Usability Testing of Hotwire.com

1. Usability Testing of Hotwire.com Presented By: Julian Archer, Ilene Appel, Lindsay Day, Abigail Gaston

2. Outline • What Is hotwire.com? • Who are the users? • Task List • User feedback • Recommendations • Questions

3. What is Hotwire.com? • Travel site that offers hotels, airfare, car rentals, cruises, and travel deals at a discounted price • There is a catch to some of their deals • Cannot see hotel name before you pay for the hotel • Cannot see plane arrival/departure times and airline name for the special airfare rates • They do have many that you can see times and airline • Our usability testing focuses on hotel booking, air travel, and cruises

4. Who are the users? • User Profile 1 • College Student Ages 18-25 • Traveling with a friend or significant other • Possibly looking for: • An affordable weekend trip • Last minute trip • User Likes • Cheap travel • Continental Breakfast • Non stop flights • Bar at the hotel • User dislikes • Expensive trips

5. Who are the users? • User Profile 2 • Middle aged to older adult • Traveling with family or significant other • Possibly looking for: • Family friendly trips • Package deals • Multiple rooms • Affordable • User likes • Pools • Continental breakfast • Area Attractions/ Entertainment • User dislikes: • Noisy areas • No local attractions • Expensive trip • Smoking

6. Task List • User Profile 1 • College Student booking a Spring Break trip • College Student booking a last minute weekend trip • Newlyweds looking for a good hotel deal • Your parents are coming into town for the weekend and you are trying to find them an affordable hotel

7. Task List • User Profile 2 • You are booking a cruise for you and your spouse • Booking a weekend trip to go visit an out of town friend • Looking for a good hotel deal for a trip for you and one other person • Your family and friends are coming into town for an important event and you are trying to find them affordable hotels • You are trying to find a trip that is family friendly

8. User Feedback • In general, hotwire is easy to navigate • Couldn’t find how to search by cruise departure port (Side note: Those that were tested earlier in the semester had this issue. Those who were tested more recently did not have this issue because hotwire updated their website) • Should combine search by port and search by destination into one search • Cruise information is hard to read • Did not want to use help and some had trouble finding the help

9. User Feedback • All users did not like that they could not see the hotel name • Users found the hotel map very confusing and said they would not use it • Liked the hotel amenities icons

10. Heuristic Evaluation • Good Heuristics • There are clear exits. On each screen there is an area where the traveler can refine their search. • It is clear when the screen is updating. • Compared to other travel sites the pages are not crowded with information or ads. • Overall, the site is user friendly

11. Bad Heuristics • Drop-down menu items should be clear and easy to read. On hotwire, selectable items within specific search menus are grouped too close together; text is too light; and all the letters are capitalized. • Map display of potential hotel locations should be easy to read, with options available to specify where user does not want to be located. For example, no hotel at a distance greater than 2 miles from a specific attraction can be booked. The maps also do not have a key that explains the green area is where your hotel will potentially be located • On every page, the important tabs at the tops of the pages are grayed out.

12. Bad Heuristics • User’s should be aware of system limitations before or during the initial stages of a time consuming task. Hotwire does not make it clear to novice users that they are not allowed to reveal the name of a hotel before it is booked.

13. Recommendations • Tabs should be bolded & bigger to draw attention to those areas • Have a key that explains what the green area on the map is. Also have a separate list of area attractions and restaurants for those who do not like to read maps. • The two cruise searches should be combined into one. • Display important notes next to frequently clicked areas (e.g. search menus) instead of hiding them in the help menu that people will naturally avoid using

14. Recommendations • Give user the ability to select area on potential hotel location map that they do not want to stay. • Design expandable calendars where users can zoom out and look at a yearly projection.

15. Questions?