Heuristic Evaluation: Hotels.com Presenters: Varely Cantu Abraham Castro Sylvia Tanguma Ankush Verma

Overview Hotels.com is a booking website Provides booking services for hotels, flights, and has group booking availability for expert users Has a rewards program to entice users to use the website Compares prices and ratings amongst other hotels

Heuristic Evaluation Jakob Nielsen’s Guidelines or Principles Visibility of system status Match between system and the real-world User control and freedom Consistency and standards Error prevention Recognition rather than recall Flexibility and efficiency of use Aesthetic and minimalist design Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors Help and documentation

Visibility of system status System should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time. When doing a search for a hotel the visibility of the system is poor, no cursor change or status update is provided. It automatically jumps to the result without alerting user the status of the search. (MacOS, Safari 8.0) Compatible with Google Chrome In the following slide we will compare with www.paypal.com that does show a status bar keeping the user informed by showing visibility of the system status.

Visibility of System Status Paypal.com Hotels.com Google Chrome Safari

Match between system and the real world The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Hotels.com is worded in a manner that native and non-native English speakers can understand and it is written in non-technical terms. Hotels.com has options to change the language for international users Hotels.com has options to change the currency, making the system a match with the real world

Match between system and the real world

User control and freedom Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo. When a hotel search is initialized the second page won’t let you reach the bottom links such as contact us, careers, etc.…. the page loads more hotels and keeps doing a loop.

User Control and Freedom Comparison Hotels.com Amazon.com

User Control and Freedom Search menu does not let the user choose a children as a default option. Compare with Hilton hotels

Consistency and standards Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions. When searching for hotel, there is no consistency between hotels, example is one is the deal of the day which has a border, sponsor listing which is highlighted in red, and regular search outcome. Hotels Search provides feedback of some prices being shown in black, some in red, and some scratched out. FAQ and Contact us link take you to the exact same page

Consistency and Standards Some hotels say how many rooms have left, some do not. Not consistent

Consistency and Standards

Consistency and Standards

Consistency and Standards

Consistency and Standards

Consistency and Standards FAQ and Contact us link take you to the exact same page

Error prevention Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place.  Good error prevention techniques are in place by limiting the dates to be chosen by a calendar  Good error prevention techniques by displaying precise landmark and city addresses. Button mentioned in consistency and standards changes to blue when all fields are filled in. Good error prevention.

Error Prevention

Recognition rather than recall Minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Hotels.com will auto complete a list of popular destinations as you type.

Recognition rather than recall Hotels.com will remember your most recent searches.

Flexibility and efficiency of use Accelerators – unseen by the novice user – may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. When making a search for a hotel, the user has an option of using filters to speed up productivity in a search. A novice user is most likely to be inclined in using default settings Expert users would most likely use the filters to speed up interaction with the search results

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Aesthetic and minimalist design Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility. Hotels.com fails to deliver minimalist design by providing information overload. User confused by many links Which deal do I choose? Where do I start?

Aesthetic and minimalist design

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution. Hotels.com provides immediate feedback when the user makes an incorrect entry. When completing the Sign in process, the user is alerted with pop-ups and steps to follow to make a successful sign in.

Help and documentation Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Contextual help tips on Hotels.com are clear for the user.

Help and documentation Hotels.com provides a direct link to Customer Service. The user can access tutorials, FAQs, and contact the company.

Help and documentation After accessing the Contact Us link, the user is provided with the opportunity to contact a Hotels.com representative by phone or through chat.

References Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich, "Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces," in SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Seattle, 1990. Neil, Teresa. (2009). 6 Tips for a Great Flex UX: Part 5.  Designing Web Interfaces. Retrieved from http://designingwebinterfaces.com/6-tips-for-a- great-flex-ux-part-5. www.hotels.com

Questions?

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