Heuristic Evaluation of

Heuristic Evaluation of HolidayInn.com.cn

Holiday Inn Hotel Booking Site for Chinese Speaking Users

Completed by Team CBR:Yufei Duan

Yina LiYing Li

Qianying LiuNiven Sellars

Michael Somer

February 7, 2008

Table of ContentsHeuristic Evaluation Overview for www.holidayinn.com.cn.........................................................................3

Introduction................................................................................................................................................................ 3

TEAM CBR Yufei Duan, Yina Li, Ying Li,

Qianying Liu, Niven Sellars, Michael Somer

Heuristic Evaluation February 2008www.HolidayInn.com.cn

Purpose........................................................................................................................................................................ 3

Methodology............................................................................................................................................................... 3

Heuristic Evaluation Findings......................................................................................................................4

1. Visibility of System Status..................................................................................................................................... 4

2. Match Between System and the Real World.........................................................................................................6

3. Consistency and Standards................................................................................................................................. 13

4. Error Prevention................................................................................................................................................. 19

5. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design......................................................................................................................... 20

6. Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors...............................................................................21

7. Help and Documentation..................................................................................................................................... 23

Findings and Conclusion............................................................................................................................24

Key Findings............................................................................................................................................................. 24

Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................. 28

Heuristic Evaluation Overview for www.holidayinn.com.cn IntroductionThis heuristic evaluation of the www.holidayinn.com.cn was completed on February 7, 2007, as a preliminary step in the preparation for a usability test of the site. The evaluation was completed by the project team after a careful review of the website. From the information provided by the sponsor, the project team learned that the audience

2

http://www.HolidayInn.com.cn/

http://www.holidayinn.com.cn/





of the website is mostly domestic Chinese (mainland) users. They book hotel rooms online for business and/or leisure purposes. Their ages span from the mid-twenties to the fifties. Most of them are not comfortable using computers. The majority of them do not speak or read English.

To accomplish the users’ goal of booking rooms on the website, the Holiday Inn (China) website must successfully guide users through the site.

PurposeThe purpose of this heuristic evaluation is to discover any potential usability weaknesses that might confuse users. The findings from the evaluation will be used to design appropriate scenarios for the usability test.

MethodologyThe project team evaluated the website from a Chinese user’s point of view. In our preliminary meeting, the team reviewed the overall structure and content of the site and determined our scenario, which is the process of booking or modifying a hotel room on the site. Then the team completed individual heuristic evaluations. In the follow-up meeting, the team compiled the individual evaluations. The site was evaluated based on Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics, which have been adapted for the web and presented in Dr. Carol Barnum’s text, Usability Testing and Research.

Heuristic Evaluation Findings1. Visibility of system status

The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

3





A. URL file name mismatch

When the URL www.holidayinn.com.cn is opened, the URL at the top of the page changes into http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/280/zh/home. This may confuse users, causing them to think this is not a legitimate site.

Suggestion:Do not redirect the URL to a different name; instead keep the address at www.holidayinn.com.cn

4



http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/280/zh/home






B. No obvious way to go back to Holiday Inn site from Priority Club site

Users may not understand the relationship among Holiday Inn, Priority Club, and other IHG hotels. In China, people are not familiar with the concept of one corporation owning multiple brands. If the users are directed to the Priority Club site, they can easily get lost. The only way they can go back to the Holiday Inn site is to hit the Back button or the Holiday Inn icon near the bottom of the site.

Suggestion:Create an easily

5





identifiable button that will take users to where they were before they were directed away from the Holiday Inn site.

2. Match between system and the real worldThe system should speak the user’s language, with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

6





A. Unrecognizable logo

Users may not recognize the Holiday Inn logo because it is displayed in English. The only way users will know they are on a Holiday Inn website is if they look at the words displayed in the header.

Suggestion: Design a

matching logo in Chinese

Have a brief description in Chinese underneath the logo

7

The English logo is not recognizable for the Chinese audience.

The audience must go to one of these two locations, which give the hotel name in Chinese.





B. Awkward phrasingThis translation does not make sense. It is awkwardly phrased as “receive Holiday Inn promoted sales (discount) activities.”

Suggestion:Use localized language, not just direct translation. It should read, “receive promotional sales discount information.”

8





C. Awkward phrasing When searching for hotels, users are sometimes requested to enter “State.” “State” has a different meaning for Chinese users. The equivalent word for Chinese users is “province.”

Since the number of Holiday Inns is limited in China, it is easier for the user to just select the city without being asked to select a province.

Suggestions: Use “Province”

instead of “State” Provide a

dropdown menu of the locations/cities,

9

In this screen, instead of asking for “Province,” it asks users to enter “State (US/Canada)”. This may confuse Chinese users, since the word “State” refers to the government level between city and province in some provinces.





and do not include the option of province/state

D. Awkward phrasingThe option in this dropdown menu translates into “a super large bed.” This translation does not make sense to a Chinese user. They refer to bed size by measurements.

Suggestions:Use localized language for sizes of beds:

King size: 1.98mx2.03mQueen: 1.50mx2.00mSingle: 1.20mx1.90m

10

One of the options in this dropdown is “one super large bed,” which is a direct translation of “king size bed.” Instead, use “bed size: 1.98m x 2.03m” to make sense to the Chinese user.





E. American currency Much of the pricing information refers to American currency. Users may have to calculate the actual cost in Chinese currency, and this can be time consuming or impossible when they do not know the exchange rate. Some screens use CNY. This may be an acronym for China’s Yuan. However, it is not readily understood by Chinese users.Suggestion:Use “元” (yuan) or￥instead of dollars and $.

11

In the parking information, “Parking Fee/day: CNY 34.0” does not make sense because CNY is not terminology used by Chinese people.

The Chinese user has to calculate American dollars into Chinese Yuan.





F. Phone number display

The phone number displays as “1 888 HOLIDAY”. Most users in China do not know how to numerically enter “HOLIDAY” on their telephones. Also, this is not the booking phone number for mainland China. Users who dial this number will be connected to U.S. representatives. The users will not expect to reach a U.S. representative, nor will they be able to successfully book a hotel room.Suggestion:Use a localized number

12

Most Chinese audience will not know how to numerically enter “HOLIDAY” on their telephones.





so that users can speak to someone who speaks Chinese.

13





G. Unrecognizable trust organization

Users may not know what this icon means.

Suggestions: Explain the icon

within a sentence in Chinese

Use a comparable trust organization in China

14

The English icon may not be recognizable for the Chinese audience if they do not speak English.





15





Consistency and standards

Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

A. Buttons that are not links

These buttons in the Chinese map are cities and provinces of Holiday Inn locations in China. They look like they are links to other pages, but they are not. Users may be confused by this map.

Suggestion:Make the buttons links.

16

The buttons on the map are cities and provinces having Holiday Inns. However, these buttons are not links.





B. Inconsistent language

On the top of the home page, the Priority Club is in English. Down at the left column, it is spelled out in Chinese characters. Users will not recognize the English “Priority Club.”

Suggestion:Use Chinese characters for all the information in this site.

17

Priority Club is displayed in both English and Chinese on the home page. It may confuse the audience.





C. Inconsistent navigation

The navigation on top of the subpages is different from the home page.

Suggestion:Use consistent navigation.

18

Navigation on the home page reads “Hotel Reservation,” “Phone Services for Hotel Reservation,” “Conferences,” and “Destination Information.”

The navigation on the subpages reads “First Time Here,” “Hotel Reservation,” “Special Offers,” “Phone Services for Hotel Reservation,” and “Destination Information.”





D. Confusing search resultsIn the search results by hotel, the hotel’s information is displayed with two distinct background colors: one color for the Holiday Inn logo, and another for the specific hotel. Users may think that there are two hotels being displayed.

Suggestion:Use a consistent background color for a hotel, and change it for the next one in the search results.

19

The hotel is displayed in two background colors, making it look like two hotels. This may confuse users.





E. Incorrect order of informationThe left column is the information on Holiday Inn locations outside of China. The right column is a list of locations in mainland China. Chinese read from left to right. Most Chinese people travel within the country, but not outside the country. The users want to see domestic hotel information first.

Suggestions:Present domestic hotel information on the left and international hotels on the right.

20





F. Unclear information structureThe first navigation link translates to “book a hotel room.” The second translates to “book a hotel room by calling.” The difference in these two options is not clear.

Suggestion: The first navigation link should be “Book a hotel room online.”

21





Even better than good error messages is a careful design, which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place.A. Unlisted city optionsThe hotel locations are limited to some big cities, such as Beijing and Shenyang. Users may not know if their destination city has a Holiday Inn. If the city they enter in the input box does not have a Holiday Inn, an error message appears. [Also see item #6]

Suggestion:List the cities where hotels are available by using a dropdown menu.

22

The user may enter a city that does not have a Holiday Inn. The response is an error message, which does not give them relevant information. List the cities that have hotels.





4. Aesthetic and minimalist designDialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

23





A. Same pictures on the home page

On the home page, the exact same pictures are displayed just a few inches apart. These two pictures convey the same information. Users may see this as a design mistake, which could be interpreted as unprofessional.

Suggestion:Replace one of the duplicate pictures with another graphic.

5. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errorsError messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

24

Two identical advertisements are displayed on the home page.





A. Error message without a solution

The error message is very general. User will not know which part of the information they entered is incorrect. They may try and correct information that does not need to be changed. In the example, the error message is displayed because the selected city does not have a Holiday Inn. The error message should read, “ Could not find a hotel in selected city, sorry for the inconvenience.”

Suggestion:Specify the error and/or provide a solution.

25

The error message “Could not find matching hotel, please change your options and try again” appears when the selected city does not have a Holiday Inn.





B. Confusing error message

The error message is displayed as a code. Users will not understand what this means and will not be able to correct their error.

Suggestion:Avoid using codes in an error message. Use plain language.

26

The error message is displayed as a code. Users will not understand the meaning of the code.





6. Help and documentationEven though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search for, and should focus on the user’s task. It should also list concrete steps to be carried out, and the font should not be too large.A. No online help

Online help is not provided. Limited assistance in the form of FAQs is provided in some places.

Suggestions: Provide a link to

online help on each page

Provide a phone number to call for help on each page

27

At the end of the page “Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee,” a Frequently Asked Questions link is provided.





Findings and ConclusionKey FindingsBelow is a ranking of our findings based on our evaluation of the website. We have prioritized the findings into three categories: high priority, medium priority, and low priority.

High Priority Issues

Localization

Several problems within the website deal with translation issues that have not been properly localized. For example, the Chinese audience will not understand the translation of “king size bed.” There is no direct translation for this phrase; instead, the website calls it a “super large bed” (from the advanced search option). Similarly, when trying to communicate the idea of receiving information on the home page, it has been translated as “receive promoted sales (discount) activities.”

On some pages, when trying to select a hotel location, the user is asked to enter a state instead of a province (customer service page). Another example of localized language problems is the sporadic use of either USD or CNY. This usage will potentially cause conversion or confusion problems for the user (search and result page / lowest internet rate guarantee page).

On the home page, a U.S. phone number is given: “1-888-Holiday”. Chinese users will not understand how to numerically enter “Holiday” on their telephones and they will not understand that they are making a call to the United States.

Error Messages28





Some of the error messages do not specify what the error is. For example, one error message reads, “Could not find matching hotel, please change your options and try again.” At this point, the user will not know what information he/she needs to modify to conduct a successful search. Some of the other error messages are displayed as codes that the user will not understand.

Layout Design

When the search results for hotels are displayed, the hotel’s information is displayed with two different background colors. This may confuse the user into thinking that two hotels are being displayed.

Navigation

Upon visiting the Priority Club website, there is no clear option to return to the Holiday Inn website. This can potentially confuse users and leave them thinking they have arrived at a completely different website that is not affiliated with the Holiday Inn site. The branding and visual differences between the two sites can present users with a sense of confusion as to where they are. Aside from the selecting the “back” button on the browser (which should not be assumed that users will do), the only other option users have to return to the Holiday Inn site is at the bottom of the page, which cannot be seen on all computer displays without scrolling down.

Visual Language

Upon entering information to search for a hotel, the location overview page displays a map with cities and provinces where Holiday Inn hotels are located. Currently, the map displays gray icons that contain the province where a Holiday Inn is located. The visual language presented by the map leads users to believe that they can click on one of these icons to view more information about that specific Holiday Inn location.

29





Content

When a user enters information in the data collection form on the homepage, there is a box where the user is required to enter a city name. Since Holiday Inns are not in all cities or even many cities in China, this will result in a lot of errors for users. Currently, if a user enters in a city where a Holiday Inn is not present, it will tell the user that the search results were unsuccessful, without stating that there is no hotel in that city and without giving the user options to see where hotels are located.

Medium Priority Issues

Localization

On the homepage, Priority Club is written in English as well as in Chinese. Users who do not read English will not understand the English or know what it means.

Branding

The homepage displays the Holiday Inn logo in English as well as in Chinese. The audience may be confused by this.

Navigation

There is inconsistency in the top navigation bar options on the Holiday Inn landing page and the subpages. When users click on a navigation option on the home page, such as “Hotel Reservation,” the navigation on the new page is completely different from the home page.

30





The home page has the following options in the top navigation menu: Hotel Reservation Phone Services for Hotel Reservation Conferences Destination Information

Subpages list the following options in the top navigation menu, which shares the same look as the home page:

First Time Here Hotel Reservation Special Offers Phone Services for Hotel Reservation Destination Information

To illustrate the problem, suppose that a user wishes to view the contents of the “Conferences” button that was seen on the home page. The user will not be able to click it from a subpage because it is not in the top navigation bar, where they expect it to be. It can’t be assumed that the user will know to return to the home page to make this choice because the navigation menus look similar but contain different information choices.

Low Priority Issues

Localization

When the user is required to put in confidential information during the hotel-booking process, an icon appears to indicate to the user that the site is trustworthy. The words on the icon are written in English. Chinese users will not recognize this icon means without translation or because it is not from a local trust organization.

31





Online Help

There are very few options for help on the website. The closest example of online help is the FAQ link at the bottom of the “Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee” screen.

Layout Design

On the home page, the exact same pictures are used in close proximity. The two pictures convey the same information, so users may be confused by this.

On the home page, the Chinese hotel locations are listed to the right of the international hotel locations, as opposed to being listed first.

Navigation

The URL that the user enters in the web browser is not consistent with the URL that is displayed. The URL in the address bar on the home page is http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/280/zh/home; yet what is visible on the page is the address www.holidayinn.com.cn. (Located under the Holiday Inn logo.) This difference in the URLs could lead users to believe that they might be at a scam site due to the mismatch of the web addresses.

ContentThe home page navigation options have a redundancy issue. Currently the first navigation choice reads “Book a Hotel Room” and the second choice reads “Book a Hotel Room by Calling.” The distinction between

32







these 2 links needs to be made clearer (or merged into a single link).

ConclusionOur heuristic evaluation of the Holiday Inn China website revealed that there are a number of usability issues that our team can test with participants. The high-priority issues will be part of the scenarios used in the usability testing. The project team looks forward to testing the above findings with actual users of www.HolidayInn.com.cn.

33


Heuristic Evaluation of

Documents

Transcript of Heuristic Evaluation of