headline banner

UX Design (Accessibility):

Expedia Redesign

Table of Contents.

  1. Summary

  2. Design Process

  3. Research (Interviews)

  4. Research (Website Reviews)

  5. Problem Definition

  6. Design Ideation

  7. Prototype

  8. Usability Testing

  9. Next Steps

  10. Takeaways

  11. Reflections

Role: UX Designer

Team: Mia Spencer, Amelia Costello, Anita Tsai, Tina Su, Peggy Hu

Methods/Skills: comparative analysis, flow/task creation, usability testing, script writing, interviewing, design ideation

Scope: September - December 2022

Goal: Redesign a website (Expedia) to make it more accessible and inclusive.

Summary.

For our inclusive design class, we were given the opportunity to choose a disability issue to focus on and then choose to design or redesign something with that disability in mind. We performed a round of generative interviews with people who experience our chosen disability. We then used these insights to make a decision about what to design or redesign. We created our prototype and then performed usability testing on it.

This

My Contribution

We brainstormed together to come up with initial ideas for what groups to focus on. Once we decided to focus on people with mobility disabilities, I was able to find a participant to interview. Together, we came up with our problem definition and design ideas. I then wrote our design proposal based on our research and ideation sessions.

For the prototyping portion, we all worked together to come up with a list of features we wanted to add or redesign on Expedia’s website. I was put in charge of “planning assistance” features. I redesigned the reviews, added accessibility notes, and an accessibility rating filter. My redesigns are the only ones show in the Prototype section.

design process: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test

This

Design Process.

Research (Interviews).

We decided to focus on mobility disabilities and were able to interview three different people with a mobility disability. Participant 1 and 3 were both long time and permanent wheelchair users. Participant 2 had a temporary injury that caused her to use crutches and a wheelchair.

This

overall interview findings

Research (Website Reviews).

We knew we wanted our prototype to be related to travel in some way so we did a competitive analysis of travel and accessibility travel websites.

This

travel website review: air bib and wheel the world

Problem Definition.

As a mobility-disabled user, I want to feel confident ahead of time about the accessible accommodations throughout my hotel and travel experiences so that I can have a safe journey.

This

How might we…

Redesign Expedia’s website to provide comprehensive information from the user’s perspective through clear and innovative design solutions?

Design Ideation.

Time was limited so each person in the group recruited and completed usability testing with one participant.

This

brainstorming and results

The features we decided to focus on:

  • planning assistance

    • filtering abilities, nearby attractions, notes about establishment

  • 3D views/photos

    • important to be able to see surroundings of establishments

  • customer reviews

    • including separate accessibility reviews

Prototype.

We split up different tasks for the prototype creation. I focused on adding accessibility notes, nearby attractions, accessibility reviews, and an accessibility rating filter.

This

Adding Accessibility Notes & Nearby Attractions

adding accessibility notes and nearby attractions: Expedia design and my redesign

Expedia’s current design:

My redesign of this page:

Adding Accessibility Reviews/Review Filter

accessibility reviews and review filter: Expedia design and my redesign

Expedia’s current design:

My redesign of this page:

Usability Testing.

We were only able to do usability testing on one participant. I created the task flows and the script. Tina conducted the testing itself.

adding an accessibility rating filter: my design

Adding Accessibility Rating Filter

My redesign of this page

This

usability testing result

Usability Testing Findings.

  • Need more information or better definition of “Accessibility Rating”

    • People with different types of disabilities have different needs. It confused the user that there is a general accessibility rating.

Next Steps.

  • improve accessible design

    • Pay attention to concrete solutions and focus on the needs of users and designing for web accessibility (following WCAG)

  • extend to other applications

    • We suggest extending this topic to designing for mobile and tablet user experiences as well

This

Takeaways.

  • start with your users

    • do as much research as possible on the user’s perspective

    • people with mobility disabilities face different conditions based on their differing backgrounds

  • small changes

    • design is not always about making huge changes but digging for ways to fit user needs

  • time management

    • the design process can be unpredictable, so learning how to manage time is important

This

Reflections.

  • What I learned

    • How to communicate with people who have very different design ideas

      • How to let go of an idea when the group wants to go in a different direction

    • Figma tips and tricks from my group members

  • What could be improved

    • It would have been helpful to do more usability testing if we had time, and more initial interviews

This