Primary Research
1:1 Interviews
Initial Interviews for Existing Products
People are looking for the most bang for their buck and are willing to put in some extra time to get deals. If travel is taken care of because of work or lodging with friends/family, then people may be more likely book a trip. If a site is easy to use, then they will be used more. Participants will abandon searches or put travel on hold because of cost or site being too difficult to navigate.
Participants used whatever device was the handiest and most familiar for them.
- For half of the participants this was a desktop due to ease of use, familiarity, app loading time, and “real estate” on screen for seeing all features/filters.
- For the other half of participants it was whichever device was on hand- mobile or desktop.
Why 1:1 User Interviews?
1:1 user interviews allow for you to have the interviewees relax and have a discussion while ticking off info needed to have insight to motivations, pain points, and preferences for travel and planning travel online.
Interview Participants
Three Remote Interviews
- 27, Portland, Oregon, Real Estate and Resale Retail Display
- 37, Portland, Oregon, Archeologist, Senior Event Planner
- 45, Portland, Oregon, Assistant VP Research
One In-Person Interview
- 42, Portland, Oregon, Doula/Graphic Design Student
Motivations
- Business Travel: Participants for business travel consistently stated that they did not go for the cheapest tickets but also constrained choices based on reasonable expenditure even though this type of travel was referred to as “free”. There was no hesitation of going on these types of trips.
- Leisure Travel: Interviewees looked for cheap flights/ travel with no plans to go through with booking unless a specific event came up (ie concert, friend gathering). These were often shorter, weekend getaways- due to budget and time.
- Family Travel: Participants stated once agreed upon time and place completed- they would buy tickets and would just stay with family.
Common Processes
- Avoided the larger booking sites due to individual airline/travel agency/hotel incentives/savings.
- Explored larger sites to see if the deals were better and would then go back to the airlines that they preferred to do comparison shopping.
- Some would go on different platforms just to see what was available and then keep checking back in to see if prices had changed.
Frustrations & Fears
- Content was hard to understand due to complicated website design (site navigation inconsistent, no breadcrumbs, and page layout of content confusing)
- Transparency of cost and available options (travel results conflicting or inconsistent and hidden fees at end of process)
- Difficult to complete booking in one sitting due to time or being able to find search results again to receive prices originally found (save and return not readily available
Contact Kathryn