If only I could make the perfect travel website

Jason Till, Digital Production Director, Designate

It would• Know what I like

• – e.g. architecture, kite surfing, good food – and make suggestions

• Provide believable reviews• from people like me

• Have multimedia • - a short video documentary of the

destination. IPIX and photo gallery• Show me an interesting events calendar

• which could be personalised to me and integrate with my Outlook diary

• Give me a map-driven itinerary• with local transport information which I

could download using to my mobile device, display on a map and share with other people by bluetoothing it to them – with GPS

• Be beautiful to look at

• Alert me• via a widget, gadget, or RSS feed when a deal which was relevant to me appeared

• Know my budget• but know when I’d be prepared to break it.

• Know where I lived• and be able to calculate the price of my train ticket to the airport and compare this with

different airport locations and the total holiday cost• Provide group travel functionality

• (which could integrate with Facebook).• Have a “wish list / shortlist”

• which other people could login to and see and add to.• Be easy to use• Never break

There’s no such thing as the perfect travel website

- but most of the functionality I’ve mentioned already exists across a number of them

Legacy systems can constrain how travel sites

work

But you still have a lot of control over brand (selling,

imagery) and usability

Today

• A quick anatomy lesson• Audience research – what this tells us about what people

want • The importance of the brand and communication• The (broken) customer journey• Some dos and don’ts• Building blocks you need, process and specialist skills

A basic anatomy lesson

Basic anatomy of a home page

Newsletter registration

Search

Brand logo

Hero shot with deals

Promos

Clearly-placed contact number

Listed deals / offers

Behind the scenes it can be complex

Templates

Content

Inventory“Selling”content

DestinationGuides

Weather Events UGC

3rd party 3rd party3rd party

XML / Webservice XML / Webservice XML / Webservice

3rd party

3rd party

3rd party

XML / Webservice

ContentManagement

Travel search

Booking

3rd Party data

Secure payment gateway

BookingCRM

Sign up

SEO

12

34

5

Analytics

RSS

Email

Multimedia

What is perfect?

Traveller (generic)

Price Location Inspiration

Flexibility Rich Content

Childcare Choice

Extras Fun

Luxury

Deals

E-commerce DirectorOptimised for SEO

Data captureConversion High margin

Low booking latencyLow click to book

Low cost of maintenancePerformance Easy upkeep

TRUST

The challenge is to tie these

together

Understanding the traveller

Examining Travellers’ primary motivations

Career motivated

43%

Entertainment motivated

31%

Family motivated

26% Efficiency

Control

Compare/contrast results and details.

Slow-to-load Web sites

Elaborate Flash-based intro screens

Not enough detail

Social computing

Audio, video, colour

Virtual tours

Highly impulsive – excellent target for cross selling and last minute offers – RSS feeds etc.

Poor design

Too much text

Safety, security and privacy guarantees

Childcare

Flexibility

Unknown brand

Source: Forrester's Technographics Q2 2007 European Benchmark Mail Study” & Designate

Communications

Travel research is among the most popular online activity

50%

50%

48%

46%

40%

39%

28%

Use free Web-based email (e.g.,Hotmail)

Research holiday destinations

Prepare trips online (maps, directions)

Read news online

Use IM

Use reference sites

Look up sports information

Base: Online Europeans leisure travellers(multiple responses accepted)

Source: Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® May 2007

Travel dominates online leisure category usage

10%

5%

12%

11%

13%

18%

16%

8%

4%

13%

10%

11%

17%

11%

24%

24%

27%

27%

29%

37%

44%

Videos/DVDs

Music tracks (e.g.,MP3s)

Clothing

CDs/tapes/records

Event tickets

Books

Leisure travel

Researched online

Researched online, boughtoffline

Bought online

Base: Online Europeans leisure travellers(multiple responses accepted)

Source: Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® May 2007

European “Lookers and Bookers” are an elite group

Offline leisure travellers

Online leisure travellers

Age 54 39

% Male 45% 53%

Education (upper) 14% 37%

Income (upper) 19% 41%

# leisure trips/year 4.8 5.5

Base: Online European leisure travellersSource: Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® May 2007

Old customer journey

---Broken---

Life’s getting complicated

New customer journey

Looking Decided On location Back home

Tra

velli

ng

Tra

velli

ng

a destination OR experience

sharing memories

thinking about the next trip

Inspiration

research

experiencing

communicating

“Iterative Ideation”

Travel sector companies aren’t as good as they could be at selling

online

“Advertising at its worst has been killed by the Internet”*

• Sites don’t differentiate brands or tailor their product offering to suit people’s needs nearly enough

• Competition is still largely focussed on price and volume represented as “choice”

• As the research shows, customers want more

*(Maurice Saatchi)

Research has shown that strong online branding increases purchase intent but only if the site meets basic usability standards.

Rational / practical

emotional

Design for the emotional and rational

65%

50%

41%

37%

37%

33%

46%

50%

36%

31%

46%

25%

Travel is an area in which I indulge myself

Price is more important to me than brandnames

I will pay more for travel products that saveme time and hassle

I will pay above-average prices for betterquality travel products or service

Staying within my budget is more importantthan going to my first-choice destination

The company I buy leisure travel fromdoesn't matter as much as getting the

absolutely lowest fare/rate

All onlineleisuretravelers

Bookers

Trust - More than 2/3 need reassurance

More than ½ could be inspired to spend more

1/3 will pay more for quality

More than 1/3 people will pay extra if the site can dynamically package and the usability is good

An interesting split – shows that people will shop around if they don’t get what they want

You can attempt to get 2/3 of people to indulging themselves

Lookers

Bookers

Base: Online Europeans leisure travellers(multiple responses accepted)

Source: Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® May 2007

Aligning user and brand

User Emotional Rational / practical

• Adventure• Escape• Romance• Luxury• Spa• Nightlife• Sport• Culture• Food

• Where is it?• Who do I call?• How do I get there?• Does the site work properly?• Is it in my price range?• Can I get a refund?

Brand Image(brand position)

Action(brand delivery)

• Is the proposition supported by the content?• E.g. if it promises the “best holidays” is this

backed up by a an engaging, rich / rewarding user experience?

• Does multimedia and imagery support promise?• Is the imagery / layout / aesthetic appealing for

the target audience?• Language – tone of voice, clarity, lack of jargon.

• Does the site support the user goals (e.g. book / register / search)?

• Is the site language easy to understand?• Are the icons and graphics easy to understand?• Does it meet accessibilty requirements?• Does it display and the functionality work in all main browsers

Site efficiencyYour “hygiene factor”the fundamentals

Site effectiveness – Your differentiation –

the opportunity

Get the emotional proposition right - The Creative Brief• What’s your proposition?• What are your objectives?• What’s the market insight?• What are the consumer insights?• What’s the single most important thing to say?• Reasons to believe (compelling truths)?• What do you want them to do?• How do you want them to feel?

Case Study

From this…

… to creating an emotional proposition that resonates with people’s interests

• Kayaking

• Surfing

• Kitesurfing

• Coasteering

• Mountain biking

• Gardens

• Country and coastal walks

• Country parks

• Museums and galleries

• Performing arts

• Arts and crafts

• Food and drink

Think about how the BBC has repackaged Ski Sunday• More lifestyle• More like Top Gear• Not just the racing and results• Placing normal people in the picture, not just

super-athletes• More magazine-like – features on food,

adventure, wildlife, trekking, training • More inclusive

Design for real users

Get the practical / rational stuff right: apply a user-centred design approach and achieve true usability

• Design for real people• Create personas (pen portraits) and think about their objectives• Use these to help model your route through the Website

• Test your assumptions with real people• Increases ROI No single rule of thumb, but…

• Case studies for e-commerce sites after a usability-led redesign have seen over 100% increase in revenue.

• Investment generally considered to payback 10:1• Increase transactions / purchases• Increases traffic• Retains customers• Attracts more customers• Increases user satisfaction

• http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/usability_in_the_real_world/roi_of_usability.html

Get it working in ALL main browsers

31/1/2008 W3 Counter.com

Let’s look at some examples

Search

Promos

RSS feeds

Some “inspiration” (if limited)List of Deals

Brand logo

Contact

✗ Menu 2 X too long – needs to be kept to 6 or 7 items for usability

✗ Confusing / unclear categorisation

✗ Unclear proposition – no anchoring statement or strapline ✗ No emotive

photography

Brand logo

Sign up

Contact

Search

Deals

Offers Inspiration

Award

RSS feed

Social book-

marking

✗ Benefits not sold

✗ No brand positioning ✗ no strapline ✗ imagery could be better

Brand logoSearch

Deals

Offers

✗ no positioning ✗ no strapline ✗ limited imagery ✗ no sign up✗ no differentiation ✗ no contact

RSS

Clear positioning

Inspirational “hero shot”

Clear layout; good use of imagery

Simple navigation menu

✗ Text too dense – needs to be broken up

Good anchoring statement (if wordy)

Inspirational “hero shot” and good use of imagery

Clear layout

Simple navigation menu

✗ no deals ✗ no contact number ✗ positioning could be stronger – maybe a strapline

Excellent positioning strapline Beautiful hero shot with inspirational message

User generated content

Text resizer – good usability accessibility

Clear layout and design

Excellent positioning strapline Beautiful hero shot with inspirational message

Good inspiration / selling copy Clear

layout and design

✗ deals could be pushed

“Coffee Table Websites”

Excellent positioning statement

Clear brand proposition

✗ even though it’s a “quality” Website, offers could be pushed

Categorised by experience - with inspirational copy - it’s not all about price and location

Beautiful imagery

Official logos inspire trust

Clear brand proposition with Excellent positioning statement

Categorised by experience – more inspirational

Beautiful imagery with simple, emotive copy

Award winning – builds trust

Not afraid to sell offers

Clear anchoring statement

Beautiful imagery Emotive selling / seasonal offer

Search help clearly appeals to how real users think

✗ E-mail sign-up below “the fold”

Towards perfection

Shortlists

Gadgets and Widgets

Microformatshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microformats (technical).

Lastminute.com’s “add to my calendar” function.

Expedia’s UGC rating system

Getting more out of mapping

Results categorised by type of experience

Search returns further results within a 10 mile radius Distances from

accommodation shown in miles

Less than perfectFunctionality that fails to deliver

Calendars!

Calendars!

Calendars!

Calendars!

Calendars!

Almost perfect…

Errors

Errors

Errors

Errors

Any London?

I want Gatwick and Heathrow NOT Stansted or Luton

Email sign-up problems

Email sign-up problems

Email sign-up problems

Getting there

Traditional Website Map

Deals / offersDestination

guidesReviews Booking

Home

Search / results

About Contact Help T&Cs

Understanding your site within context of the customer journey will make your site work harder

Product pages

How would you like to

book?

Home

Search

Browse

Promos

Searchresults

Brief itin.

Full itin.

Maps

Hotels

Dates

Telephone

Callback

Online

Call me

Your personal pages

My info I tems for dist

Personal sales

consultant

Form contents

to call centre

Pre holiday

Family and

friendsDay’s itin

Hotel contact details

During holiday

Questionnaire

Post holiday

BookingFlow

Corporate

T&C J obsPress

releases

Booking Assistance

Reviews Tours reunited

Photo / video gallery

Community

Tell a friend Wallpapers

Online Qstnre

Opening hours

Green issues

Create your own brochure

Countrypages(maps, climate,

travel tips etc.)

City pages

InsurancePersonal

sales consultant

User utilities

Travel Extras

Currency converter

Inspiration

Planning

Booking

Experience

Share

Offers(detail)

Post tour

Email

Grouptravelform

Call centre

Getting to a simple result can be complicated…

By Jesse James Garrett of Adaptive Path - http://www.jjg.net/ia/

Visual design is late in the process.

Surface

Strategy

Scope

Skeleton

Structure

How to get there

Discover

Design

Develop

Define

Deliver

Strategy

Scope

Skeleton

Structure

SurfaceDelivering the User

Experience

Delivering the project

Testing, iterative prototyping, focus groups

Understand marketing objectives, target audience, benchmark the competition and

create the proposition.

Create audience personas – pen portraits of people

Iterate / apply learning

Benchmarks and KPIs

Lifetime testing

Apply to ongoing site improvement

Key performance factors - usability

• Is the essential content available where needed?• Is essential function available where needed?• Are category and subcategory names clear and mutually exclusive?• Does the site use language that’s easy to understand?• Does the site use graphics, icons, and symbols that are easy to

understand?• Is text legible?• Are interactive elements easily recognizable?• Does the site perform well?

A “recipe” for creating the perfect travel Website

• Establish a clear brand proposition: differentiate• Make sure this comes through in all content – words, pictures, moving images

• Get to know how people think about holidays – experience – take your top 20 destinations and re-categorise all the holidays into “experiences”

• Test with real users before you commit to a final design• Think about where your Website sits in the overall customer journey and what

features you can employ to extend it’s reach, and where you can push information to them, and pull them back in to create content for you.

• Employ an Information / User Experience Architect (from a usability or design agency)• Keep an eye on the detail – small issues can irk big time• Make sure it works in all main browsers and doesn’t rely on Javascript• Keep benchmarking your site against others.• Keep testing your site for performance - fix it if it breaks

Thank you for listening

jason@designate.co.uk