me a good and cheap flight option from an airline that I have never heard of before, not sure if it’s a legit airline/website.
- There are a lot of pop ups and distractions which makes me stressed while trying to book my flight.
- I don’t like sharing my credit card information with an unknown flight company.
- In order to go to Bali, I’d need to book 2 tickets (layover) as there are no direct flights. Most options have a layover and some of those are from 2 separate companies, and I need to book from both of those sites. So instead of having to book 2 flights, I might end up booking 4 flights from 4 different companies.
I asked the users what would be a more comfortable option for them, what would make them feel more safe to share important information such as bank details and passport numbers. The main anxiety is created when the user is being redirected to the third party websites. When the user steps onto unknown ground is when the issues begin. They trust Skyscanner, and keep going back to the app, so this app itself they do trust.
Solution
Skyscanner could keep their users happier and feel more comfortable by having a payment option in their own app, or “in-house payment” option. It could be integrated with the third party sellers, and work the same way financially, but the payment would be done at Skyscanner. Then Skyscanner would redirect the payment from the user to the partner, and act as a middleman. In this way, the user wouldn’t feel the stress of entering private details about themselves on websites they don’t trust.
They would also have the ability to add the flights, pick hotels and car rentals, while Skyscanner would automate the administrative tasks of the process. It would all be collected in the same app, which makes it easier to book a travel with everything from the same place.
Example of Wireframes designed in Figma
Take outs
It has been very interesting to work on this project. As a frequent Skyscanner user, I can relate to the issues that the users face while using the app. I have also been feeling anxious when filling out card details to airline company websites that I have never heard of earlier (luckily, I have never had a bad experience). However, I can definitely relate to the stress.
I do realise that this suggested solution probably would be a big change in many ways for Skyscanner. The website is created to be a comparison website, not a middleman.
The wireframes turned out to be quite improvised, as this option does not currently exist in the Skyscanner app. The first Wireframe is a replica of one page from the app, while the last 2 are completely made up.
I have a lot to learn in terms of both User research, conduct testing, create/redesign wireframes, as well as getting to know Figma better.
