Category: UX Thoughts

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Conversational vs traditional customer experiences.

I’ve been working on a project with Pat.ai/EC.ai for several months, and what those guys can do with linguistic understanding (and context) is pretty amazing.

Looking at a traditional customer experience in travel.

A traditional UI for example google’s multi-itinerary flight search form, has prescribed inputs

google.com/flights

The customer enters data, select dates, and builds their itinerary. – comparing this to a dialogue with a travel agent the questions would be mostly the same. (“I’m interested in going to Singapore, I need to go via doha to attend a meeting but just for a day. Here’s my dates”)

Continue reading “Conversational vs traditional customer experiences.”
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Every Agile team should have a UX expert.

Until 1-2 years ago, my specifications were wordy, with wireframes but what I’ve observed is that you can’t assume customers will read a 100+ page document and fully engage with it.

What customers can relate to, are visual prototypes.  In doing so you get feedback much faster, although BEWARE this feedback can be never ending, so it’s important to time box this exercise.

Continue reading “Every Agile team should have a UX expert.”

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Does the number of steps in a booking journey matter?

At the Airline Information Conference, Amadeus showed a study that they conducted, comparing major airlines with regional LCC, and this study showed that most LCC had more steps in their journey than most full service airlines. LCC often requested information sooner, such as an email address, which enabled personalisation and basket abandonment, but many had a number of additional steps.

Amadeus wanted to see how this impacted the user experience. They mapped  the time to complete a booking against the number of steps.

What they determined was even with more steps, if the steps are fast and easy (no bullying) that the LCC had a positive experience with the user. Those who were slow negatively impacted the experience.

This shows that more steps doesn’t adversely impact the journey as long as we can handle the information being asked. Its likely to relate to the fact that our memory can only recall information for a limited amount of time.  Breaking down steps, enables us to answer effectively, to the LCC’s benefit (to personalise, recover bookings), and also provide a positive experience.

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How buying Nike Sneakers could inspire the next travel experience.

Retailers, especially large retailers have spent a lot of time working out how people will buy their products, and as much as I’d love to be part of a team that size, I doubt many travel companies can afford such a budget.

When considering new UX prototypes, its essential to consider ideas, this is usually done by heuristic evaluation, gathering market research, and UX feedback. Continue reading “How buying Nike Sneakers could inspire the next travel experience.”