Priyana Patel DH 150: User Experience Design
The main activity that my project would support is travel planning. How can mobile technology enhance the decision-making challenges of travel booking, while valuing ease of use and cost-effectiveness? How can technology shorten this process?
The basic need involved for this activity is self-actualization. The concept of traveling is to accomplish a goal; such as to explore a new place or visit family or friends.
The current solution to book travel plans is to meet in person with a travel agent or book directly with the airline and hotel, via their phone line or website.
The limitations that can possibly be improved with digital technology are the visualization of options, individualized to the user’s preferences, such as price points, travel times, and relative locations. Additionally, technology can help narrow search choices based on these preferences to help the user book a trip more efficiently.
Users are young adults between the ages of 18 to 25 looking for cost-effective travel options. Users travel a couple times a year during the summer and winter and have proficient expertise with travel terms, guidelines, and regulations.
Users tend to book travel plans in the comfort of their home or living spaces, with friends or family members to communicate options. If alone, users generally utilize communication technology to further dicuss travel options.
To complete the activity, users first establish a travel destination along with their projected booking dates and travel companions, if any. Using this information, they search for flight and hotel options. Based on their preferences, they further narrow down their options. Once the user agrees upon an option, they proceed to figure out payment details to finalize their itinerary.
The contextual inquiry will be a direct interview at the participant’s home where they would usually conduct searches on their mobile device for travel-related information. The interview process directs the user to search for the average price of hotel in Los Angeles and a last minute flight to San Francisco. I collected user data using pen-paper notes that were later typed out along with transcribed voice reordings.
Field research script here
Digitized notes here
Interview recording here
Interview transcript with user answers here
I learned that the target user of a travel website and a user that is reflective of my community (a community of people looking to explore and not feel tied down to one place) values ease of use, previous customer satsifaction, and cost-efficient travel options. Things I would do differently would be to delve deeper into the user’s motivations behind traveling. My participant noted that she is currently looking for an apartment to live in during the summer and detailed her recent bookings with flights from Orange County to Seattle. She mentioned that she would look for flight options on her mobile device if she had to book a flight last-minute. She would also search for hotel options if she ended up somewhere and needed a place to stay as soon as possible. The target user values flexibility in their travel options however the multitude of choices presents a challenge to the limited screen area of mobile devices as well as mental decision-making.
Additionally, I would try to ask more follow-up questions in my next contextual inquiry interview to gain more insight from one-word answers. I was focused on adhering to the script while recording my participant, such that I did not pay as much attention to the participant’s behavior and untapped desires and needs. Based on this interview, it is clear that target users prefers a desktop travel user experience over a mobile travel user experience. Participants view the desktop travel sites to be more efficient and the go-to tool to book their trip. While users may use many travel sites to research information, they essentially use one site to book their trip. It would be interesting to further research the environment that a user completed these travel searches and if communication with others helps ease their booking process.