Hotel booking process design & usability
Travel UCD – February 2003
Site name
Explanation
Downtown
Disney
Incorrect adult entry
Two users did not add the second adult to the reservation, in order to achieve
a correct double-
occupancy level rate. One of these users was trying to click on the reservation summary on the
right
in order to add further adults, rather than the icon on the left. (Both shown below)
Date selection
Two users couldn’t work out how to select a date.
On the
calendar, you have to select both a start and an end date. The users assumed that if one
block was showing, then a date had been entered.
Per night and total cost
One user confused the total price (displayed in the middle, in the rate box), with the per night
price. Because they
had selected three days, they assumed there were no hotels within their
budget, which was a per night budget.
Rate selection
One user never selected a rate, so a price was never displayed. This caused sufficient confusion
to prevent the user from completing the task.
Couldn’t work it out
One user couldn’t work out the booking process at all.
Expedia
No task failures
All users successfully completed all tasks on Expedia,
in this usability test
Source: Travel UCD Research, January 2003
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