| |
|
|
Graduate work
Expedia Usability Study
Design and execution of a pilot usability study of the Travel Arranger
service on the Business Tools section of Expedia’s website
(February, 2001).
Challenge
In association with the University of Washington's graduate-level Usability Testing course, one technical communication and two library and information science students worked with Expedia to evaluate the usability of their Travel Arranger functionality. The Travel Arranger was a service for one person to arrange travel for one or more other people, which could include creating an itinerary or booking flights, cars, and hotels. Test design and execution were the responsibility of the students, with Expedia providing users and support. Resulting findings and recommendations were presented to Expedia.
| Skills |
- Usability test design and execution
(using think aloud protocol)
- Data collection and analysis
- Design, findings, and recommendations
documentation
Process
After examining the Travel Arranger
functionality, the team decided to concentrate on whether
or not small business employees could successfully complete
the setup process and then arrange travel for another person.
Tasks were created that would allow us to answer these questions.
The supporting material was then created and practice tests
run.
With the help
of Expedia and Microsoft, we found two participants and used
Microsoft's usability labs to actually conduct the tests.
The data from each test was then analyzed to determine usability
successes and failures. Using this analysis, and the knowledge
we'd acquired from the project, we brainstormed possible solutions.
Finally, our test design, findings and recommendations were
documented in a usability report, which was then given to
Expedia.
|
|
|
