-By Tanya
This blog intends to provide an in-depth evaluation of the software product, the Priceline website. I chose this website because I found some issues while using it for booking a flight. Priceline is an online travel agency for finding discounted deals for hotels and flights all around the world. To ensure a well-ordered booking process, the user experience of the site is essential. Hence, to evaluate the site's usability, I performed the Heuristic evaluation using Neilsen's ten general principles for interaction design. In addition to that, I also analyzed the website with real users using the think-aloud protocol remotely. The three participants selected had different demographic information and experiences with the internet.
Some key issues were recognized while evaluating the website and some recommendations to solve the problems are suggested too.
Usability Issues and Recommendations
1. Multiple tabs open with almost every click of a button:
User Problem: On clicking a single button, the website opens the link in a new tab by default. It causes an increased clutter of the task information. Hence the user has to put more effort into managing the content. The users also face difficulty going back as they usually use the back button.
Recommendations: Example, when choosing a hotel deal by default, the link should not open in a new tab as it becomes difficult for the user to go back, and after seeing some hotel deals, their window fills up with distinct pages.
Heuristic 4: Maintain consistency and adhere to standards was broken.
Figure 1: Multiple tabs open for a single task
2. The confusing price breakdown of round trip flights:
User Problem: It is not clear that for round trip flights, the prices displayed on the departure page are for return flights also or not. On the return page, some flights show zero dollars as their price. The customers get confused about whether the return flight is free. Furthermore, only on the trip summary page, does the user come to know that the prices are in USD.
Recommendation: The price breakdown of departure and return flights should be clear and separate. More knowledge about the price should be visible when the user hovers over it. The currency in which the fare of flights displays should also be visible in the beginning. Additionally, on the trip summary page, an option to see the base fare, taxes, and other charges can show the transparency of prices.
Heuristic 2: Match between the system and the real world was broken.
Figure 2: Confusing price details
3. Not flexible enough to change a single condition before checkout:
User Problem: The user has no option to change a condition on the trip summary page. Though the user wanted to change only the return date, they had to go through all the selections again. Furthermore, the change flight link is not that visible and discoverable by the users.
Recommendation: The departure and return flight should have different options to change flights and be easily discoverable by the users. So that if the user wants to change the return flight, they should not be required to select the departure flight again.
Heuristic 7: Flexibility and efficiency of use was broken.
Figure 3: Only one link to change both flights
4. Missing information like the refund policy:
User Problem: Before making any purchase, users tend to find the refund policy of the company. There is no option listed on the website to know the refund policy of the company.
Recommendation: There should be a clear policy definition of refunds defined on the website that can either be linked from the footer or in the FAQs section. It can also be dynamically be loaded on the deals and trip summary page so the user has a clear understanding of the policies. This will help in increasing not only customer trust but will also help to decrease the number of support tickets the company might be getting.
Heuristic 10: Help and documentation was broken.
Heuristic 7: Flexibility and efficiency of use was broken.
Figure 4: No proper information regarding the refund policy
5. Some features were not compatible with all browsers:
User Problem: The frequently asked questions were not closing in the firefox but were working accurately in google chrome. While collapsing a question, the page reloaded and displayed the same data again.
Recommendations: Every feature of the website should be made browser compatible.
Heuristic 4: Consistency and standards was broken.
Figure 5: Page reloading and showing the same data
6. Only one way to contact the company via call:
User Problem: There should be at least two ways to contact a company. So that in case a method is not working, a customer can use the other way to get in touch with someone in the company.
Recommendation: Add two or three more ways a user can reach out to someone in the company. The other methods of contact can be an email address, social media, or a live chat on the website.
Heuristic 4: Consistency and standards was broken.
Figure 6: Only one contact number
Conclusion
Priceline.com is one of the largest online travel booking websites. So the system was evaluated to determine issues faced by the users. From the results of the evaluation, we can see that some problems hinder the user experience with the system. For example, the users prefer transparency in prices and information before making any online purchase. Participants also do not like the clutter of pages when performing a single task. Candidates also want multiple ways to contact the company regarding any queries. Also, before launching, it is vital to make sure that all features are browser compatible. All users prefer a simple and more intuitive interface. Improving these issues can make the website more user-friendly and would be able to attract more customers. Making upgrades to the system can increase the sales of the company and give it a financial boost.
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