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Introduction:
Affluent travelers are important to the travel and flight booking industry; they are more likely to travel internationally, more likely to buy vacation packages, and pays more for vacations (eyefortravel.com). During the formative interview conducted on Expedia flight booking capabilities with participants who are middle class and above ($42000 annual income), and takes vacations revealed that pricing changes were not noticed by participants. When the participants found out after they have purchased the tickets, they displayed strong negative emotions towards Expedia. This is further research and prototyping that seeks to improve the noticeability of the price change tags on Expedia’s review page.
Problem:
• Users cannot effectively see the pricing change on the review page when it occurs after they have chosen their flights results in negative emotions towards Expedia.
Recommendations and Solutions:
(insert test)
(insert control image)
• Xx% of the consumer understand the price change when showed the test interface versus xx% of the control page in a preference test. I recommend Expedia adopting the test image as the review page in the event of a price change.
• The survey of the preference test also shows that there is a deep trust issue with Expedia in the event of a price change as xx% of the consumer who detected price changed strongly distrust or distrust Expedia. As one participant was surprised that Expedia “didn’t fix the pricing”. (insert more SUPR-Q results). This problem potentially resides with the pricing agreement and strategy between Expedia and the airlines. Changing the user interface can do little to improve this distrustful user experience. I recommend reviewing and simplifying the pricing strategies of Expedia.
Test Methodologies:
• Test format: Preference test using Typeform survey that compares the control and the test interface using compare the between method. 40 participants were funneled into two groups. Each group of participants only saw one of the two interfaces before answering the surveys. The funneling is done using the first letter of their last names.
• Population: 40 participants from the US age 18 and over who earns $42000 and above.
• Recruiting: Using Amazon mTurk panelists, SurveyCircle panelists, and snowball recruiting methods.
Citations:
https://www.eyefortravel.com/social-media-and-marketing/expedia-gets-creative-affluent-traveller