Usability case study: Skyscanner
In this exercise, I conduct a usability evaluation of Skyscanner, I try to find pain-points the user might encounter and solve them.
Skyscanner for backpackers and worldtrotters
Skyscanner is an app focused on trip fares. Its travel metasearch engine can be used for hotel, flight and rental car bookings. With this app, you can compare costs, save your searches, track prices of hotels and flights at the time you want to travel, track your booked flights and hotels, and explore the cheapest trips.
My selected user type is the young backpacker. Somewhere between 18 and 38 y/o, he/she is price-cautious, wants to experience things rather than buy stuff. The budget is his/her main concern. He/she is more flexible on the date of departure than on the price. The backpacker is not picky, can accommodate pretty much anywhere as long as it is affordable and fun. He/she doesn’t really need to plan for his/her trip, the backpacker stays open to any possibility.
At the beginning of this exercise, I had the choice to work with several other apps such as Kayak, Hopper and TripAdvisor. After conducting a usability heuristics evaluation, I chose to work with Skyscanner, because it performs well with backpackers and « worldtrotters ». It’s more focused on the costs than an app like Hopper (meaning it’s easier to find the cheapest flight or hotel). It’s easier and faster to use than an app like TripAdvisor where planning the itinerary and using it as a guide is one of the main goals. Skyscanner, like Kayak, is well suited for travellers who want the most affordable trip at the last minute, without a big need to plan way ahead. Kayak and Skyscanner are very similar, but I chose to work with Skyscanner because the app is way more used by the backpackers I interviewed than Kayak. Also, Skyscanner offers a wider range of accommodations, including hostels. It’s also like a light TripAdvisor, meaning that if you have absolutely no idea where to go and what to do, Skyscanner shows you some suggestions, nice photos of destinations, traveller reviews, places to visit and where to eat.
Interviews, tests and pain-points
I’ve interviewed 3 young travellers, who have done multiple backpacking-trips, road-trips and last-minute weekends all over the world. They are digital natives and use apps very often. In fact, they all use various travel apps (and websites). They are not committed to one. Good design is important to them, as well as finding good prices. Good news for Skyscanner, according to them, it’s most of the time the best website to find the cheapest flights and they enjoy the design of the app (especially the use of gradient and beautiful pictures). Also, first impressions of the app were very positive, according to five-seconds tests.
I asked them to perform 3 simple tasks : 1/ book the cheapest flight from Lyon to Edinburgh back and forth in 6 months, 2/ book a hotel/hostel for this trip, 3/ find a nice destination for a future trip, without having exact dates in mind, and of course keeping it budget-friendly. Tests were performed in French, so the next screenshots and wireframes will be in French.
After watching them completing these tasks and interviewing them, I was able to highlight several pain-points :
- While looking for a flight, they all tried to find a functionality that offers them to be flexible on the departure & return dates. There isn’t, and it was time-consuming and frustrating for them. Most of the time they are indeed flexible, and they want the cheapest flight while being able to stay abroad for the longest time.
- The users of Skyscanner’s website were very annoyed by something missing in the app: you cannot add nearby airports to your searches. They are ready to drive to another airport if that means their flight will be cheaper, or if they can avoid a layover. It is especially interesting when leaving near a border. One of them added that you should be able to choose the area you want to include in your search, like for example extending the search at 300km around your city.
- Two of them were also annoyed by the fact that you cannot search by areas (such as « Asia »), and by duration of travel (« I want to leave for 10 days in January »).
- While looking for a hotel, they all tried to filter the results by category of accommodation (such as hostel, Bed’n’Breakfast…), but it’s not possible. You can only filter by stars, but the majority of places doesn’t work with the stars rating system, making the stars filter pointless.
- One of them wanted to look for and to be able to book the flight + the hotel at the same time, this « package » option is not available.
- Finally, when looking for ideas of travels for their next holidays, the « Explorer » (explore) page (available through the menu) was at first appreciated but then criticized. Two users wished to be able to see a map instead of categories and photos. They all didn’t understand why certain categories came with prices displayed while others didn’t. The destinations displayed in these categories as well as the suggested places to visit where also criticized, because the design makes it looks like it’s curated, but it isn’t (you can easily find the same cities in every category, and there are many inaccuracies with the suggested places for the less touristic cities).
In summary, the main source of pain-points was the search functionality, which is also the main purpose of the app. To the interviewees, it felt and looked good but not finished because of important filters missing. That was blocking them from having a complete nice experience. The navigation design was, on the other hand, appreciated and didn’t cause trouble or confusion.
The main problem and its solution
In order to improve the experience of users, I chose to solve the most important problem which is the incomplete search tool for flights. My solution was to :
- add an option for flexible dates and setting a duration of travel.
- add the possibility to look for nearby airports (with distance displayed).
- enable a wider geographical search (not only cities and countries but also continents).
The users who want to travel somewhere and are open to various possibilities will be able to find the best deal and get a nice overview of possible destinations.
Takeaways
I enjoyed learning about usability with this case study.
- It reminded me that I’m not the user. When interviewing users, I’ve noticed that we weren’t bothered by the same things, because our expectations and goals are slightly different.
- I’ve learned that even if small pain-points won’t stop users from using an app, they will become less attached to this app. That’s why the users I’ve interviewed were all using different apps with the same purpose. Because each one of them has an option that the others don’t. If you can design an app that manages to offer all the essential things users like elsewhere (without making it too overwhelming), users will stick to this app and it will improve the results of the company.
- It taught me that you have to be careful when designing an app when the company’s website is popular and successful. Users of the website will expect the same from the app and will be disappointed and frustrated if they can’t find their favourite options.
