Usability Improvements for Touch-Screen Mobile Flight Booking Application: A Case Study

1. Usability Improvements for Touch-Screen Mobile Flight Booking Application: A Case Study Prepared by: Feyza Gündüz and Al-Sakib Khan Pathan Presented by: Al-SakibKhan Pathan Authors Feyza Gündüz and Al-Sakib Khan Pathan Department of Computer Science, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)

2. Introduction • Smart phones have introduced great easiness to our daily life by mobile applications. One of the easinessesprovided is buying flight tickets via mobile phones. However poor consideration of end-users in development phase leads to underutilization of such facility, thus decreasing potential profit of companies.

3. Introduction Airline ticket reservation is in top 5 most purchased online service[1] :

4. Introduction • Smart phone use is increasing and mobile commerce is expected to be future’s shopping style. • In near future, more people are expected to buy flight tickets using their mobile. • Challenge arises at that point : Many companies -> many customers. The one pleases the customer would win the competition of mobile commerce (M-Commerce).

5. User’s Experience

6. Experience and Preference • User’s experience affects user’s preference of using that application again. • When user perceives a mobile application easy to use, enjoy it to use and efficient in terms of provided services, customer’s loyalty is gained [2]. • Therefore, usability should be analyzed from the point of users.

7. Objective • The objective of the study is to identify usability problems for mobile flight booking applications on touch-screen phones, and suggest solutions. • Main expectations of users are presented from HCI perspective and discussed through a case study.

8. Related Works • Some research works have been done on the usability challenges of travel webpage and mobile commercial applications. Psychological background of user’s perception towards products are investigated. Guidelines for better application usability are suggested for different mobile platforms. • However, there is little research about usability challenges faced in touch screen phones, since it is a new technology.

9. Related Works M-commerce challenges and potential solutions.[3]

10. General User Experience Goals • Utility: usefulness, reliability • Usability: ease of use, efficiency, accessibility • Social value: connecting people, identification • Enjoyment: pleasure, stimulation

11. Methodology • In order to understand social and personal phenomena in the context, a qualitative approach is adopted in which we conducted interviewswith twenty(20) people at two phases and collected answers from questionnaires to increase the accuracy of results.

12. How was the study conducted? • 20 people aged between 18-40 randomly selected. • Interviews were conducted: • Users were asked to complete the task of buying a flight ticket to any destination of their choice. Their ticket buying processes were closely observed. • Notes and questionnaire results were analyzed. Research findings related to flight travel, usability concerns of mobile applications, and user satisfaction criteria were utilized as guidelines.

13. How was the study conducted? • Other market applications that offer mobile flight booking service were also explored for benchmarking. • Problem areas were detected and solutions were extracted from previous research findings and benchmarking analysis. • Second interview was conducted to obtain user’s reaction towards the prototype that was built to eliminate problems that had been found in the first interview.

14. Results What are the usability challenges that mobile flight booking applications face?

15. 1) Wrong choice of icons

16. 1) Placement of icons

17. 3) Redundancy of steps in completing tasks

18. 3) Redundancy of steps in completing tasks

19. 4) Naming of menus and sections • Guesses about the meaning of • “Mobile ticket” : • Movie ticket • Concert ticket • Flight ticket • SIM card, etc..

20. 4) Naming of menus and sections • Users expect “interaction”. • Need for a “talking” system. • Instead of “Flight planning”, choose • “Plan your flight”, • Instead of “destination”, • “Where do you want to go?”

21. 5) Uneasiness of single handed use

22. 6) Small and disorganized input fields

23. 7) Small selection fields

24. 8) Crowded and disorganized information presentation

25. 8) Crowded and disorganized information presentation

26. 8) Crowded and disorganized information presentation

27. Flight Planning

28. Flight Planning

29. Airport/City Selection

30. Date Selection

31. Date Selection

32. Passenger Selection

33. Cabin Selection

34. Flight Selection

35. Flight Selection

36. Flight Selection

37. Flight Details

38. Flight Details

39. Flight Details

40. Flight Details

41. Passenger Information

42. Credit Card Payment

43. Invoice Form

44. Confirmation

45. Confirmation

46. E-Ticket

47. To be Done Things … • Functions for disabled people, speech search, speech-to-text facilities, geo-locations services, personalized flight booking assistance have been omitted of this study due to its large complexity that will not fall under single work. • In fact, the entire process took considerable time from collecting data to analyzing the data, then designing appropriate graphical interfaces for practical implementation.

48. References • [1] Nielsen, Trends in Online Shopping: a global Nielsen consumer report [online] 2008. Available at [Last accessed 14 July 2012]: www.nielsen.com/solutions/GlobalOnlineShoppingReportFeb08.pdf • [2] Design aesthetics leading to m-loyalty in mobile commerce - Dianne Cyr, Milena Head, Alex Ivanov • [3] Designing Mobile Commerce Applications - Peter Tarasewich

49. Thank you

50. Q&A Any other query could be directed to sakib.pathan@gmail.com or sakib@iium.edu.my