Flight  Site UX

User Interview | Interactive Prototype | Usability Testing

Research

I went right to the user on this, beginning with 1-on-1 interviewing in a directed storytelling format.  I synthesized these interviews into a user-goal which served as our guide throughout the process.  After exploring industry standards, I began deliberating site content and functionality.

Idea / Plan

I started with paper and pen.  I made paper prototypes to test concepts.  After these proof-of-concept sketches, I created a series of low-fidelity wireframes.  I then broke-out to designing the total user-flow. After more dialogue and feedback I revised these wireframes to better contain the user-info gathering process.

Test

Using AxureRP I created an interactive prototype of our main innovation, the dynamic-panel questionnaire for user-info gathering.  After more feedback, I filled out the design with more pages and a finished booking process.  I then designed and conducted a series of in-person user tests with this prototype in mind.  I synthesized that research into a report for my client.

Research

Interviews

Start with the user!  I began by conducting 30 minute, directed-storytelling interviews with users surrounding an experience they had booking a flight online.  This storytelling technique allows me to gain a sense of where the experience broke down for them and get a sense of underlying motivations & emotions.  Being brought in so early in the process allowed me to inform the entire creative direction of the project.  This type of broader-experience research was pivotal for shaping decisions on content and functionality throughout the process.

Report

After these interviews I identified pain-points surrounding the users trust of their search results and feelings of being overwhelmed by (as User B stated) "all the moving parts."  I then conducted research of industry standards, getting a closer look at the break-downs my users described.  All my users mentioned a "narrowing-down" process that they used to decide.  Through sketching and search engines, I began researching ways this site might simulate these natural processes.

Plan

Dynamic-Panel Questionnaire

In order to reduce the users feeling of "too many moving parts" within the flight-booking experience, we moved our info-gathering to a single dynamic box.  It takes the form of a "quiz" or questionnaire with easy to answer, single questions.

Test

Interactive Prototype

Using AxureRP I created an interactive prototype for testing our primary user-tasks, such as the tabbed navigation, sidebar and dynamic box questionnaire.  I refined this prototype after feedback from my team, filling out the site for the tests; adding pages and a final payment experience.

TESTING

I did a series of 1-on-1 user tests.  I designed a script and conducted the tests in-person myself.  These tests revealed break-downs within our own experience which I synthesized into a report, recommending re-designs and easy-fixes.  For example, I found that the side-nav needed to be moved closer in proximity to the dynamic-box, for clarity of function and ease of access.