Usability Improvements
for Touch-Screen Mobile
Flight Booking
Application: A Case
Study
Authors
Feyza Gündüz and Al-Sakib Khan Pathan
Department of Computer Science, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Prepared by: Feyza Gündüz and Al-Sakib Khan Pathan
Presented by: Al-Sakib Khan Pathan
Introduction
• Smart phones have introduced great easiness to our
daily life by mobile applications. One of the
easinesses provided is buying flight tickets via mobile
phones. However poor consideration of end-users in
development phase leads to underutilization of such
facility, thus decreasing potential profit of companies.
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Introduction
Airline ticket reservation is in top 5 most
purchased online service[1] :
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Introduction
• Smart phone use is increasing and mobile
commerce is expected to be future’s shopping
style.
• In near future, more people are expected to buy
flight tickets using their mobile.
• Challenge arises at that point : Many companies
-> many customers. The one pleases the
customer would win the competition of mobile
commerce (M-Commerce).
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User’s Experience
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Experience and Preference
• User’s experience affects user’s preference of
using that application again.
• When user perceives a mobile application
easy to use, enjoy it to use and efficient in
terms of provided services, customer’s loyalty
is gained [2].
• Therefore, usability should be analyzed from
the point of users.
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Objective
• The objective of the study is to identify
usability problems for mobile flight booking
applications on touch-screen phones, and
suggest solutions.
• Main expectations of users are presented
from HCI perspective and discussed through
a case study.
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Related Works
• Some research works have been done on the usability
challenges of travel webpage and mobile commercial
applications. Psychological background of user’s perception
towards products are investigated. Guidelines for better
application usability are suggested for different mobile
platforms.
• However, there is little research about usability challenges
faced in touch screen phones, since it is a new technology.
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Related Works
M-commerce challenges and potential solutions.[3]
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General User Experience Goals
• Utility: usefulness, reliability
• Usability: ease of use, efficiency, accessibility
• Social value: connecting people,
identification
• Enjoyment: pleasure, stimulation
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Methodology
• In order to understand social and personal
phenomena in the context, a qualitative
approach is adopted in which we conducted
interviews with twenty(20) people at two
phases and collected answers from
questionnaires to increase the accuracy of
results.
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How was the study conducted?
• 20 people aged between 18-40 randomly selected.
• Interviews were conducted:
• Users were asked to complete the task of buying a
flight ticket to any destination of their choice. Their
ticket buying processes were closely observed.
• Notes and questionnaire results were analyzed.
Research findings related to flight travel, usability
concerns of mobile applications, and user satisfaction
criteria were utilized as guidelines.
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How was the study conducted?
• Other market applications that offer mobile flight booking
service were also explored for benchmarking.
• Problem areas were detected and solutions were extracted
from previous research findings and benchmarking analysis.
• Second interview was conducted to obtain user’s reaction
towards the prototype that was built to eliminate problems
that had been found in the first interview.
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Results
What are the usability challenges that mobile flight
booking applications face?
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1) Wrong choice of icons
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1) Placement of icons
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3) Redundancy of steps in
completing tasks
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3) Redundancy of steps in
completing tasks
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4) Naming of menus and
sections
Guesses about the
meaning of
“Mobile ticket” :
• Movie ticket
• Concert ticket
• Flight ticket
• SIM card, etc..
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4) Naming of menus and sections
• Users expect “interaction”.
• Need for a “talking” system.
• Instead of “Flight planning”, choose
– “Plan your flight”,
• Instead of “destination”,
– “Where do you want to go?”
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5) Uneasiness of single handed
use
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6) Small and disorganized input
fields
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7) Small selection fields
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8) Crowded and disorganized
information presentation
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8) Crowded and disorganized
information presentation
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8) Crowded and disorganized
information presentation
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Flight Planning
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Flight Planning
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Airport/City Selection
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Date Selection
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Date Selection
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Passenger Selection
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Cabin Selection
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Flight Selection
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Flight Selection
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Flight Selection
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Flight Details
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Flight Details
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Flight Details
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Flight Details
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Passenger Information
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Credit Card Payment
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Invoice Form
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Confirmation
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Confirmation
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E-Ticket
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To be Done Things …
• Functions for disabled people, speech search,
speech-to-text facilities, geo-locations services,
personalized flight booking assistance have been
omitted of this study due to its large complexity
that will not fall under single work.
• In fact, the entire process took considerable time
from collecting data to analyzing the data, then
designing appropriate graphical interfaces for
practical implementation.
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References
• [1] Nielsen, Trends in Online Shopping: a global Nielsen
consumer report [online] 2008. Available at [Last accessed
14 July 2012]:
www.nielsen.com/solutions/GlobalOnlineShoppingReportFe
b08.pdf
• [2] Design aesthetics leading to m-loyalty in mobile
commerce - Dianne Cyr, Milena Head, Alex Ivanov
• [3] Designing Mobile Commerce Applications - Peter
Tarasewich
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Thank you
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Q&A
Any other query could be directed to
sakib.pathan@gmail.com or sakib@iium.edu.my
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