HUEISHIUAN CHIANG -- Dissertation

A dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Integrated Product Design

Light Travel

by Hueishiuan Chiang

Tutor : Ian de Vere

Brunel University School of Engineering & Design United - Kingdom

2014

(Simple version)

ABSTRACT Tittle

LightTravel An app designed to create personalized trip plan which connected their lifestyle and make travel easier, through the effectively reviews system to reduce time of using.

Course

Integrated Product Design MSc

Supervisor

Professor Ian de Vere

Key Words

Travel applications, lifestyle, reviews system, user-generated content, Electronic word-of-mouth

Purpose

In recent years, people would like to read reviews before they booking hotel, restaurant or choosing attractions. The aim of the dissertation is design a traveling platform, which would make easier for user by personalized profile and clear reviews system. Improve the process of trip and plan, decrease people waste more time to read unnecessary information.

Based on the analysis of survey to design the interface, and then group discuss the whole project. After redesign it, with user test by Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction (QUIS) and System usability scale (SUS). From the analysis, evaluate the possibility of app.

Research Questions

Research questions related to personalized travel and reviews system are (1) how do users use personalized system to improve their trip (2) how could clients read reviews effectively and make helpful decision (3) how could we attract users to share their travel experience

Deliverables

(1) A model of LightTravel app (2) A basic business model of LightTravel based on final design concept

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1

Overview

5

1.2

Aim

5

1.3

Initial Research Question

5

Chapter 2: Methodology 2.1

Project Methodology

6

2.2

Methodology Analysis

7

2.3

Summary

8

Chapter 3: User Research / Survey Analysis 3.1

Questionnaire Survey Analysis

9

3.2

Summary

10

Chapter 4: Design 4.1

First design

11

4.2

Problem discuss/ Troubleshoot

13

4.3

Final design

17

4.4

User Experiences And Satisfaction Survey

23

4.5

Experimental Results And Analysis

26

4.6

Summary

35

Chapter 5: Business Plan

36

Chapter 6: Conclusion& Suggestion

38

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview Today, getting travel information on the Internet is easier than before. With the rising number of travel websites, the users spend more and more time on searching travel information before deciding each thing. Moreover, the travelers want to get other extensive tips. They tend to read a lot of reviews in order to evaluate those attractions, for example, they wonder whether the travel spot is suitable or not.

What is more, people try to explore the background of these comments, for example, the teenagers would believe those comments from others who are in the similar ages because the information are the best match for them. With the result that they filter out the useless information and choose what they do care about. In this dissertation, how to help people organize a trip easily by their lifestyle is the main assignment . Additionally, it is also important to organize the review systems and attract the user to give feedbacks.

1.2 Aim The aim of the dissertation is to design a personalized trip plan for individual or group. With amusing interaction, it would be closer user and application. Through clear interface and integrated functions, the user have a new experience of planning a journey. Besides, a business plan used at the end of the concept, motivating traveler go back and update the reviews.

1.3 Initial Research Question This research, LightTravel, studies in many different aspects, such as lifestyle, user-generated content, electronic word-of-mouth. Besides, it also analyzes two cases, which are TripAdvisor and Foursquare. Those are the benchmarks of the whole project.

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CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 2.1 Project Methodology After the theme and the research direction have been established, the research method can be divided into five stages: The first stage is the literature collections and reviews. The second stage is to understand the general situation of people traveling. The third stage is to carry out the interface design which is based on the analysis results of the previous stage. The fourth stage is to carry on the test experiment. Finally, the conclusions and recommendations will be put forward.

The various research methods are described in the followings: (1) Step I: In the chapter two of this study, the literature collections and reviews will be conducted, and then those relevant articles will be read and put in order. According to discussing those writings, the developments and theories of a tourism application (APP) can be understood. The early work focuses on exploring the issues and motives for a tourism planning, and determining the aim of the whole project.

(2) Step II: The questionnaire will be designed based on the results of the literature reviews. Through filling in the questionnaire online, the researcher can get feedback rapidly and efficiently to know the habits of general people traveling. The entire questionnaire will be divided into four parts, including a tourist’s basic information, the methods for collecting the travel advice, the users' preferences, and the way to share their trip experience. Additionally, in order to figure out what interface model the users tend to operate, the author has categorized three different interface styles. From this whole survey, help the researcher to recognize and analyze the reasons about why the tourists choose a site or an APP. (3) Step III: Though the case study, the integrated plans and management modes about the tourism-related websites will be investigated; moreover, the integrality of the overall design will be improved as well. Besides, in accordance with the development of the combination with the above investigations, analyses and literature studies, the preliminary concept of the design has been given. At a later time, the writer will invite some Brunel students who have the design background to delve into LightTravel together and find out the problems and the improvement of this APP. 6

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(4) Step IV: After the re-design, the researcher will face-to-face interviews ten students, and then they will fill in the survey which includes Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction (QUIS) and System Usability Scale (SUS). Afterwards, the investigator is able to recognize the experimental subjects’ usage condition and feelings. Subsequently, those experimental results will be interpreted through the medium of quantitative statistics to evaluate the degree of the satisfaction and applicability of the testers.

(5) Step V: According to the experimental results, the achievements, conclusions and recommendations can be indicated; furthermore, the following research will be proposed as well.

2.2 Methodology Analysis The design method can be divided into two stages. The first stage is to make use of a prototype planning tool, Prototyping on Paper (POP) APP. To begin with, the research worker and these experimental subjects will inquire into the each function and feature of this APP, and discuss the solutions for the discovered issues. After this stage, the possible problems and neglected factors will be collected. The second phase is to designate some specified tasks to the analysts, and then they will write the QUIS and SUS inquiries for every mission in order to grasp at the subjects’ feelings about usage further. Finally, those experimental records and questionnaire analyses will be integrated for the sake of drawing a conclusion to collect the conclusions and suggestions.

The processes and statistical methods for the experiment in the second gradation are shown as the followings： Task One: Login→ set up the personal lifestyles→ fill out the SUS questionnaire I- set lifestyle.

Task Two: Click the Home Browse System to be recommended the related information→ click “search”→ enter the key word “London” and “restaurant”→ get the news→ read the comments→ explore the reviews for the different areas in the cross coordinates map → click one key word on a comment so as to know the similar assessments→ write an evaluation→ fill in the SUS questionnaire II- read and write reviews.

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Task Three: Click “Plan” to add a group trip→ invite three friends to this trip→ vote for an attraction→ arrange a journey→ turn on the “smile map” to find other spots→ input write the SUS questionnaire III- plan a trip.

Task Four: write the QUIS survey.

Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS) The Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) of the University of Maryland was put forward a new survey, which is The Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS). The scientists made use of the interface with human-computer interaction to evaluate a user's subjective satisfaction. QUIS is a believable and efficient method for measuring the five fields of satisfaction by means of the seven-step scale. The five fields contain the overall reaction to the testing prototype interface for a user, the presentation of the screen, the terminology and system information on an interface, the learning, and the system capability. In addition, all the standards, fields and items of judgment for this QUIS inquiry can be regulated pursuant to the data. For this reason, this study can be modified and extended which are supported by these prototype questionnaires.

System Usability Scale (SUS) The SUS was proposed by Brooke in 1996 is put to use in this study. The questionnaire contains the Five-Interval Likert System Usability Scale. After the users operate this APP, it calculates the subjective feelings through a multidimensional approach. The System Usability Scale involves ten standard narrative questions which are half positive and half negative. The formula to calculate the score is as the following: [(S1+S3+S5+S7+S9)-5]+[25-(S2+S4+S6+S8+S10)]*2.5. “S” means the items’ numbers. The score range is from zero to one hundred. The higher the score is, the better the evaluations are. That is to say, the examinees believe the system is useful.

2.3 Summary The dissertation is based on the different aspects researches to develop and design, also interview and discuss with design students during the design process. Besides, the researcher gathers objective information, which are QUIS and SUS results from ten respondents. According to those data and evaluation, the final design will be given advices and suggestions at the end of the project.

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CHAPTER 3 USER RESEARCH/SURVEY ANALYSIS 3.1 Questionnaire Survey Analysis The purpose of the online survey is to find the different aspects of a traveler. The survey was divided into four parts, which are as the followings: 1. The basic information about a user.

2. How do the tourists collect the travel advice 3. What are the users' preferences 4. How do they share their trips The following are the analysis of this survey: To begin with, for the first part, there are 93 responses, including 32 males and 61 females. To be divided by the nationalities, the responses contain the Asians, Europeans, and North Americans which respectively account for 69 percent, 27 percent, and four percent, and the main range of age is from 19 to 36.

Secondly, the answerers prefer to take a trip around four to six days. According to the statistics, the travelers can get the tourism suggestions from a trip website or an app (71 percentages), a social network (63 percent), and a travel book (45 percentages). The reasons for choosing the travel-related websites or apps are that the priority for the journeyers is to use the tools easily, and then they will consider the detailed information and the clear price-compare system. Finally, they will contemplate the issues about the price and the consumers' feedback.

Additionally, owing to the convenient Internet systems, 88 percent of the travelers like to pre-book their tickets before the vacations. However, the interesting situation is that they still live to print out the schedules, and carry them around when they are traveling because the majority of vacationists are worried about that their smart handheld devices will be without power or be stolen.

What is more, for the interface, the users are fond of the real and colorful images.

Moreover, over half of the responses are in love with that the websites or apps can store the historical records and show them up as a list next time, and the other half of them delight in the websites or apps which will reveal the popular locations, hotels, or countries before they key in any information. Additionally, 54 percentages of the users dote on the basic style layouts which only display the basal news.

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In the final analysis, 82 percent of the travelers have affection for sharing their experience by chatting to their friends face to face, but it is only when they have enough time. Besides, 71 percentages of the test-takers choose to share their pictures immediately onto the social networks, like Facebook or Twitter.

Interestingly, there are only nine percent of experimenters will to post their reviews onto a public websites after their journey.

This phenomenon exhibits that the general travelers might only post a few photos with a small number of statements onto their personal social web pages, instead of sharing their comments to a public website or app. It also means that to share their trips is not necessary, depending on their feelings at that moment. However, if the website or app has a perfect feedback system, such as offering some discount coupons, the users will be encouraged to write their actual assessments and will keep their motivation.

3.2 Summary According to the survey, most of the responses are young people who the age is from 19-36 years old, they like traveling for four to six days. The young people like to use the websites and apps easily; they also consider the detailed information and the clear price-compare system. Besides, they like the simple but colorful of the interface. Moreover, most teenagers and young adult would like to post their travel pictures and experience in their personal social network. However, they have low-intention to share the journey and write comments on the public Internet. Through this online survey, to recognize general people of travel habits.

Therefore, in the next stage, LightTravel will be developed based on these data and analysis.

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CHAPTER 4 DESIGN 4.1

First Design Set the users' lifestyle LightTravel

LightTravel

Light Travel Create your lifestyle

?

Adventurer

Adventurer

Family

Sightseer

Culture

Nature loving

Others

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The beginning of the LightTravel, the users have to select their appropriate lifestyle, which according to their preferences. This part is based on the percentage of the selections, so, when the users adjust the level of an activity, it will affect the other options. With the aim is using the proportional way to assign the percentage of recommended contents.

Review and write system London

Search

££££

£

Search...

London

Near current location Tokyo

Taipei

London

£

Beautiful place

Hotel

Restaurant

££££

Designed in a fine English Baroque style, this elegant Cathedral is decorated with four stained glass ....

READ MOARE

B&B Hotel

Thai

Your message....

DIEJFIS

udshivcsud dsiohvdh cddnz cjdios ji ijcidjicj iji ojcjcdocj kkcd oojdspj READ MOARE

DIEJFIS

udshivcsud dsiohvdh cddnz cjdios ji ijcidjicj iji ojcjcdocj kkcd oojdspj READ MOARE

Your message....

Home

Map

Friends

Plan

Home

Map

Friends

Send

Plan

Home

Map

Friends

Plan

Through the search mode of label classification, the users can further filter the destinations. After the travelers confirm the destination, the coordinate could assist users to read comments message quickly. The users can click on the different regions to watch different comments. Besides, the experienced commentators which meet the users' lifestyle, their comments will be ranked at the top.

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Map system Map From : To :

current location

Map

Map GO

10 mins

20 mins

98

Happy store

456 Road, City, Postcode

White museum

123 Road, City, Postcode

Home

Map

Friends

Plan

Home

Map

Friends

Plan

Home

Map

Friends

Plan

The map system combines with the recommendation mechanism, it can help the users find the destinations that the travelers might interest during their journey.

This function is different from the Google Map that give the shortest route to the clients. Because of the travelers have different routes to explore and choose during their journey. Therefore, through the real-time map of recommended system, the tourists can try a different one.

Plan system LightTravel

Plan

Plan

10 new trip

06

10 06

12 : 32 AM

10 : 32 AM

Valencia

London

12 : 32 FM

City of the Arts and Sciences

07

WOW Hotel

11: 32 AM

This is Photoshop's version Proin gravida nibh vel velit auctor aliquet.

Home

Map

Friends

Plan

Home

Map

Friends

Plan

Home

Map

Friends

Plan

This part is developed to an effective tourism planning by a combination of lifestyle. The users can see the group's profile. And then, the users can introduce what attractions their friends might want to go. Moreover, recommend locations by each member of the group, and complete a complex travel plans as soon as possible.

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4.2 Problem discuss/ Troubleshoot After brief design, the incompleteness and doubts of this application need to be examined and improved. For this reason, the whole process and operation must be tested by others. Therefore, the investigator invited five Brunel postgrad students with design backgrounds, such as Integrated Product Design and Design Branding Strategy, to test this application and discuss the issues of LightTravel respectively.

The discussion includes the entire project process, business plans and what will happen when the users work with it. In order to be able to let the respondents simulate the complete usage conditions, the researcher made use of a simple software, POP - Prototyping on Paper, to allow the paper flowchart program to execute and operate on a mobile phone.

To begin with, the author explained the goal of the dissertation and then the POP software was used to demonstrate the all parts of this project. Through the simple introduction, the interviewers could quickly understand the LightTravel. During this interview, each of them asked some pointed questions, and then had a group discussion.

Figure 18. Prototype test and interview 13

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These questions are as follows: Question 1.

The profile of a user’s lifestyle is changing at any moment, so the users do not always have partiality for the same type of tourism planning. In the case, how to recommend a journey without boredom by various lifestyles, and how to make the right choice for the travelers to classify the five forms which are adventurer, family, sightseer, cultural tourism, and nature loving are the most difficult issues for this paper.

The recommendation from LightTravel is based on the lifestyle proportions which were set by the tourists themselves, but only if they know what they prefer. Other lifestyle information can be obtained by search function. In addition, each one of these five groups has a good deal of activity selections; further, the destination or the lifestyle classification of a journeyer will not be the only one. As an illustration, one shopping mall may be classified in the shopping or leisure list, so that the system might suggest a vacationist going to a place in another categorization.

Additionally, there is a handbook-like helper to aid the visitors to elect the trip details in lifestyle selecting system.

In the last step, after the discussion, the testers all showed the agreement on making choice on the lifestyles which is at the beginning of this application.

However, they put forward a further proposal for the clients in the usage process.

After using this application for a normal user, the system should actively analyze and determine the user by his/her published comments and the shared travel type. It means that the lifestyle distribution would not have been the same, changing with the participation of the travelers. For this situation, to design a good few of badges for these varied assortments to provide the players with a series of tasks and goals at different stages can improve the argument.

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Question 2.

The recommendation mode in the map system is a good way to explore those scenic spots which were ignored by the voyagers. Although the recommendation mode is not the emphasis of the application, it is really a fun way to commend other attractions. However, whether there is a limit of the basic conditions, such as a limitation in time or the quantity of scenic spots.

In the first stage of this design, there is no restraint on the recommendation system in the map. Nevertheless, the interviewers asked some relevant questions. To give an example, one vacationist in somewhere on the central London is going to the Big Ban. The system may advise him or her to visit the London eye, Tower Bridge and other attractions and then the destination, so that the times on course might increase from twenty minutes to more than one hour.

Therefore, no limitation in the temporal length of trip or the number of scenic spots at this mode will cause the problems to the sightseers. On the other hand, if the two destinations are so close, and the amount of scenic spots and the period of tourism have to be confined, the system will be hard to propose other sight spots.

In the final redesign stage, the recommendation mode will be moved to the "Plan" function for planning a long-distance or a group travel. For the reason that the tourists are familiar with their own living environment, they would love to explore their travels in a different path. With the purpose that the “Map” will be removed from the main option to the “Plan” in order to reduce the complexity of the LightTravel application, and increase the pleasure and the efficiency of planning a group vacation.

Question 3.

Some of the questioners have the similar doubts that there is any difference of the searching function between the group mode and the personal mode; likewise whether they are really confusing or they are hard to be operated.

For the reason that the searching function must be based on the distinct lifestyles, the searching function of the group mode is different from the individual one. With the result that, it is indeed possible to make the vacationists feel complicated and mistaken about the usage. However, every group-member had the resembling idea that if this application can only arrange a personal journey, it will decrease the delights of operation. Besides, to make use of the multiform lifestyles of each participant to understand the preferences about the team trip can help them reach a consensus quickly on where they want to go by diminishing discussions.

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According to reconsider this travel scheme, came to the conclusion that the tourists do not need the searching functions and do not have to add the goals by themselves due to LightTravel will recommend fifty relevant sites based on the members’ lifestyles after all of those who has been favored with invitations. During a certain range of dates, the members must assess whether they like those recommendations or not. Finally, the system will rank all the references with the different levels of the common preferences, and then they will take a vote to decide the destinations.

Question 4.

There are only two considerations in the comment system of LightTravel, including the assessment of the prices and overall quality for a restaurant.

However, the review system is not detailed enough for the geographic location and transportation conveniences.

The purpose of the review system is to let people know the destination information quickly. The degrees of those quality comments are just a kind of feelings which involve the past travel experience of the travelers. They are extremely subjective.

The LightTravel will link up with the keywords, showing the top 100 statements of opinion. When the readers find the keywords that they care about, they can read other relevant criticisms through clicking the keywords. To give an example, there are some mentions about the poor waiter service attitude; therefore, the users can click the “service” to read all the related comments.

Summary Through the objective group discussion, those different ideas offered a lot of improvements for this project. The designers usually ignored or forgot a number of factors so that this interview can improve this application for further redesign. In the next stage, the researcher will collect and integrate those opinions to remodel the LightTravel.

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4.3 Final design After a series of discussions and recommendations from the researcher and tester, some parts of LightTravel will be redesigned. Meanwhile, it is also more clearly the position of the market of LightTravel. The main features of the project are searching comments, sharing reviews, and establishing travel plans. Those functions are built on the user's lifestyle classification.

In the beginning of LightTravel, the users have to set their lifestyle; they can choose one of lifestyles, which are adventurer, family, sightseer, culture, mature loving and others. Moreover, there are different rewards in each lifestyle; the users can get them when they achieve the assignments. Furthermore, the rewards can be used in updating the users’ level, and also helped the users get the points.

When the users collect the points and reach a level, they can exchange the free tickets of new hotel and restaurant, and write the reviews after they used.

This way is the main connection between the customers and LightTravel’s cooperative companies. Besides, the cooperative companies through those reviews to increasing their business reputation. According to different tasks from the lifestyle, the travelers can level up for each lifestyle. And then, the app will depend on the number of rewards to show the graph data for the travelers to know their personal information.

After Light Travel was redesigned, it has become a more integral review system.

In each comment, the review system will mark the keywords which fit the classification, for example on the restaurant review will be paid attention on the keywords, such as service, clean, dirty, food and so on, and on the hotel review will be focus on the breakfast, location, soundproof quality etc. And then, the users can choose the tips what they want to get. Therefore, the travelers click the keywords, and they can get a series of reviews.

Finally, the original of the planning system is that the users add their schedule by themselves. However, at the final stage of design, the process of planning system is changed to let the users vote the destinations, after the group decided the main attractions, they can use the "map" for planning the detail route. Besides, the team plan will automatically synchronize the data across each member, and the app shows the instant message on the screen even the users close the application.

Through the series of the simply process of using LightTravel, it helps the travelers save time on planning trip.

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“Set the users’ lifestyle” workflow Start LightTravel and wait for loading

Key-in the account and password

Choose the lifestyle which is similar to the user

Login

choose “Adventurer”

Add activities from the list

Delete or add the interests, even change the lifestyle

Adjust the level of the user’s interests or edit them

Add

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“Search the destinations” workflow The Home page will show the attractions is meet the user’s demand

Click the top-right corner, it will show more functions

The popular labels and historical information will show up before the user search

search

Click

The user can select the different areas to read reviews

Click reviews to explore more comments

READ MORE

Restaurant

The users can enter more labels or read the info

Reviews

19

London

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“Read and write the reviews” workflow When the user can click the blue words to get the same topic

Read the related comments

wait

The reviews will be reported on the top of list

Further filter the related comments

service

Write the comments

20

The user also can click top-right corner to write review

© Hueishiuan Chiang 2014 Brunel

“Build a new trip with friends” workflow Click “Plan”, and add a new journey

Enter the date and location to build the trip

The users can add their friends to the group

new trip

add friends

And then, start to plan the travel

After adding the friends, the system help the user build a group profile

Invite friends from the user’s "friend list"

invite

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“Group travel planning” workflow The user cannot add the attractions before voting

Choose the destinations

Read the information and decide to go or not

vote

After time up

Use the “map” to find more attractions during the route

Edit the schedule of trip

The more popular destinations will be move to the journey

Auto “add”

Map

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4.4 User Experiences And Satisfaction Survey

Experimental purposes The purpose is using Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS) and System Usability Scale (SUS) to recognize the feelings of consumers. After the test, collecting those feedbacks to analyze the app, and give the conclusion and suggestion in the final.

Experimental Design and Process Firstly, the researcher used the "Justinmind" software to simulate LightTravel, it only be used on the computer. Besides, this experiment is divided into two parts, which are QUIS questionnaire for the feeling of user operating the whole app, and SUS questionnaire for the feedback of user achieving every task. The tasks including set lifestyle, read and write reviews, plan a trip.

The steps of experimental process as follows :

Number Step 1.

Time

Experimental process

2 mins

Firstly, the researcher explained the concept and feature of LightTravel, and then shows the steps of experiment to respondent. After that, describe the each task and introduce the questionnaire.

Aim: Let the user understand the whole experiment purpose and process

Step 2.

5 mins

The researcher demonstrates the task 1, and then the interviewee follow the example. After the operation of task 1, the interviewee has to fill out the SUS questionnaire I- set lifestyle.

Task 1: Login→ set up the personal lifestyles →fill out the SUS questionnaire I- set lifestyle.

Aim: To recognize the user-interface acceptability Table 1. Experimental step 1 & step 2 23

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Number Step 3.

Time

Experimental process

10 mins

The researcher demonstrates the task2, and then the interviewee follow the example. After the operation of task2, the interviewee has to fill in the SUS questionnaire II- read and write reviews.

Task 2: Click the Home Browse System to be recommended the related information→ click “search”→ enter the key word “London” and “restaurant”→ get the news→ read the comments→ explore the reviews for the different areas in the cross coordinates map → click one key word on a comment so as to know the similar assessments→ write an evaluation→ fill in the SUS questionnaire II- read and write reviews.

Aim: To recognize the user-interface acceptability

Step 4.

10 mins

The researcher demonstrates the task3, and then the interviewee follow the example. After the operation of task3, the interviewee has to input write the SUS questionnaire III- plan a trip.

Task 3: Click “Plan” to add a group trip→ invite three friends to this trip→ vote for an attraction→ arrange a journey→ turn on the “smile map” to find other spots→ input write the SUS questionnaire III- plan a trip.

Aim: To recognize the user-interface acceptability

Step 5.

4 mins

To fill the general information before QUIS questionnaire, and then the researcher help the interviewee to recall the whole process and tasks. Next, the interviewee input write the QUIS questionnaire.

Aim: To know the user-interface satisfaction of whole the project Table 2. Experimental step 3 & 4 & 5 24

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The Design Of The Questionnaire The questionnaire is divided into three parts, the first part is SUS questionnaire, the second part is the user general information, and the third part is QUIS questionnaire. The third part has been adjusted some questions of each aspect, delete some questions which are not suitable for LightTravel. Therefore, there are seventeen questions in the questionnaire, and they are all based on QUIS questionnaire.

Experimental Situation The experiment had hold on 25th, August, in 2014 to 5th, September, in 2014.

The place of experiment is the Brunel University. The total number of interviewee is ten; they are all Brunel postgraduate students.

Figure 19. Final design interview and fill the questionnaire

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4.5 Experimental Results And Analysis Basic Data Analysis of Interviewee The interface design of the survey, the researcher got 10 efficient surveys, and do the descriptive Statistics analysis, the aim is to know the interviewer's basic info, such as gender, age, how much time they spend on their smartphone per day, how long they have used smartphone, and have any experience of using travel APP. To begin with, there are 10 responses, including 2 males and 8 females. The range of their age is 20 to 29 years old, and they are all Brunel postgraduate students. 8 students spend four hours on their smartphone per day, and other students spend 2-3 hours on the smartphone per day. Besides, 6 of them have used smartphone over three years, 3 people have used it for 1-3 years, and only one person only have used the phone for 6 months to 1 year. Moreover, 7 of interviewees had experience for using travel apps, like Google map, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, and QYER. Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS) At the outset, the software, Justinmind, was used to output the simulated exam of LightTravel APP from a computer. The testers used a mouse to imitate using this App. After completing all the tasks, the testers wrote the QUIS questionnaires.

This inquiry was divided into five dimensions which are the overall reactions, APP presentation, terminology and information, and learning.

For the overall reactions of the LightTravel APP, the table shown as the table 3 tells that all the questions in this part have the grades above 5.0, higher than the intermediate value 4.0. It means that the majority of the examinees were satisfied with this APP. They felt good and also were drawn attention by LightTravel APP. However, some of them though that this APP was not easy to be operated because the degrees of difficulty has the lower score than the others.

A. Overall reaction to the software Question number

Question

Average Value

Standard Deviation

1.

1 = terrible ; 7= wonderful

5.8

1.033

2.

1= difficult ; 7= easy

5.1

1.287

3.

1 = frustrating ; 7= satisfying

5.6

0.996

4.

1 = dull ; 7= stimulating

6.0

1.054

Table 3. Overall of LightTravel 26

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In terms of the presentation of this App, the overall average scores are greater than the median value 4.0. The interface presents very well. Although Question 5 and 7 have the same average value, Question 5 has a bigger standard deviation.

The situation says that these experimental subjects had different opinions. For example, two of them had an idea that the font size in some parts is too small to read easily, so that they gave a mark lower than 4.0. As shown in the table 4.

B. Screen Question number

Question

Average Value

Standard Deviation

5.

Characters on the APP screen ( 1 = hard to read ; 7= easy to read )

5.4

1.838

6.

Organization of information on screen ( 1= confusing ; 7= very clear )

5.5

1.354

7.

Sequence of APP screens ( 1 = confusing ; 7= very clear )

5.4

1.430

Table 4. Screen of the app

On the aspect of the terminology and information, the average score is above 5.5 points. It signifies that the tasks which were given to the subjects have a good relationship between the functions and the terminology; moreover, the display of the information arrangement on the screen and the hint for clicking are clear and perform the consistent. As shown in the table 5.

C. Terminology and system information Question number

Question

Average Value

Standard Deviation

8.

Use of terms throughout system ( 1 = inconsistent ; 7= consistent )

5.6

0.966

9.

Terminology related to task ( 1= never ; 7= always )

6.0

1.155

10.

Position of messages on screen ( 1 = inconsistent ; 7= consistent )

6.1

0.876

11.

Prompts for input ( 1 = consistent ; 7= clear )

5.5

1.434

Table 5. Terminology and system information of LightTravel 27

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For the dimension to the learning, the average marks are around 5. All of the testees can remember the positions and functions and understand the tasks easily after the quick learning. As shown in the table 6.

D. Learning Question number

Question

Average Value

Standard Deviation

12.

Learning to operate the system ( 1 = difficult ; 7= easy )

5.0

1.333

13.

Remembering names and use of commands ( 1= difficult ; 7= easy )

5.2

1.317

14.

Performing tasks is straightforward ( 1 = never ; 7= always )

5.5

1.509

Table 6. Learning of LightTravel

For the system capabilities, the mean opinion score exceeds five. It implies that the examinees generally believed that the prototype test is reliable. They could fully experience the App simulation. In addition, they were under the impression that the design fits for their various requirements. As shown in the table 7.

E. System capabilities Question number

Question

Average Value

Standard Deviation

15.

System speed too slow ( 1 = too slow ; 7= fast enough )

5.4

1.350

16.

System reliability ( 1= unreliable ; 7= reliable )

6.0

0.943

17.

Designed for all levels of users ( 1 = never ; 7= always )

5.9

0.994

Table 7. System capabilites of LightTravel

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In the synthesis of the above contents, through the results of these QUIS questionnaires, the author has already understood that the experimental subjects have a fairly good evaluation of the LightTravel model. The data of the four areas not only are fully higher than the median values, but also have the standard deviation close to 1.0. The functional architecture and design layout of this App have a positive evaluation about the user interaction satisfaction.

System Usability Scale (SUS) In this study, the SUS system was adopted in each stage in order to measure the subjective feelings about operating the main functions for the experimental subjects. This section was divided into three themes, and each of them has different missions. After they finished those jobs, they were asked to write the questionnaire immediately for the sake of comprehending whether the operational gestures which were proposed by the designer meet the needs of the users or not.

The SUS trials should involve the ability to complete the jobs for a user, the difficulty to complete the assignments, and the satisfaction with performing the tasks (Brooke, 1996).

The scoring method is shown as the below: After analyzing the System Usability Scale, SUS can be a mark. The mark not only represents the comprehensive assessment of the usability for a user but also can be the comparison of usability between the different systems. However, each of the points for the individual questions is not meaningful so that they cannot be a comparison or for other purposes.

To begin with, the original points for each question must be obtained. The original points are the numbers from one to five and then the sum of each question should be calculated. The topics of the scale were classified into two groups. The first group includes Question 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. To subtract one from each original score, the sum can be acquired. The second group includes Question 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.

To subtract by the original points of each question from five, the sum can be acquired as well. Finally, the aggregate score which is a number from zero to one hundred can be gotten. The way to obtain the aggregate score is to add both of the sums, and then to multiply the result by 2.5.

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According to the figure 20, the SUS scores which were proposed by Bangor, A. in 2009 have meaning that the average score for an accepted product may be more than 70 points. The marks for a good product shall be higher than 73 points. On the other hand, a product with the mark less than 70 points should be re-tested or improved the defects.

Figure 20. The meaning of SUS scores

In this study, the writer analyzed the satisfaction of usability from 10 subjects and calculated the results shown in the following the table 8 and table 9. The result shows that the part of personal lifestyle set-up is the most acceptable task. On the other hand, to operate the comment and the group travel planning systems are much more difficult for the testees, reflecting on the grades below 70 points. On top of that, the group travel planning system only got 63.8 marks by reason of that most of the examinees were not satisfied with the order of the top icons; furthermore, the interface for inviting a friend was not approachable.

SUS - task 1 score task number

1.

content

Score

77.8

Set up the personal lifestyle step by step and read other people’s profile.

LightTravel

Create your lifestyle Adventurer

Culture

Family

Nature loving

?

LightTravel

LightTravel

Adventurer

Choose the activities you like.

Sightseer

Others

Photo

Shopping

reading

sing

Football

Beach

Pub

sailing

Baseball

Building

Leisure

Table 8. The score of task 1 30

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SUS - task 2 score task number

2.

content

Score

Search the restaurant information and read the reviews,

68.3

and try to write a review.

Flat Iron

Search

Reviews ?

£

££££

£

London Near current location

Your message....

Taipei

Tokyo

Friendly staff service Friendly staff and efficient service is always good. Only the seating arrangements making it very compact.

Helpful 2

London Restaurant

££££

B&B Hotel

Thai

Delicious

Very impressive and taste steak, the location is also very convenient. The steak is a little small and price is not so cheap !! Enjoy it very much!

Search history : London

Restaurant

Helpful 5

Near current location

Hotel

Good price

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Plurk

Google +

Incredible value. Delicious steaks Helpful 1

Home Favorite

Plan

Friends

More

Home Favorite

Plan

Friends

More

Home Favorite

Plan

Friends

More

Helpful 5

SUS - task 3 score task number

3.

content

Score

63.8

Invite friends and make the group’s travel plan.

Plan

Plan journey

profile

vote

chat

map

journey

profile

Plan

vote

chat

map

journey

profile

chat

vote

map

23 hrs and 59 minutes left

Plan

Happy store

Sagrada Família

456 Road, City, Postcode

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Spain, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí.

2 person want to go

Casa Batlló Casa Batlló is a renowned building located in the center of Barcelona and is one of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces.

White museum

3 person want to go

123 Road, City, Postcode

Con Gracia Restaurant Address: Carrer de Martínez de la Rosa, 8, 08012 Barcelona, Spain

1 person want to go

VOM FASS BARCELONA Address: Carrer del Cigne, 14, 08012 Barcelona, Spain Phone:+34 934 16 06 73

2 person want to go

Diagonal Mar Centro Address: Avinguda Diagonal, 3, 08019 Barcelona, Spain Phone:+34 902 53 03 00

0 person want to go

10 06

Casa Batlló Sagrada Família Con Gracia Restaurant VOM FASS

07

Con Gracia John Oliver Restaurant Geroge hotel

Mercat de la Barceloneta Placa de la Font, 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain

Home Favorite

Plan

Friends

More

Home Favorite

Plan

0 person want to go Friends More

Home Favorite

Plan

Friends

More

Table 9. The score of task 2 & 3

The Details SUS Analysis Of Each Task For the reason that the SUS questionnaire is scored crosswise, this survey is separated into a positive group (Question 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9) and a reverse group (Question 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10). The median is three. The higher the positive group marks are, the better the satisfaction degree is. There are the results for analyzing those various tasks.

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SUS Task1 -Set up a personal lifestyle: The scores of the positive group are all higher than 4.0 marks, and the points of the other group are all lower than the median 3.0. It means that the testees felt this part was easy to operate. To begin with, the design of the interface did not let they feel confused or inconsistent. Besides, all of them are of the opinion that to operate the interfaces and tasks of the LightTravel APP are simple. However, to choose the lifestyles was so burdensome. Some of them thought that the LightTravel APP should have had some images to introduce either the features or the operating instructions, so that they could know what the purpose of personal lifestyle was.

SUS- task 1- positive items score task 1 : Set up personal lifestyle Question number

Question (positive items )

Average Value

1.

I think that I would like to use this system frequently.

4.5

3.

I thought the system was easy to use.

4.3

5.

I found the various functions in this system were well integrated.

4.4

7.

I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly.

4.2

9.

I felt very confident using the system.

4.0

SUS - task 1- negative items score task 1 : Set up personal lifestyle Question number

Question (positive items )

Average Value

2.

I found the system unnecessarily complex.

2.1

4.

I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system.

2.9

6.

I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system.

1.5

8.

I found the system very cumbersome to use.

1.8

10.

I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system.

2.0

Table 10. Each items score of task 1 32

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SUS Task II-Read and Write the Reviews: Among all the questions in the positive group, only the question 7 has the score lower four marks. On the other hand, the points of the question 4 and 10 in the reverse group are both higher than three scores. It signifies that the examinees needed to spend a few time on being familiar with the interface. They were not able to use it intuitively on account of the difference between other websites.

SUS- task 2- positive items score task 2 : Read and write reviews Question number

Question (positive items )

Average Value

1.

I think that I would like to use this system frequently.

4.1

3.

I thought the system was easy to use.

4.1

5.

I found the various functions in this system were well integrated.

4.1

7.

I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly.

3.8

9.

I felt very confident using the system.

4.2

SUS - task 2- negative items score task 2 : Read and write reviews Question number

Question (positive items )

Average Value

2.

I found the system unnecessarily complex.

2.5

4.

I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system.

3.5

6.

I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system.

2.1

8.

I found the system very cumbersome to use.

1.8

10.

I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system.

3.1

Table 11. Each items score of task 2

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SUS Task III-Invite a friend and make a group travel plan: The results of this part are the same as Task II. The question 7 has the score lower four marks and the points of the question 4 and 10 are both higher than three scores. The majority of the experimental subjects had an idea that the system was not so hard to control; however, they still could not operate it intuitively as a result of that the tour planning is not just a single-instruction operation. Although this is an innovative tourism APP without a complicated interface, these subjects expressed that if they want to manipulate this function indecently, they will be unclear or uncertain about the orders. For the reason that the subjects put forward a proposal that the designer can make use of a guide to help the users finish the travel planning.

SUS- task 3- positive items score task 3 : making a travel plan Question number

Question (positive items )

Average Value

1.

I think that I would like to use this system frequently.

4.1

3.

I thought the system was easy to use.

4.2

5.

I found the various functions in this system were well integrated.

4.4

7.

I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly.

3.4

9.

I felt very confident using the system.

4.0

SUS - task 3- negative items score task 3 : making a travel plan Question number

Question (positive items )

Average Value

2.

I found the system unnecessarily complex.

2.9

4.

I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system.

3.9

6.

I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system.

2.4

8.

I found the system very cumbersome to use.

2.3

10.

I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system.

3.1

Table 12. Each items score of task 3 34

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4.6 Summary Overall, according to this observation, the LightTravel APP has a good performance in the image-text layout and the framework of the system. The bulk of users felt fresh and interested in the initial usage, and had a certain degree of acceptance for this operation mode. Nevertheless, there are still some demerits need to be adjusted, especially for several icon orders and the instruction for the beginning interface. The key points summarized are as followings: To begin with, one of the advantages of LightTravel APP is that the comment system makes the travelers find the information readily. What is more, voting on the destinations for a group travel is a very interesting and efficient way. On the other hand, not only some parts of the information in the screen are too crowded, but also the operation interface is a little bit complicated, so that it takes a user time to learn how to use it. On top of that, the users still want to know more information about a destination, such as the discounts, although the system will offer a series of recommendations which are in accordance with the group members’ lifestyles.

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CHAPTER 5 BUSINESS PLAN How is LightTravel start ?

As the researcher mentioned before, the LightTravel app is a user-generated content application. The system is without enough data at the beginning, it have to rely on the incentives or coupons to encourage the users to create the contents.

How to get popularity and comments For the lifestyles of the app, there are different rewards in each lifestyle; the users can get them when they achieve the assignments. Furthermore, the rewards can be used in updating the users’ level, and also helped the users get the points.

Adventurer

Family

Culture

Nature loving

Sightseer

Adventurer Badges

Family Badges

Culture Badges

Nature-loving Badges

Sightseer Badges

Each badge has different points

people get badges by achieving task

Level up of the lifestyle Adventurer

&

Get points

10,500 points

Figure 21. How to get badges and points of LightTravel

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Therefore, new hotels and restaurants will be the LightTravel’s main partners. The aim is getting some free tickets from them, and then using these tickets to attract the traveler to share their trips or fantastic destinations, and then after using the coupons, the users must write some comments on the LightTravel to help those new stores build their electronic word-of-mouth. Based on this plan, the new cooperative enterprises can not only distinguish those existing information websites, but also draw attention from those who are greatly keen on traveling or commentating.

people get badges by achieving task

Level up of the lifestyle

Adventurer

&

Get points

10,500 points

New hotels and restaurant

use the points to exchange free tickets

offer tickets for people trying their service

write comments or reviews

Light Travel

Build electronic word-of-mouth

cooperation

advertising company Figure 22. Business plan outline

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CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION& SUGGESTION The dissertations is using personal lifestyle and efficiently review and recommend system to develop a travel App- LightTravel. After the series of design and explore, getting the results as follows: 1. Complete LightTravel with the basic model

Through the wide literature reviews and depth interview with other design students, the researcher summarizes the comments and suggestions of a useful travel App. In the design area, integrate the different concept in this app, including tourist lifestyle, user-generated content, electronic word-of-mouth. Focus on creating an interesting way and operation, and developing the app, which is benefiting the customers and companies. LightTravel has not only basic destination info, but also has the efficient planning tool for groups to plan trips.

Therefore, the travelers can use LightTravel to plan their trip easily.

2. Use SUS and QUIS questionnaire to evaluate the demo of LightTravel

LightTravel APP has a good performance in the image-text layout and the framework of the system. The bulk of users felt fresh and interested in the initial usage, and had a certain degree of acceptance for this operation mode. For the overall reactions of the LightTravel APP, all the questions in this part have the grades above 5.0; it means that the majority of the examinees were satisfied with this APP. They felt good and also were drawn attention by LightTravel APP. However, the majority of the experimental subjects had an idea that the system was not so hard to control; they still could not operate it intuitively. So, the app needs a guide in the beginning to help the users finish the travel planning.

Suggestion According these research and test, the users are glad to try a new way for planning their trips. The interviewees agree LightTravel is a new model app in the current market, and easy to know the market positioning and differ from other Apps. However, the rich functions bring the difficulty for the users. The suggestions in the future are that LightTravel could further develop on planning trip tool of the group; keep the features of lifestyle and reviews, but without searching system and the general info interface. Hence, the recommendations of the app are only from the vote and map system. Besides, it could add a group timetable of trips or balanced budget. Because of groups' trip is more complicated than personal travel, people need a more neutral evaluation tool of organizing whole plans. Therefore, LightTravel is suited for developing to be a travel-planning tool for teams.

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