Challenge : Skyscanner redesign

For this challenge, we had to analyzing and redesigning a travel application. You can find below all details of whole process.

User type

You’ve decided to finally go visit that wonder that has been sitting in your dreams for a long time now : The Perito Moreno Glacier, in Patagonia, Argentina.

You don’t have a long time to plan but also you don’t need it. You’ll be travelling in 6 months and are open to almost any possibility but have a tight budget. You are price-cautious and prefer experiences where you have a chance to meet people and make acquaintances to enjoy the wonders together. You are not picky and you can accommodate with the most affordable, adventurous, genuine experience.

Travel research

Nearest airport :

The Perito Moreno Glacier is located not far from the town of El Calafate, the starting point for excursions to Los Glaciares National Park. The city has had an airport since the year 2000, so you can get there by plane from many cities: Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Mendoza, Bariloche, etc. It is served every day by the airlines LAN Argentina and Aerolíneas Argentinas.

Currency and exchange :

It’s recommended to pay in pesos and to bring enough cash with you in a foreign currency (euros or dollars) and to change money on the spot in the casas de cambio. You won’t be able to easily find a cash machine, not to mention the sometimes very long queues.

Medical needs :

For Argentina, no mandatory vaccinations are required, regardless of the origin of the traveler.

But it’s recommended to be up to date with “universal” vaccinations: diphtheria, tetanus, polio, whooping cough, measles, mumps, hepatitis B. And as there are still areas of poor hygiene in Argentina, recommended you should be vaccinated against 2 diseases that are still common:

• Hepatitis A;
• Typhoid fever.

You can bring medication that you normally use but it is advisable to take stomach protectors, antidiarrheal and motion sickness medications.

Compared to most Latin American countries (Peru, Bolivia, Brazil…), Argentina is a country without major health risks.

Wardribe recommendations :

Patagonia’s climate is cold and windy, so equip yourself with good walking shoes, warm and practical clothing for walking, like clothing for trekking. Do not forget a good windbreaker and sunscreen.

Days needed to visit attraction :

Patagonia faces a cold and wild climate. Unless you are attracted by the extreme conditions and want to avoid tourists at all costs, the mildest time to visit the Perito Moreno glacier is during the southern summer, January and February. This is also when the site is at its liveliest, as the ice floes regularly break off when the sun shines down on it.

You can also choose a compromise by choosing the period of March / April, less touristic and with a less extreme climate than in winter.

However, the Perito Moreno glacier is accessible all year round.

Benchmarking

Before taking airplane tickets, we analyzes 3 applications : Skyscanner, Kayak and Hopper with an Heuristic evaluation with Nielsen’s principles.

I file it in 3 categories :

1. Excellent
2. Correct but can be improved
3. Does not match the requirements of the principles

Why Skyscanner ?

When we go in travel with a tight budget and don’t have a long time to plan, this application is interesting because it’ a comparator of flights, hotels and car rentals worldwide in one site.

Test

I ask to 3 people who match with the user type to make a usability test on Skyscanner.

The test was in 2 phases, first a test in 5 seconds and after a longer test to make 3 simple tasks on the application.

First test : 5sec for watch the screen

This test allows to have the first perception of the user when he sees the screen for the first time.

Second test : Do this task on mobile application

• You are alone and you want to go in Patagonia 10 days and 9 nights in March, looking for a flight during this period.
• Keep the less expensive flight during this month.
• Search a car to go to the Perito Moreno Glacier from the El Calafate airport, choose the less expensive car.
• Search a hotel for one night near the glacier and with the best notation on tripadvisor for lone traveler.

What do we learn on these tests ?

Search results :

At first sight all interrogated users are the same first perception : the major functionality is to plan a trip. This perception is due to the 3 readable tabs in the home page : flight, hotel and car rent.

It’s was easy for all to search a flight given that it’s the first open tab you go on Skyscanner.

Frictions points to be improved :

• To search the cheapest flight , the functionality is not easy understandable
• When we have the result of our flight search, we have too many links that redirect us on other web pages or sites. The user experience is not fluid, and we don’t understand where we can buy the flight.
• When previewing the tickets, the days of arrival are not explicit between the time difference and the stopovers, the day of arrival can be misinterpreted.
• When we search for hire car, we can’t choose at first the number of passengers, we loose time to apply a filter for this task.
• For the hotel tab, the customer evaluation and the hotel stars are confusing. Furthermore, we don’t have a Tripadvisor evaluation for all hotels, so we loose time to search advice/evaluation on another site.

I think that the main problem with this application is that the user gets lost in his search. The user experience is not fluid, and we lose a lot of time in preparing our trip to make different back and forth between the application and the filters and different redirection links.

For the redesign I’m going to work on fluidity user experience to buy airplane tickets and add functionalities missing on hotel and care hire.

Prototype

Flight tab

Designed with Sketch

1. For more visibility on the depart and return dates, both appear on the page.
2. Now we have visibility for all months and which periods are cheaper or more expensive and we can adjust our travel directly according to the price.
3. « Apply » button was added. Before when you click on a date you are directly redirected to the home page. Now you can stay on the page and modify your request directly on the page, avoiding back and forth.
4. Too much information on this page before and after the filter and sort buttons. So for more visibility, I reduced it with a scroll-down button for main information.
5. And and I pulled up some information before the filter.
6. Added « love » button to save interesting tickets.
7. Before, when you clicked on ticket to have more information and details you had to scroll down to understanding how and where you can book your ticket. So, now you have a « book your ticket » button which opens an overlay with all price options.

Prototype

Hotel and care hire tabs

Designed with Sketch

1. Too much information on this page before and after the filter and sort buttons. So for more visibility I reduced it with a scroll-down button for main information.
2. For more visibility I added a map window to look all nearby locations. If we have a doubt when you pick your location you can take a look if hotels are close.
3. We can be confused between the customer evaluation and the hotel stars so now it’s delimited with a line.
4. I put the numeral evaluation note to avoid misunderstanding with stars. It was clear on filters overview but not on the page. And proposing other providers than tripadvisor to always have a note and not go back and forth for looking on the web.
5. For care hire, we couldn’t choose at first the number of passenger, we lost time to go back and forth and apply filters for this task. Now we have the option directly on the first page.

Now we can apply those interactions in Invision studio:

Click here to view the project `Skyscanner`

What did I learn ?

This project was really captivating and I think it was the most complete of the three projects. It gave me the opportunity to apply all elements we learn during lessons.

I had never used the heuristic evaluation of Nielsen’s principles for a benchmark and it was really interesting. It gave me a good overview of strengths and weaknesses.

I think the most difficult but the most interesting was, after interviews, to understand, select user needs and transcribe it on wireframes.