Usability Evaluation: Tripadvisor Website

A detailed process of the research, analysis & end-product of the project

The Tripadvisor website serves as a digital booking tool for those that are interested in booking a hotel, attraction, restaurant or cruise. However, unlike purchasing tickets for attractions, users are unable to book a hotel, restaurant or cruise through Tripadvisor as they will be redirected to an external website. Thus, this evaluation only concerns the booking process for attractions.

I decided upon 5 main test goals that were essential features and steps for users to complete the booking process. these are:

• Users can sign up successfully for an account.
• Users are able to search for relative attractions in their desired travel
destination.
• Users are able to use the filter feature to further narrow down the options.
• Users are able to view the features of the attraction, such as the details,
itinerary, operator and reviews before proceeding to reserve tickets.
• Users are able to view their bookings after completing payment.

My chosen user group were young adults, ranging from 21-25 years-old. This was an appropriate group for the evaluation as majority of young adults would not have much experience with using booking websites, thus the participants would be interacting with Tripadvisor's features and processes with fresh eyes. 

Although a typical test session would require 5 participants for each user group, we were only required to conduct 2 test sessions. My chosen participants were both 21 year-old students from Temasek Polytechnic and neither of them had any previous encounters with booking websites. The test sessions were conducted with the remote and moderated method. 

The following are the usability metrics  that were collected for all test goals scenarios:

• Completion Rate

• Task Time

• Number of Errors/Mistakes

• Usability Problems Observed

• User Satisfaction

A total of 5 scenarios that corresponded with each test goal was created, these test goals were created with the sole purpose of stimulating a realistic scenario and they are as follows: 

Scenario 1: You graduated from university a few weeks ago and your friends
are keen on taking a trip together to celebrate this milestone. Using Tripadvisor, sign up for an account.

Scenario 2: You are interested in travelling to Bangkok, Thailand for a short 5
day getaway from the 20th to 24th of February after considering a list of
historical and religious sites in Asia. Using the search feature, search for
attractions in Bangkok.

Scenario 3: A bunch of attractions varying in activities have been listed for you. You are keen on booking a full-day and customizable tour with your friends to view your preferred historical and religious sites such as The Grand Palace and the City of Ayutthaya. Furthermore, you are keen to spend a maximum of $200 per person and would appreciate a guide that is fluent in English. Using the filters, narrow down your options to find and select tour that fits this itinerary plan.

Scenario 4: Having selected an appropriate tour, you are now keen on viewing the details of the tour to ensure that it is the right fit for your group. Analyze the details, itinerary and reviews to ensure that this tour is suitable for your preferences before proceeding with payment. Do not finalize the payment.

Scenario 5: Now having completed your payment, navigate to the ‘Bookings’ section to ensure that your tour has been booked.

Overall, only tester 1 encountered difficulties which resulted in 2 failures for scenarios 3 & 4. This resulted in a success rate of 8/10. 

Despite the 2 fails experienced by user 1, neither of the participants required an unusually long time to complete each task. Thus, the time to task component does not register any failures. 

A total of 6 questions (5 post-task and 1 post-test) which asked the participants to rate each task and the overall test session on a scale of 1-5 were recorded down. Using the 5 Point Likert Scale, the averages ranged from 5 to 3, varying based on the complexity of the task.

Despite the 2 fails for scenarios 3 & 4, I only decided to focus primarily on scenario 3 (Major) as the first participant's error with scenario 4 was simply due to a misunderstanding of the instructions. Furthermore, I also decided to highlight certain aspects of scenarios 1 (Minor) & 5 (Minor) for improvement as well, based on the testers' feedback and observation during the sessions.

Tester feedback highlighted the inconspicuous placement of the 'Join' button, which can only be accessed after clicking 'Sign In' from the home page. Furthermore,  the use of the word 'Join' seems a little unfamiliar as users are more accustomed to 'Register' or 'Sign Up'. Thus, to fix these issues, I recommend adding a 'Register' button next to the 'Sign In' prompt on the home page. This provides users with a more efficient and simpler method to sign up for an account with Tripadvisor. 

Although I am not completely sure if this issue is present or not due to the exclusion of finalizing the payment process, I am assuming that Tripadvisor does not provide a 'Return to home' button after users complete the payment. This makes it a little confusing for users, especially if they are unaware that clicking the logo on the top left will redirect them back to the page. Thus, in the event that this assumption is true, I have decided to include a 'Return to home' button to provide users with a direct path back to the home page.

Based on observation from the 2 test sessions, I noticed that when selected differing filter choices from the initial 'Things to do in Bangkok' page results in users being presented with a different set of resultant filters. This made it confusing and challenging for participant 1 as the filters he was provided with was not as comprehensive as compared to participant's set of filters (the same set I was presented with when analyzing the website). Furthermore, positioning the filters on the side of the screen made it tedious since users would have to scroll up and down to find certain categories. My recommendation to rectify this issue would be to use a standard set of filters for every page, as well as situating the filters in a row above the attractions options. Thos reduces the need for users to scroll up and down the page continuously when searching for their desired filter.