3rd Challenge: Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign
For this third challenge of the Ironhack pre-work, the aim now is to focus on usability. By starting with an actual application and doing audits, we gonna to understand how we can increase usability of application by bringing some changes by redesign. And today it’s about traveling…
Darling, let’s go to India
During this exercise our user type is be a young couple (27 and 28) of and it’s time to bring them in India to discover the Taj Mahal.
And According to the UNESCO explanation, the Taj Mahal is “an immense mausoleum of white marble, built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by order of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favourite wife, the Taj Mahal is the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”.
Dates:
To visit the Taj Mahal, a day would be enough, however, India is overflowing of wonderful places to discover, and it’s so far from Europe !
A 20 days long stay is more than recommended to visit and enjoy the country
- Nearest Airport: India
- Near Points of Interest: Agra Fort, Agra’s Other Tombs
- Currency: ₹ Rupees / € Euros
- Medical needs: vaccination, visa, etc.
An e-touristic visas is mandatory to come in to India, get vaccination against these disease : Measles, Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Cholera, Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis, Rabies , Yellow fever - Wardrobe recommendations
Overall, the Indian weather is hot and wet, it is important to think light clothing and modest wear. - Days needed to visit attraction.
A day will be fine to visit the whole mausoleum
Benchmarking and Heuristics, for problem solving approach
Main point
Based on The 10 Heuristics principles I built a chart, Evaluation
It’s a method on what I conduct my benchmarking.
Kayak and Sky scanner are the two application that have some bonuses by suggesting low prices calendar in the choices in the date (especially Sky scanner with the graph part) which is very interesting for the young couple saving money. However Trip Advisor propose more information about place where to stay, activities and restaurant, this is a collaborative platform with comments forums. That’s why I choose Trip Advisor for the couple of traveler going to India.
Problems founded when I interviewed users
Flexible Pricing, most of my interviewees are willing to book flexible dates, and there is not kind of this features on the Trip Advisor app, I consider this pain points as my main problem.
Not so minimalist, this problem could be linked by the look and feel, there is a lot of informations that bring confusion in the user mind, main page is flooded by too much colours, the image seems to be too impersonal, there is a lack of harmony between shape, maps in contrast, However the London based branding & design studio Mother Design gave some fresh air to the web application on desktop
Big up for short thumbs,
one of my users reported me that inputs located at the top of the screen are difficult to reach, and create a feeling of arduousness.
Thanks Thuy Gia Nguyen for this map ! It’s help us to understand how to determine the position of inputs, buttons !
Feeding plants, taking care of an animal, some of my user interviewees are responsible of plants or pet, it would be interesting to propose a collaboration to bring their own plant and delivered them to the florist of the town by creating a feature using geolocation.
Main problems I chose to solve
Redesign and solved this pain point.
I decided to redesign the pricing app, by adding colour informations and bring some ease to our fingers.
My thought before the next step
By the time, I felt the importance of the evaluation, and asking to other persons they bring a lot a of different points of view, each details bring new insights and contribute to increase the application.
During the pre-work I was led to thinking about design principles and how they can influence any experiences like wearing a mask that doesn’t fit in this pandemic times. And it’s help me to understand that an app has to be updated, not only because of aesthetics but usability.
