Introduction
Chapters 8-9 of Barnum’s Usability Testing Essentials focus on the attributes of successful testing and the presentation of results obtained during the development of project implementation changes. Chapters Eight and Nine by Barnum (2021) discuss methods for statistically analyzing the results obtained. The approach can be either top-down or bottom-up, depending on the project’s ultimate goal and rigor (p. 295).
Chapter Eight focused on describing approaches to data collection, whether through quantitative or qualitative methods, and discussing the elements of descriptive statistics that help identify patterns in respondents’ answers (Barnum, 2021, p. 299). Chapter Nine focuses on the challenges of presenting findings, which logically follow from the analysis discussed in the previous section. Attention is given to the types of media used when making a presentation and the mechanisms for planning the style of such media (Barnum, 2021, p. 331).
Together, these chapters were useful from a statistical organization perspective, as they shed light on the challenges of data analysis and presentation in a readable and appealing way. This reading reminded me of the problems with the hotel aggregator Booking.com, which is not highly visually appealing.
Uncovering the Problem
As both chapters of Barnum suggest, implementing quality and effective changes to a website’s functional appeal requires various tests on a large sample of results; however, this was not feasible within the scope of this paper. The proposed changes are primarily based on personal discomfort of use and perceptions of what accessible content should be (Naveed, 2021; Babich, 2022). Figure 1 shows a booking web page: the main content is concentrated in the center, and the prevailing characteristic is depth rather than width of content. The left and right margins (Figure 1) occupy many spaces but are unnecessary (Thalenberg, 2021).
The sort button requires an additional action: expanding the drop-down menu. Another feature of the website is the number of options per query, which is 1285. This functionality makes sense when the number is small, but few users can view the entirety of the found booking options. Thus, all the critical main observations are shown in Figure 2 with red boxes.
Proposed Solution
To solve this problem, a top-down approach had to be employed, according to Barnum (2021), as the criteria for ineffective usability were identified during the “field” observation (p. 295). According to Pervall (2021), poor visualization is a significant usability problem with the interfaces used, indicating that efforts should be made to enhance the content. Low-importance elements that lack high practical value to the user should not be the focus of attention. Based on these considerations, it was decided to implement a change in the Booking.com interface structure independently to address the identified issues.
Figure 3 illustrates the proposed modifications to the detected interface inefficiency criteria, as created using Photoshop. The empty areas on the left and right have been minimized, the number of detected options (1,285) has been moved out of focus, and the most popular sorting options have been placed in quick buttons without requiring a drop-down menu. The proposed interface design is broader and more accessible to the low-vision user (Pervall, 2021). Although this is only a raw version of the redesigned interface, the changes are expected to be useful and enhance usability.
Conclusion
This paper involved working on modular readings and implementing practical skills to modify the interface. The problem was discovered through personal interaction with Booking.com, which possessed many blank spaces and focused on impractical design elements. Using Photoshop, changes were proposed to the Booking.com interface that are expected to improve the usability characteristics of the website.
It is essential to clarify that the proposed changes are preliminary and require further statistical analysis to be finalized. Performing this exercise was very interesting for me as I managed the project and made changes on my own. Moreover, it contributed to my professional growth by enabling me to identify UX errors and propose their transformations.
References
Babich, N. (2022). Accessible interface design. UX Planet.
Barnum, C. M. (2021). Usability testing essentials: Ready, set…test! (2nd edition). Elsevier.
Naveed, S. (2021). What is accessible interface design? Educative.
Pervall, T. M. (2021). UX design principles that improve both usability and accessibility. Medium.
Thalenberg, N. (2021). Less is not always more: How too much white space can harm user experience. Portent.