UX Case Study — Fly Delta App
Heuristic Evaluation + Proposed Redesigns
Project Brief: Evaluate the usability of Fly Delta app by conducting a Heuristic Evaluation using Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics
Role: UX Designer
Timeline: 3 days
Team: Individual Project
Tools: Figma + FigJam, Perplexity AI
UX Skills: User Research, Qualitative Research, Problem Solving and Prototyping (UI Design)
“Master the art of storytelling to enhance your skills as a designer.”
The objective
Rethinking and Redesigning
As a UX Designer at Fly Delta, I am responsible to perform a Heuristic Evaluation. Present the findings, including specific problems and redesigns to improve the user experience of the app.
Background
To put my UX design skills to test, I wanted to find a product with room for improvement in its usability. Conducting a Heuristic Evaluation on the “Fly Delta” app can help in assessing its user interface and overall user experience.
The evaluation takes into account the following Ten aspects’ of a system usability:
- Visibility of System Status
- Match Between System and Real World
- User Control and Freedom
- Consistency and Standards
- Error Prevention
- Recognition rather than Recall
- Flexibility and Efficiency of Use
- Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
- Help users recognise, diagnose, and recover from errors
- Help and documentation
Method
I used Perplexity AI to assist me and generate a step-by-step guide to help implement a method to conduct the usability evaluation. Alongside that, I used the book UX Research: Practical technique for designing better product by Brad Nunnally and David Farkad combined with Adam Fard’s youtube video on Heuristic Evaluation to come up with a process.
The process:
- Step 1: Research with intent to improve
- Step 2: Have a rating system in place
- Step 3: Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation
- Step 4: Compile Heuristic Violations
- Step 5: Prioritise Usability Problems
- Step 6: Address and Fix Identified Problems
1. Research
Understanding the users, business goals, and competitors
I made sure to note down details about all the different competitors, taking note of both their strengths and areas where they fall short. Additionally, I delved deeper into their current user feedback, particularly by sifting through recent reviews on the App Store. This helped me gather overall insights into their performance and user satisfaction levels.
Findings
I found these overall points after reading reviews on the App store. (Reviews filtered to most recents)
- Competitive analysis with other airlines highlighted the importance of an all-in-one mobile application with similar features like booking trips, accessing boarding passes, in-flight entertainment, etc.
- Fly Delta app suffered from technical glitches, some users have reported occasional technical glitches and bugs within the app, leading to issues with booking or accessing flight information.
- Competitor apps like Hopper and Cheapflights are praised for their clean interface and modern look & feel.
2. Rating system
This system should assess the severity of each issue based on criteria such as:
- Impact on the user experience: How significantly does the issue affect users?
- Frequency: How often does the issue occur during use?
- Visibility: How apparent is the issue to users?
0 — Not a usability problem at all.
1 — Cosmetic problem only: need not be fixed unless extra time is available on the project.
2 — Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority.
3 — Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority.
4 — Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before the product can be released.
Having a rating system in place is crucial for prioritising issues effectively, allowing to tackle the most severe problems promptly, particularly those identified as major usability issues or catastrophes
3. Conducting a Heuristic Evaluation
I prepared a document to record the violations. It was structured using rules of thumb, and for each rule, I made a checklist to ensure reviews were more consistent.
4. Prioritising Usability Problems
Not all issues uncovered during the evaluation will have the same impact on user experience. Therefore, prioritising issues based on their severity and potential impact on users is essential for effective problem-solving.
As you can see from the Impact — Effort Matrix above the violations identified had relatively low severity and didn’t necessarily obstruct users from completing their tasks. However, as evidenced by the redesigns below, there’s definite room for enhancing the usability of the Fly Delta app.
5.Heuristics Violations
Violations of Usability Heuristic #7: Flexibility and Efficiency of Use
According to Nilson’s Heuristics, users should be able to easily access common actions so that users can choose the method that works best for them. However, for users who want to book a flight using the app but do not want to create an account, the “Continue as Guest” option is hard to find compared to the large, red CTA that prompts the user to log in.
The proposed redesign increases the visibility of “Continue as a guest” and improves flexibility and efficiency of use.
This also connects with other standards and conventions. For example, how the redesign matches the usual format of a login page. For example, moving the privacy policy from being under the title to the bottom of the page.
Violations of Usability Heuristic #1: Visibility Of System Status
Jacob emphasises the importance of timely feedback to keep users informed. However, the app doesn’t have a progress indicator during flight booking. This oversight violates Jacob’s Heuristic as users aren’t updated on system status.
The addition of a progress indicator improves visibility of system status for the user going through the stages of booking a flight on Fly Delta App.
Violations of Usability Heuristic #8: Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
The 8th principle makes sure the content and visual design focused on the essentials. Ensure that the visual elements of the interface support the user’s primary goals.
The current Fly Delta app has many screens that could benefit from implementing a more minimalist/clean design. For example, the “Refundable Fares” page.
The redesign, the screen for Refundable Fares is much easier to read and smartly used space, simplified the language, and increased the font size for better readability.
Violations of Usability Heuristic #5: Error Prevention
Jacob highlights how even better than good error message is good careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error prone condition or check for them and present user with a conformation before they commit to the action.
The Fly Delta app allow users to submit forms with missing or incorrect information without proper validation. For example allowing the user to input numbers for their name, not only that but provides an ambiguous instructions that increase the risk of user mistakes.
Rather than saying “Enter a valid name,” they could improve validation by specifying the exact problem, reducing the risk of user errors. The redesign visually alerts users that inputs such as numbers and characters in the name fields need correction before proceeding.
Other low impact Violations + Suggested Solutions
Violations of Usability Heuristic #2: Match Between the System and the Real World
Jacob highlights the significance of using language, words, and concepts familiar to users in the system. However, using a QR code icon for the navigation bar doesn’t align with real-world conventions.
Instead, a calendar or time/date icon would be more suitable.
Violations of Usability Heuristic #4: Consistency and Standards
And that’s a wrap!
Reflection and Next steps
- Growth: From 2022 to 2024, I’m filled with pride at the growth I’ve achieved. While enhancing my UI design skills have been significant milestones, what truly stands out is the development of my core UX skills. Understanding how systems truly function, beyond their appearance, has been transformative.
- Problem-solving: My ability to identify and solve problems has been a tougher challenge. Yet, with dedication and time, I’ve learned to trust my design instincts and find solutions confidently. This journey has shown me that growth is not just about mastering tools but about understanding the essence of design and problem-solving.
- Next steps: Re-evaluate and iterate! A usability Heuristic Evaluation is always worth doing to improve the usability of any digital product. Perhaps, discussing the Business priorities implementations capacity.
While I’ve made progress in addressing some of the issues identified through my Heuristic analysis, I believe that Fly Delta still requires a complete redesign. This challenge excites me, and I eagerly anticipate tackling it in the future.
