GOEURO.com — UX Case Study (part.1)
GoEuro is a German start-up based in Berlin, which has created a platform that allows to search and book tickets for trains, buses, and flights to chosen destination.
It is an European travel platform which reaches 20 million visitors a month and works with more than 600 transport partners and suppliers on the continent.
Travelers can use the platform to reach approximately 80,000 different destinations by train, bus, and plane. In some countries, the opportunities offered by car sharing are also reported.
According to GoEuro's site description it’s possible to book in few steps without additional fees and in complete safety.
By promising transparent pricing and easy booking, GoEuro aims to make travel planning simple, flexible and personal. The ideal platform for frequent travellers.
The sentence “It’s possible to book in a few steps without additional fees and in complete safety” has been catching my attention as I am a user traveler that loves to buy tickets by different webApp to research the cheapest and most comfortable seats without additional fees.
So, I decided to research if the platform is efficient as it could be.
Research
Competitors Analysis
My research is based on 6 one to one interviews, more than 50 online reviews and an analysis of the competitors as displayed below:
Once defined the main competitors, I looked for online reviews of the various platforms to spot the biggest differences according to real users.
The findings were interesting because, despite the main functionalities are the same, the user perception changes from site to site. The biggest difference was noticed about the trustworthy of the website related to the price displayed.
Unfortunately, on GoEuro the prices are not as transparent as they seem. The payments, well, they are easy to do, but they have hide surprises like payments held without the receiving of tickets purchased, or dates changed the day before the departure of the trip without any warning to the traveler.
The competitors, on the other hand, seem to be much more reliable both in terms of price transparency and customer service via email or messages, alerting the buyer in time in the event of sudden changes in the schedules of means of transport, strikes or refunds of incorrect tickets.
User Interview
To better understand the needs of users regarding their relationship with the ticket and booking search platforms, I interviewed 6 travellers, discovering interesting feedback about their experiences.
Among their comments, it is noticeable the desire to have transparent prices, easy comparisons with other companies and no surprises after the purchase.
“I’m not happy when I find an economic price for my trip by myself because it’s suggested by Google and not by the page I’m consulting to buy the ticket”
Empathy Map
After my interviews, I mapped the answers of the users to better understand their environment, their behaviours, and their emotions, identifying the pain and the goals of the project.
The empathy map helped to identify the pain and the gain of the user experiences during the purchase of the tickets on the web app.
Pain
- hidden costs
- unclear pricing/missing deals
- too many unrelated offers
- lack of performance
- page too cluttered
When faced with a chaotic or slow page, all interviewers declared that they usually switched immediately with another one.
…the most important thing is a page that works, doesn’t matter if I cannot see the images of the city or the travels (I have Google maps). I want to see a clear menu with all the features I need.
Gain
- State the real prices and how they are composed
- Provide more filter options
- Better communications with partners websites
- Emphasise and give more visibility only to the offers based on the user needs
- Improve support after sale
Conclusions
A common point of many interviews and reviews, highlight the necessity to understand what's included in the price and which additional fees could be applied.
Unfortunately, often the prices are not as transparent as they seem and the payments, besides being easy to do, hide surprises.
Also, it seems there are many problems related to third parties services of which GoEuro is unaware or uninterested. This shows the website lack of care for its users.
Money has been charged but no tickets received!
Limited responsibilities probably help the business but negatively affects the User Experience.
One of the fundamental aspects that make GoEuro not transparent to its users is the declaration of the ticket price without details.
In fact some users speak clearly of not being able to take advantage of the offers of GoEuro partners, such as a discount or reduction for the age of the user, as they are not visible on the platform.
This has led to countless reports, complaints, and cancellations of travels and/or tickets.
Therefore, GoEuro, while offering innumerable options of partners and being an easy-to-use web app, remains incomplete for its users in terms of information on local ticket prices.
On the other hand there are several opportunities of improvement that could be explored. Provide more transparency about partners deals and after sale support.
…the real travel begins when I land and I need to figure out how to reach my destination.
