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Note Taking

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 To get a full understanding of how to conduct my first usability test, I undertook an exercise to watch two usability tests with two users Involving Aer Lingus and Eurowings.

This was great to not only get to take note of the questions that were asked and how neutral they have to be but also to see how problems can manifest through simple design mishaps.

The first user was a great example. She struggled to move through the booking process because of a lack of affordances nudging her through the process. She struggled to see what was not selected before being able to move to the next page.  

Usability Test Notes


Colour Key:
Positive
Negative

Desktop Test 1

User Profile 1:

Occupation:             Homemaker


Location:                  Drimnagh, Dublin, Ireland


Usual Devices:         IPad, Phone, Has Broadband


Apps:                        Ryan Air, Airlingus, Games, Social networks, Sports


Travel:                       Pleasure, three holidays this year


Destinations:            Dubai, UAE, Lanzorte, Benidorm, two flights to Liverpool with big groups.

Previous Booking Experiences:

She tends to book flights online and doesn’t use aggregator websites. She also knows what time and location she wants beforehand.
 
The most important thing when booking is the price, then the time of flight.

For her last flight, she was comparing prices with her sister-in-law on Aer Lingus and Ryan Air at the same time In the room together comparing. She was the main decision-maker.


Task 1:


Aer Lingus Flight
Cork - Faro Algarve Portugal
October 28th - November 1st 

Travelling for the school midterm break starting Monday. She is looking to book a return flight the Saturday before (but can be flexible) for two adults.  

 
She starts with Google to get to Aer Lingus homepage. (notes she hasn't used a PC mouse in years)

 She confirms the home destination header of the page she acknowledges it’s already selected Ireland but has to choose Cork. 


Presses the confirm button to load the next page.

She became unsure of where to go next, even though the navigation bar was below with the selected airport, she went to the top drop-down menu instead to click on a link for the same page she is already currently on and struggled to find the correct link.
 

Has a good understanding of the promo code option.

Starts typing in the navigation and selecting the suggested destination.

For the dates, she wouldn’t type in the date as she likes the calendar in the drop-down menu to make sure she selected the right dates and has always done that.

Struggles to find the search flight button and tries to scroll down before realizing where it is.

She said a different colour would have been better and presumed it would be further down

She appreciates she can see other flight options clearly and the flight duration.

Likes that she doesn’t have to click on anything to see the price.

When prompted what she would like to see, she replied more daily flights as many surrounding days had no flights available and more flights to choose from on the day she is looking to travel.

She understood that the next option to continue her booking was to first look at the fares option.

Doesn’t see as much value on the more expensive packages but says she can compare them easily.

Instead of selecting the preferred package she clicks out of fairs and begins scrolling down the page and doesn’t know where to go from there.

Tries to click the dates on all the navigation bars repeatedly both at the top and on the return flights. 

Doesn’t acknowledge the economy button (that shows the fare options) she previously clicked on till she was suggested.

Once opened and viewing the packages, she doesn’t realise that she has to select the price as an option and closes it again.

After a hint, she realises that nothing has been selected as her total is 0. She at first thought that “Economy prices from €223” was what her package price was.

Once she selected her preferred option and the drop-down box closed she still didn’t know how to continue.

Continues to click on dates and momentarily didn’t know how to repeat the same actions to select fair options.


 
Understood the price lock option and said she would find it useful.


Experience:

  • She would prefer to be prompted to make a choice to continue.

  • Search icon a different colour to stand out.

  • Liked that information on one page would be included in the next (having the destination stay as cork when moving to the next page). 

  • Didn’t like fare options because she wasn’t prompted that a choice was needed to continue.


Task 2:

 

Eurowings Flight

October 28th - November 1st 

Any London airport to Barcelona, Spain.

Two adults, same scenario. 

Begins on Google again.

Hovers over the book tab momentarily and then clicks on discover (says it could be discover) to then go back to the booking tab.

Didn’t like being given the options for car rentals and flights straight away in the book tab.

Clicks on London all airports link, says it’s easier.

Types “Barcelona” out full without using any prompted suggestions.


Notices the ‘nice bright’ search for flights button.

 

Clicks on ‘search flights’ before putting in date and passenger details, prompting a warning notification. 

Says she wanted to be prompted before pressing search.

Types it in instead of using the calendar because she didn’t notice the calendar. Mentions it feels like it was leading her to type it in.

She was a bit hesitant with the passenger symbols but knew she needed to click on it.

Notices quickly that there is a stopover for both flights. Thinks the flight is too short for a stopover.
 
Likes that the stopover is communicated early and not later on. 


Notices price easily.

Says she would pay extra for longer flights but not for short flights and clicks on the cheaper option.

When clicking on the price, she used the back button to close the options but then went back to click on it again.

When asked about the three levels of packages. She roughly knows what they all mean without having to read into them.

 

Is unsure where to go with inbound and outbound flights when scrolling down. 

Doesn’t realise she hasn’t selected a return flight.

Understands what the flex option would possibly be.
 
Doesn’t notice she is returning to a different airport than departing.
 
A warning pop up about the different airports comes up which she thinks is helpful.

Says the message is also clear.
 
Happy with key information being at the side of the page at all times.

 

Struggles to move onto the next step after number two of the booking. 

Understands the baggage extras and symbols and skimmed over each of the options but she didn’t find it necessary.

Mentioned she may of wanted to see anything about legroom but didn’t click into them.

 

 


Experience:

  • First time she has ever used it but it wasn’t so daunting.

  • Appreciated the prompts.

  • Didn’t like the calendar format. 

  • Found it fairly easy. May have found it easier if she used it before.

  • Disliked not being clear enough about the different airports not coming up and so was surprised when the pop up appeared telling her, would have liked to be prompted earlier even though it was very useful. 

 

 

Desktop Test 2


User Profile 2:

Occupation:                 Administration


Location:                      Leitrim, Ireland


Usual Devices:            Mac book, iphone, has broadband


Apps:                           Health apps, emails, Whatsapp, Instagram, used to have Skyscanner, wallet. Used to use the Aer                                          Linguss app, used to use Ryan air. Would use her phone for tickets.

 

Travels a lot to Asia, Malaysia Bali and to the USA. Once a month before the pandemic. Was recently in Canada Italy Indonesia.

Book flights Skyscanner first, price first use as research, second connections. Then airline websites to compare price with Sky scanner for packages to see who is cheaper. Prefers using desktop because of the bigger screen.

She would Log into Skyscanner Searched for the flights on Skyscanner – Dublin to Montreal.

 
Found flights for Air Canada but went to their website to book and found them cheaper.


Most important piece of info was the time and date as she was meeting someone.

For that particular trip it was the dates and connections that was the most important.

Travelling by herself to visit one friend in Montreal.

In her group of friends she would be the one to take charge of organising, researching the best prices.

And for a trip to Italy a friend wanted to pay for her to fly to Italy and booked everything through Ryan Air and with her email.

They had to use two separate bookings at two different airports because of Ryan Air’s timings were not in-line with the time period she was looking to travel. 

They organised this trough Whatsapp and sharing screen shots.

 


Task 1:


Aer Lingus Flight
Cork - Faro Algarve Portugal
24th October - 31st October   

Travelling for the school midterm break starting Monday. She is looking to book a return flight the Saturday before (but can be flexible) for two adults.


Uses Google to find Aer Lingus was a bit surprised to have to have a pop up for the country and language.

Notices the huge green advert with the subject about flexibility and no charge fees. Says it doesn’t need to take up that much of the screen.

In the destination section she typed faro and clicked on the automated suggestion.

She uses the full calendar and finds it useful to see the days in this view as it’s similar to how her Macbook’s calender.

Finds no problem finding the next stages by using the search button.

She finds the layout for the flight information confusing, as she says “as someone who books a lot of flights I find this confusing and could end up going at the wrong time.”As the time of arrival is under the date where she would expect the departure time to be.

Is more concerned about departure time than seeing the flight length.

Says the website has not much colour and looks very a bit basic.

Finds the fare button quiet easily. 

Takes her time on the options and understands what each package would roughly entail.

She did note that the advantage offering would include things like priority boarding, and she would like to explore the idea of getting a lounge. Compares price to past experience. 

Would consider finding the price separate and purchase the saver first and figure out the remaining details like how much baggage they would need.

Noted that once the fare was selected and the drop window closed that she once again is looking at the arrival time thinking it was the departure time.

She understood what the price lock was without clicking on it but wouldn’t find it useful. Admits it could be a good option for big groups. 

 


Experience:

  • She was a bit unsure about the pop up at the home page. Would expect the site to be aware of the area and the language as she is in Ireland and it is a Irish airline.

  • Didn’t like the placement of the department time. As in a rush it could be glanced over and mentioned her friends would also make that mistake.

  • Found it mostly easy to follow and relatively a good experience.

  • She would like to see a option to select her baggage amount because she would use it, as there have been many rule changes with baggage size that now she just looks to book flights first and figure out baggage later.

 

 

Task 2:


Eurowings Flight
Cork - Faro Algarve Portugal
24th October - 31st October  
Two Adults


Uses Google to search for Eurowings but notices the first link is an add which she avoids using as she has booked through a third party and paid more.

She gets annoyed with all the cookie pop-ups that are all websites.

Finds the suggested destination links useful to populate the options without having to type.

Is a little confused about the calenders but then realises she needs to scroll across to October.

Realises that there is no flights on that Saturday so had to change her timings. 

When selecting passengers she noticed that she doesn't have to type the amount in and has to use the + - which she compares how it's easier and references amazon.

On the next page, she can easily identify all the key information she needs including times.

Notices that there is a stopover and knows to click on the information icon.

She did say she got all the information she needed from that window but then didn’t know how to close it without the X.

 

She then questions why BIZclass is not available. “If it’s not a option why is it there”.
She was also confused and somewhat annoyed at one of the conditions on the Basic package.

“We cannot guarantee that you will be able to take your item of hand luggage with you on board.”

She then had doubt about the process not knowing if she would need a locker of if the bag would be taken away from her. She noted that this would not be a preferable option. 


Upon looking at the SMART option, she noted she didn’t know what preferred seating means. She didn’t know what cabin carriage is.

She did want the priority boarding and she has more options for check-in.

 

She would choose the smart and for the return flight.

When asked about the flex option she knew what it would entail quite easily. 
After reviewing the information she did say that it would be useful
because she got stranded in Bail during the pandemic and was helpless to get in touch with staff to cancel.

She mentioned that mileage wasn’t much of an interest to her. Possibly in the USA but not for Europe.

She didn’t really notice the price lock option at the bottom of the page. Took her a second to realise what the option could be for.

Experience:

  • Much easier to navigate and smoother.

  • Liked the auto suggest for the airport 

  • It had more colour. Find the calendar easier.

  • The only thing that she would note, was the £4 price, could have been worded and placed better.

  • Baggage options were pretty straightforward.

  • Didn’t like options not being available.  

  • Better experience than Aer Lingus.

  • Clear layout.

  • Felt a bit faster than the other website.

  • Didn’t really notice the customer help chat, she wondered if she could talk to a person for a question instead of a computer.

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