JFK International Airport Website Redesign: Usability Test [Short/ Informal] Date of Report: 10/29/16 Date of Test: 10/27/16 Location of Test: Boston, MA Prepared for: Prepared by: Prof. Timothy Bickmore Alexander Lim, David Hersey, Bo-Ren Chen, and Nick Bond Executive Summary The main goal of this study was to identify areas of confusion in the navigation of our web interface. We had participants perform three tasks: look up the arrival gate of a flight, rent a car for a certain period of time, and find driving directions to the airport from a given address. Four participants took part in the study lasting roughly 15 minutes each. Overall, participants were able to complete all three tasks but noted areas of confusion primarily in the labeling of information. This problem led some participants to mistake the information contained in our navigation tabs. Arrangement of widgets also caused confusion among some participants. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of our interface across three distinct tasks given to our participants and highlights both areas of improvement and areas of success. Methodology Who we tested Four participants, having the following characteristics, evaluated the JFK International Airport website redesign. Primary Language English 2 English/Chinese 1 English/German 1 TOTAL (participants) 4 Mode English Age 19 2 21 1 24 1 TOTAL (participants) 4 Avg. 20.75 Gender Women 2 Men 2 TOTAL (participants) 4
What participants did The participants met with study facilitators for roughly 15 minutes each where they performed three given tasks on the interface. Following the tasks, participants were asked unstructured interview questions about their specific experiences before filling out a questionnaire to further express their thoughts on performing each task. What data we collected For each task performed, we collected two pieces of data. We measured the time taken from start to completion as well as the number of slips/mistakes that participants made. After completing the study, participants filled out a questionnaire where they rated their experience for each task on a 5-point scale of Very Unsatisfied to Very, and explained what they liked about each task and how (if possible) the task could have been improved. When filling out the questionnaire, participants also provided their demographic information (age, gender, preferred languages) as well as how often they fly (infrequently to frequently) and the means with which they receive their flight/travel information (e.g. airport website, Google, mobile app). Major findings and recommendations List major issues o o o o Users have confusion about what Ground Transportation means and expect information to be organized under that tab that is not. Users have confusion about how to work the translation widget on the home screen. Users may expect car rental and directions to the airport to be found under the Airport Info tab. Users did not understand how to use the car type option field on the car rental page. Identify solutions o Add country flags to the language selection screen. o Change the structure of which elements are in which section (Ground Transportation or Airport Info). o Move the car type field up so that it is placed near the other options. Detailed findings and recommendations Scenario 1 - Find flight information Your cousin is arriving on flight #332. Find which gate their flight will be arriving at. Number of participants 4 Percent successful 100% Findings 2 participants completed the task with within 30 seconds Recommendations Add country flags to the language selection screen.
2 participants needed prompting or had significant difficulty completing the task Show list of flights directly on flight info page. 0 participants did not complete the task 2 participants were distracted by the homepage All 4 participants found the gate number via Flight Info Tab. All 4 participants experienced some degree of confusion over how the language selection worked. 3 participants had difficulty identifying the best way forward when confronted with the flight info page. Time used to complete task 01:21 00:26 00:23 01:16
Scenario 2 Find driving directions Find driving directions from 123 Elm Street to JFK International Airport. Number of participants 4 Percent successful 100% Findings 4 participants completed the task within 2 min. 1 participant needed prompting or had significant difficult completing the task 0 participant did not complete the task Recommendations Do not use Ground Transportation as the name for a tab. Change the structure of which elements are in which section (Ground Transportation or Airport Info). 3 participants selected the Airport Info tab instead of the correct Ground Transportation 1 subject initially checked the Airport Info tab and and clicked the Map (Airport map) icon on that page. Time used to complete task 02:06 01:08 00:54 01:13
Scenario 3 Rent a car Rent a car from a rental service in the airport for a trip from January 12th to January 14th with one passenger. Number of participants 4 Percent successful 100% Findings 3 participants completed the task within 30 second. 1 participant needed prompting or had significant difficult completing the task 0 participant did not complete the task 2 participants were trying to navigate via Airport Info Tab 3 participants overlooked the car type field or were confused about the order of operations on the page. Recommendations Do not use Ground Transportation as the name for a tab. Change the structure of which elements are in which section (Ground Transportation or Airport Info). Indicate with a label that car type is an optional field. Move the car type field up so that it is placed near the other options. Replace the car type field with a field to select the number of passengers. Time used to complete task 01:10 00:13 00:21 00:30
Exit Questions/User Impressions Questions How satisfied were you with your experience finding flight information? Responses What did you like about your experience finding flight information? I could easily enter the search page and search the flight by exact criteria/keywords i had. It was easy to navigate. It s easy. Titles of pages are informative. What could be improved about your experience finding flight information? Easy to find -> clear How satisfied were you with your experience finding driving directions? Maybe have quick links. eg. widget for Flight Info. What did you like about your experience finding driving directions? Neutral Easy to navigate. Liked that JFK was already the destination for starting point.
Very straightforward! What could be improved about your experience finding driving directions? After clicking the right link, very clear I thought Ground Transportation meant kinds of public transportations like buses, subways, taxis, while information like how to get to the airport should be found under Airport Info, but it was not. How satisfied were you with your experience renting a car? Slight confusion on the term Ground Transportation. I thought it was cabs/public transport. What did you like about your experience renting a car? Page was easy to find. What could be improved about your experience renting a car? Easy to find. Same confusion as question 2. Afterwards, very straightforward. Same as question 2. Info about renting a car at or near airport should be able to found under Airport Info tag much like what should do for question 2. Found it hard to find the drop-down menu for car type.
Put optional or required next to different options. ie. Car Type = Optional Maybe having a link under Airport Info and Ground Transportation.