Google Flights: UX Research
UX Research + Data Analysis
About the Project:
Google launched 'Google Flights' to help users book the cheapest flight in a more customized way. After an extensive review of the current website, there are still a few site opportunities that have been outlined for a better user experience for visitors. This UX exercise is a small sample of that a research plan could look like if it were to be a full project.
Part 1 -- • Review of Current Website • User Research Plan • Sample Research Segments
Part 2 -- • Data Analysis of A/B Testing • Summarized Findings • Recommendations
My Role:
Although this is only a sample of a UX exercise, this project showcases various guidelines and methodologies of how I would approach revamping an already existing product, such as Google Flights.
Part 1: First I began by outlining a research plan. I began by reviewing the current website to discovery any usability issues and looking into what users were already saying about the product. Although I didn't conduct any interviews for this project, below is how I would structure the project phases and what my process would look like.
Part 2: I sorted through sample data I acquired based on two web prototypes and showed the process of how I would sort and pull findings from such results.
Part 1: Phase 1: Research
Reviewing the current site is one of the ways I like to familiarize myself with a product (even if I have or have not used it) A few questions I like to ask myself. . . is it intuitive and easy to use? Where am I having trouble? Are other users maybe having the same problem as me? How easy is it to find what I am looking for? For this case, how easy is it to choose the best flight for where I need to go? Where should I travel during my next vacation? How helpful is the 'discover destinations' section?
After clarifying a few of those questions, I begin to create a survey/ focus group plan to start talking to other users so find if they have new or similar issues when navigating the site.
Part 1: Phase 2: Analysis
After collecting all the survey and focus group research and summarizing it, I then would start to look for themes in demographics, hobbies, technology habits, and travel preferences between users to start grouping them into personas. By creating customer user personas for a product, it is helpful to use these as a guide to imaging each persona type using the product.
Part 2A: Data Study Sample
Using data from a study comparing two website designs is an important part of the user research process. Learning the analytics of the site through the consumer is an very large part of the design process referred to as user testing.
After studying the provided data for Test A and Test B, I began to categorize the data by ‘Test A' vs. 'Test B'. This is also known as A/B Testing. Note: This is just a small sample of the 420 participant study.
Part 2B: Data Summary Findings
After categorizing the data by ‘test’, the average of all 420 participant answers were separately categorized into columns based on the task at hand and conclusions were drawn about which test/ prototype performed better.
Part 2C: Data Summary Recommendations
*Note: This project was only an exercise not a full end-to-end process.