Post on 21-Jan-2018
Researching the Visit Scotland Online User Experience
MRS Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Conference May 2016
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Visit Scotland and User Vision
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User Vision has applied its user research and user-centred design consultancy with Visit Scotland for several years
User Needs research
Information Architecture
Expert UX evaluations
Website usability testing
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Visit Scotland and User Vision
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We have also research the offline experience such as the visitor centre in Edinburgh
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Free leaflets area (1)
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Free leaflets area (2) – Areas of interest
Top racks with “Where to Stay” leaflets
Top racks with “Scottish Attractions” leaflets
Middle racks with “West Lothian, Edinburgh and East Lothian” leaflets
Middle racks with “Explore Scotland ” leaflets
Bottom racks with “Edinburgh ” leaflets
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
2012
2004 The evolving Visit Scotland site
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Updating the Visit Scotland site
Visit Scotland’s existing site had performed well, but due to current digital trends and user expectations, change was needed
Significant growth from previous relaunch was beginning to plateau
A new consistent Global Brand vision was not represented
Functionality and content on competitor national tourism sites had increased
Imagery was not as well utilised as possible
Inconsistent experience between desktop site and mobile (not responsive)
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
User research and redesign plan
Three main sets of research
1. Expert evaluation by UX consultants on the current site to identify potential issues, inform the design brief and start planning user testing
2. Usability testing of existing site to understand how well it served user needs
3. Usability testing of the prototype new site during development
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Usability test – First Round
Testing on the existing site with representative users from the UK, USA and Germany
Specifically, we wanted to look at the following aspects:
What are users’ initial impressions of the home page and site navigation?
What are their expectations of the site?
How well does it support search for accommodation or attractions?
User performing their own tasks as well as those as part of the testing
Users recruited representative of the target users for travel experience interests and consideration of Scotland as destination
5 each from Scotland, England, USA and German (using German site)
Think aloud protocol and depth discussions on their travel goals
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Findings – Round 1 testing
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Top three problem areas we found:
1. Quick Finder and SearchDifficult to perform searches and refine results
2. Content often inaccurate or incompleteDid not always match expectations or meet needs
3. Itinerary planningDifficult to explore and uncover related content
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Example issue: Quick Finder search results
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“This wouldn't be my first port of call for accommodation… It’s not as reliable as I’d expect it to be”
Reasonable search parameters return zero results
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Example issue: Content not accurate or useful
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“I don't think I'd stay on this site. It's a shame, because I
would probably pre-book tickets. If they had a link to do that I
would do it.”
Available information not always accurate or complete
Location information insufficient
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Post-test interview
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“The focus on the beatiful countryside”
“Visual images”“Photos are outstanding,
very special”
“Visually I like the layout of the homepage –
there’s a lot going on, but it’s tasteful”
“It’s got lots of good stuff, heaps of good stuff”
“It has a lot of information”
“The search option”“I love this, ‘Meet the
Scots’”“It’s taken me on a story”
What did you particularly like about the site?
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Post-test interview
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“It can be a little overwhelming”
“There’s a little bit too much information really, I’m not sure which menu I should be clicking on”
“I think it’s hard to negotiate around it”
“The navigation bar, the title and then the
subtitle, I think that’s clunky and conufsing”
“I would just like it to be a bit more informative
about what you can actually do there”
“Content should be more comprehensive”
“I wasn’t quite sure whether I was being
taken out of areas and into other areas”
“I don’t think it says Scotland”
“I feel misunderstood”
What did you dislike about the site?
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Usability test – Second Round
Re-testing tasks as well as new tasks on the new site in development with users from the UK and USA
How well do users perform the same or similar tasks on the new site
Has the new search functionality helped
Are mobile layouts helping
5 each from Scotland, England and USA
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Great First Impressions
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Phase 1 recap: usability testing
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In Phase 1, the top three problem areas were:1. Itinerary planning
Difficult to explore and uncover related content
2. Content often inaccurate or incompleteDid not always match expectations or meet needs
3. Quick Finder and SearchDifficult to perform searches and refine results
In Phase 2, we found that:
1. Itinerary planning - much easier with the prominent ‘Explore’ and ‘What’s Nearby’ maps
2. Content - inspiring and informative
3. Search and filtering - still posed problems but improved
4. Maps presented some new usability issues
5. Imagery and videos – very successful
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Top level navigation
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These subjects at the top are good. Quite easy, simple and not
too fussy.
Top level navigation was straightforward and easy to use (P)
Participants were easily able to navigate into categories relevant to their searches.
Faceted navigation - Participants searched for accommodation with the ‘Accommodation’ or ‘Destinations’ menu. Both offered correct routes.
‘See & do’ a very successful first step to finding attractions
‘Holidays’ a successful entry for types of holidays providing inspiration
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Maps were difficult to understand
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I don't know what that arrow meant, I didn't know
what the circle meant, I had no idea what they meant.
Recommendations:
Include a map legend explaining what the icons mean.
Consider replacing the flags with category-specific icons, such as houses for accommodation, so that they are clearer to users.
Many participants did not understand the symbols on the interactive maps
At least two participants went through an entire session of using the website without figuring out what the numbers represented.
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Video success and popularity
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Rich Imagery throughout set ambiance
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Mobile responsive design
Put in image on mobile, tablet
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Moving forward
This research supported a very successful redesign – but there is more to be done
Ongoing improvements to the search functionality based on search queries
Logged in / secure area of site for storing content and sharing – Itinerary planner
Continuous improvements through current and ongoing site research
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Site feedback
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Conclusion
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55 North Castle Street
Edinburgh
EH2 3QA
United Kingdom
Tel: 0131 225 0850
@UserVision
www.uservision.co.uk
ClientLogo
Chris RourkeCEO
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chris@uservision.co.uk
Video
MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Submission Research to improving the online experience of visitors to a national tourism body Presenters: User Vision and Visit ScotlandIn 2015 Visit Scotland sought to improve its consumer facing website www.visitscotland.com to grow visitors to Scotland whilst developing the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland’s economy. A new site was planned to inspire people to choose Scotland as their destination, provide information to plan a visit and make it easy to book with a strong focus on the visitor. Visit Scotland wished to incorporate the views of users during the design to understand their experience of the site and what an ideal national tourism site should include. User experience agency User Vision led the research into user needs to support the design. Over the course of about 6 months our research included three main phases:Expert usability evaluation of the current site for user experience and usability and competitive evaluation with reference to selected national tourism sitesUsability testing of the current Visit Scotland site with representative users performing a combination of information finding and booking tasks. Desktop and mobile platforms were used and the site was tested with participants in Scotland, England Germany and the USA.Usability testing the prototype new site during development and consultancy on implementing required changesThe results from the research were highly effective in shaping a more customer-centred design. Many insights came from the initial testing of the site, especially from the customers abroad, that impacted the search, navigation design and the type of content promoted on each page. Several examples of these will be included in the presentation. In our joint presentation we will describe the process for planning and conducting the user research, the tasks used in the usability testing, and how the findings from the research were interpreted and applied by the Visit Scotland digital team.
Current status of site At the time of writing (Dec 2015), the site is still in development (launch is planned for Q1 2016) but we are confident that the user-centred approach will reap rewards through increased enquiries and bookings, more engagement on the website, and improved customer satisfaction. We will of course present the most current qualitative and quantitative data on the changes between the previous site and the new site based on this research. We can also use Visit Scotland’s feedback back tool to get an indication of improvement in terms of the NPS score before and after the new site.Other research - Putting this research into contextThis research for the new website was the most recent research conducted by User Vision for Visit Scotland. We would be glad to briefly mention some of the previous research that we have conducted beyond this specific project. For instance we have conducted other research including eye tracking of the interior of the Visit Scotland tourist information centred to better understand the placement of brochures and signage for a better customer experience.
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MRS – Travel & Tourism, May 2016
Rough outline – 20 Minutes assumed
VS background and audience
Issues with previous site (images) , feedback that had been received
Project plan for the research, recruit parameters , tasks etc
How this was tested on existing site in R1 then prototype R2
Making the changes to the proto
implementing the final chages – the challenges etvc
How VS is managing it going forward
Other VS projects – the eye tracking in centre
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