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Enhanced User Experience for a Digital Travel Service and Associated Intranet

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Enhanced User Experience for a Digital Travel Service and Associated Intranet Enhanced user experience for a digital travel service and associated intranet Tove Barsk Tove Barsk VT 2017 Masters’s thesis in Interaction Technology and Design, 30 hp Supervisor: Håkan Gulliksson Examiner: Thomas Mejtoft Civilingenjör Interaktion & Design, 300 hp Abstract The advance of the Internet, with its sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger. Pre-trip travel planning can be considered a fundamental component of the trip experience. A traveler often needs to ob- tain important information in order to develop a travel plan. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate and enhance the user experi- ence for a digital travel service and associated Intranet wich main function is to help travellers find departures, arrivals and prices. Based on an usability analysis, and user studies and support from a literature review this master theses resulted in a design proposal for Länstrafiken Norrbottens external website and their Intranet as well as a couple of guidelines for designing or redesigning a travel website. Förbättrad användarupplevelse för en digital resetjänst och ett associerat intranät Sammanfattning Internets frammarch med de olika sofistikerade algoritmiska sök- motorerna har gjort det lika enkelt att hitta information som att lyfta ett finger. Att planera en resa kan ses som en vital del av själva reseupplevelsen. En resenär behöver ofta hitta mycket viktig information för att kunna skapa en bra reseplan. Objektivet för denna studie är att utvärdera och förbättra användarupplevelsen för en digital resetjänst och dess tillhörande Intranät, vilkas hu- vudfunktion är att hjälpa användare hitta avgångar, ankomster och priser. Baserat på en användarvänlighetsanalys, användarstudie och stöd från en litteraturanalys resulterade denna master uppsats i ett designförslag för Länstrafiken Norrbottens externa webbsida och deras Intranät. Contents 1 Introduction 5 1.1 Problem description 6 1.2 Objective 6 1.3 Yours Communications agency 7 1.4 Länstrafiken 7 1.5 About this master thesis 7 1.6 Restrictions 8 1.7 Thesis overview 9 1.7.1 Chapter 2 9 1.7.2 Chapter 3 9 1.7.3 Chapter 4 9 1.7.4 Chapter 5 9 2 Theory 10 2.1 User friendly web 10 2.1.1 Usability 10 2.1.2 Consistency 11 2.1.3 Hierarchy 11 2.1.4 Navigation 11 2.1.5 Ten usability heuristics for user interface design 12 2.2 Presenting information 12 2.3 Responsible responsive web design 13 2.4 Intranet design 14 2.5 Design of digital travel service 15 2.6 Theory summary 16 3 Method 18 3.1 Literature study 18 3.2 Analysis 18 3.2.1 Google Analytics 19 3.2.2 Earlier user survey 19 3.3 User observation of Intranet 19 3.4 Similar websites and applications 20 3.5 Website structure analysis 21 3.6 Sketching 21 3.7 Usability testing of website 22 4 Results 24 4.1 Analysis 24 4.1.1 Google analytics 27 4.1.2 Similar websites 27 4.1.3 Earlier user survey of external website 28 4.1.4 User observation of Intranet 30 4.2 Structure of website 31 4.3 Structure of Intranet 32 4.4 Prototypes 34 4.5 Usability tests of prototype 39 4.6 Finished prototype 40 5 Discussion 44 5.1 External website 44 5.2 Intranet 46 5.3 Method evaluation 46 5.3.1 Litterature study 46 5.3.2 Analysis 47 5.3.3 User observation of Intranet 47 5.3.4 Similar websites and applications 47 5.3.5 Structure 47 5.3.6 Sketching 47 5.3.7 Usability testing 48 5.4 Resulting guidelines 48 5.5 Conclusions 49 5.5.1 Goals for the external website 49 5.5.2 Goals for the Intranet 50 5.5.3 Other goals 50 5.6 Future work 51 5.6.1 Länstrafiken Norrbotten website 51 5.6.2 Digital travel services 51 References 53 A Appendix 1 56 A.1 User observation Intranet 56 A.2 User observation Intranet, results 56 B Appendix 2 59 B.1 Usability study website sketches 59 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction As the Internet realizes its twenty-second year of commercialization, IT continues to evolve and impact the way travelers gain access to and use travel-related information [1]. The Internet is now comprised of a huge amount of information. To a lot of people it essentially represents the external memory, and as a result, people have become increasingly reliant upon it for everyday tasks. The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger [2]. One of the everyday tasks many people today rely upon the Internet to solve is planning a trip or using public transport to get from point A to point B. People want easy to access, up to date information which they expect to find on the chosen companys website or application. Pre-trip travel planning can be considered a fundamental component of the trip ex- perience in that a traveler often needs to obtain a substantial amount of information in order to develop a travel plan [1]. Checking departures and arrivals while trav- elling is another important component in digital travel-planning. The information should always be close at hand. Today, the Internet is the top source for both leisure and business travel planning and digital is the primary source of travel inspiration, 65% of leisure travelers are inspired by online sources [3]. Statistics from 2016 by SCB (Statistiska Centralbyrån) says that 55% of people between the ages 16-74 have used the Internet for services related to travel or travel related accommodation [4]. The same number 2012 was 40%, which shows that is is an increasing number of people who use on line travel services for planning their trips [5]. Today there are many different digital tools for planning a trip. Different public transport companies in Sweden have their own websites and applications that are navigated and used in different ways. Behind the travel websites companies often use an Intranet for administrating traffic and customers. Länstrafiken Norrbotten is one of these companies. With an average of 400 views a day on their website there is a big target group to consider when designing the website. The website and the associated Intranet at Länstrafiken have outdated designs which causes some diffi- culties for customers and the administration. This master thesis is about developing a design proposal for both the website and the Intranet. One important goal with the new design is to make sure it is easy to use. Websites today often have to suit a big and varying target group with different needs. This means it can be a big challenge to design a website that works for everyone. Bad design can have severe consequences, it can make a user frustrated and angry, even to the point of scaring away the user from ever returning to the website. One com- ponent of this is to create a design that adapts to different browsing conditions and 5 of 59 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION user interactions, and thus are easy to use on both desktop and smartphones. Trav- elers go to the same types of websites on smartphones as they do on desktop/tablet. Today 78% of the population in Sweden connects to the Internet through a mo- bile and 65% does this every day [6]. Smartphones are used throughout the travel process [3] and the mobile usage keeps increasing, so being able to access travel information quickly on smartphones or tablets is important. 1.1 Problem description Länstrafiken Norrbotten has hired Yours to make a platform exchange and thinks their external and internal website needs a re-design to make them more modern and more user friendly. A user survey was made by Web Service Award in 2013 and pointed out some problems on the external website that causes problems for customers. Users have trouble finding information, the website contains a lot of menu alternatives and a lot of pages, which make it hard to scan and know where to find the correct page. Customers also have trouble using the website on smartphones or tablet since the responsiveness of the website is not optimal. The employees at Länstrafiken Norrbotten use an Intranet to handle customer opin- ions, organize files and perform other everyday work tasks. The design of the In- tranet is outdated and cluttered. The main menu contains a lot of alternatives, which in turn contains a lot of drop down alternatives, which makes tasks take longer than preferred. Many of the forms and functions are also non-intuitive. Both the external website and the Intranets interaction design need to be redesigned to work more efficient. 1.2 Objective The goal of this master thesis is to develop a design proposal for Länstrafiken Norrbottens external website and their Intranet. The finished prototype should be detailed enough so that it can be implemented for the next release. Some specific goals are: Goals for the external website: • Design a responsive website that adapts to browsing conditions and user in- teractions • Design a navigation that facilitates finding important information 6 of 59 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION • Design a website that allows Länstrafiken Norrbotten to highlight important offers and information • Design an easy-to-use navigation on the website • Design a website that is easy to use on smartphones Goals for the Intranet: • Design a website that prioritizes functionality and efficiency • Design a website that allows additions of pages and functions • Design a website that retains the parts that the user group are satisfied with today Additionally the two prototypes have to be graphically coherent.
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