Skyscanner Usability Evaluation & Site Redesign
For this Ironhack’s third challenge, we have been asked to jump into the shoes of a world traveller. Through his eyes, we will analyse the user experience of a travel app and identify the pain points that the user finds while he is trying to plan his trip.
Our goal is to recognise pain points and redesign the app’s friction areas to make it more user friendly. Firstly, we will go deep down through the user’s experience and ideate a proper solution after analysing its interaction with it through driving tests and interviews.
THE RESEARCH
Our User Persona is a world-trotter, backpacker — 18–38 y/o like Olivia:
Olivia is planning her next trip to one of the seven wonders of the new millennium, the Taj Mahal, in India. She wants to go by herself and, after some years travelling around from time to time, she sees herself ready for it.
She has some specifics for the trip that she will have to have in mind when she starts looking for the trip flights and accommodation:
- The closest airport is Indira Gandhi International Airport, located in New Delhi.
- The local currency in India is the Indian Rupee (INR).
- Citizens from Europe need to apply for an online visa to enter the country as tourists.
- It is recommended to get vaccinations to visit India as some diseases are still active in the country.
- It is only needed a day to see the Taj Mahal.
LET’S GOING TO TEST!
I interviewed five users that were reuniting the same characteristics as Olivia. After showing our users the most well-known travel apps available nowadays: Kayak, Skyscanner, Trip Advisor, and Hopper. I performed usability testing analysing factors, as the following ones, to see which one performs better for my user type.
After a quick exploration through the features app, most of my users became more familiar with Skyscanner and Tripadvisor than Hooper. 3/4 users found Skyscanner more user- friendly, so I decided to be the platform we would go deep into. They found Skyscanner more straight forward to their purpose: find the cheapest flights. They were not distracted by many other inputs than to search for a flight when planning the trip compared with Tripadvisor, which offers many different inputs to plan your trips restaurants, main attractions, and others.
WHAT ABOUT THE INSIGHT?
After that first exploration, I went deep down, researching my user’s experience within the app. I structured the research into two parts:
- A 5-second test, showing them the app’s screen and then asked them: What did you see? What can this tool do for you? Where would you search for a flight?
- A 20-minute test and interview with tasks to complete using the app.
Through using the method of guerrilla testing, I got to know the user’s main friction areas and pain points regarding:
Creativity 3, 2, 1…
TIME TO REDESIGN!
After performing the interviews and collecting the vital information and inputs from the users’ interaction with Skyscanner; I started the creativity to design the solution to the previous friction areas; the key to the design thinking process.
ABOUT THE HOMEPAGE As previously commented, the users felt that the homepage was a bit dull and empty, even though their chose Skyscanner not to get distracted. The users were missing a travel alert considering the pandemic situation we are living into. I decided to add a bar with this travel information and add a couple of more top deals to consider before looking for a flight.
ABOUT AIRPORT LISTING OPTIONS The airport listing presentation was looking a bit poor considering the number of airports that some countries can have within their borders; I thought it would be a good idea to create a feature where the user can see the location of the country’s airports looking for. Then the users can have an idea of which airport is the most suitable for their destination.
ABOUT CHOOSING DATE When it comes to choosing the date, the users were missing some more information. I found it useful to show an approximate colour fare guide into the calendar to make it easier for them to find the best dates and get the best deal.
ABOUT FILTER OPTIONS Once the users decided where to go they needed to filter their results to purchase the cheapest ticket for them. I redesigned this filter option to make as less as clicks possible, making this process faster, more precise, and useful. Adding an on-off button on the right side of the filter option and erasing the option of jumping to another page, make more user friendly this filtering for the user’s purpose.
And last but not least:
ABOUT SORT OPTIONS After all the previous changes, it was more user-friendly to show the priority sort that the users chose already on the page, and not making the users click into “sort” to see the priority selected. In addition to that, I erased some of the sort options as the users found them not substantial enough to appear.
Redesigned Interactive Prototype
and after all, LEARNINGS are key…
This challenge has been incredibly challenging, and this is never better said! It has been a discovery on how to study the user’s interaction with an app, changing our first ideas, and realising how much we can see through the users’ eyes, emphasising their needs. In addition to that, discovering Figma Interactive Prototype tool has been great. It has added more motivation to the one I already have about UX design and a significant step to learning about this fantastic world.
“I’m not the user of the product; I’m creating and evaluating.”
