I’m not a UX designer nor am I a UI designer, but I love intricate designs and finding ways to make life easier. “25 cents UX opinions” is an ongoing series regarding UX design based on my personal experience and what makes life easier. So, read it with an open mind and always express yourself!
How do you gain an edge in a competitive and saturated travel industry other than slashing prices? You ensure that your product sets the industry standard for accessibility and user experience. So, with that in mind, let’s explore some of the potential tweaks to Agoda’s mobile app without jeopardizing its fluid and simplistic design.
Accessibility — Localizing beyond the text.
Localization is far more than just translating text from a source language to a target language. A good localization team, if used correctly, can greatly improve your user experience and retention rate. Anyone can learn a language, but not everyone can understand the cultural norms and habits of a region or country. So, how does this apply to UX or UI design? Let me explain with a simple app comparison between the international market and China’s market:
There is a reoccurring difference between these apps that can be summed up by the two schools of thought, “less is more” and “the more the merrier”. While international apps focus primarily on essential features accompanied by a simplistic design, apps for China’s market are often overloaded with features.
Why is that?
Because of convenience.
China is ahead of its’ time when it comes to payment platforms and convenience. Heck, It might be the only country where carrying a wallet is truly unnecessary. As a result, companies (domestic & foreign) salivate over China’s ever-growing mobile and online traffic; constantly innovating and providing incremental updates to increase convenience and garner a wider user base.
Now, let’s take a look at where Agoda’s app currently stands in terms of accessibility and convenience.
First, we’ll need to distinguish between domestic and international travel. Domestic travel can be defined as a person from country A traveling within country A. International travel can be defined as a person from country A traveling to country B. Second, we’ll need to define Agoda’s user base. Based on my research (extreme googling), a relatively large amount Agoda’s core users are from Southeast Asia. Also, while users from Southeast Asia may use Agoda for both domestic and international traveling, the same cannot be said for users outside of Southeast Asia, i.e., Chinese users electing to use Ctrip and other domestic apps when traveling within China.
With that said, let’s begin optimizing and enhancing Agoda’s features while keeping in mind the importance of accessibility, convenience, the domestic traveler, and the international traveler. Our starting point will be Agoda’s “Travel services” feature.
While the idea for “Travel services” is great, we can improve the overall experience by offering services that are necessary and partnering up with local companies that offer the best experience in each country or region.
Although it may seem difficult to localize for all countries, my suggestion is to prioritize partnerships and features based on region and current user traffic. The key is to capitalize on the rising international accessibility of apps. More often than not, a single app can be used in multiple regions or countries, e.g, Uber, Foodpanda, Grab, Mobike, Didi, etc.
Increasing accessibility via localization will be integral to the overall user experience. By offering a variety of well-developed services within a single app, users will no longer associate Agoda as just a hotel reservations platform. Instead, it will view Agoda as an all-encompassing travel platform that has everything you need no matter where you go. The swiss army knife of travel apps.
User Experience — Nothing wrong with showing off!
Traveling the world is an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s an achievement that we often take for granted as we often overlook the numbers behind it. With that said, I see a glaring opportunity to create a “Travel Pass” that will kill two birds with one stone:
A “Travel Pass” will serve two purposes. First, it’ll give users an additional incentive to use Agoda as they build up their mileage to reach greater achievements. Second, the “download and share” feature will serve as indirect marketing via word of mouth; users will share their TravelPass summaries via social media which will, in turn, generate a fair amount of brand awareness.
Although this is a rudimentary design, I strongly believe that it brings enough value in terms of user acquisition and brand awareness to give it a go. Furthermore, the backend data already exists which means Agoda would only need to develop a standard UI to plug the variables in.
User Experience — The minute details.
The core of functions, hotel reservations, are great. It has all the features you need and the overall UI and UX designs are nearly flawless. However, there are a couple of small tweaks that can be made to improve the overall experience:
Albeit minor, these small tweaks will enhance the experience for both the user and the properties. Image carousels will allow properties to make themselves more appealing. Allowing users to ‘save’ properties as they scroll through will inherently create an improved UX, especially for those who like to horde their choices.
There’s a lot to love about Agoda’s product. For starters, can we give them some credit for not being stingy with space and text size? Probably one of the only apps out there where I don’t have to squint while I search through listings. The suggestions I gave are purely based on my experience as a frequent traveler. Whether or not they are right or wrong will always be debatable. However, for Agoda to dominate certain markets, they have to localize beyond the text and put convenience at the forefront of innovation.
Be the swiss army knife of travel.
