Nicole Zhu

Ctrip Redesign

Role

UIUX Designer/ UX Researcher

Tool

Figma

Duration

1 months (02/2023)

Platform

Mobile

OVERVIEW

How I Started This Project

The trigger of this redesign project is that one day, my mother came to me for help very upset because she was so confused about using the Ctrip app to book a flight ticket for her vacation. Then i noticed that it is not a pleasant experience to book flight tickets, but rather bothersome to compare different flights and booking the best one.

Project Objectives

Enhance the Ctrip app’s user-centered design by refining the UI/UX for the flight ticket booking process.

Design Process

Test

Before starting the design, I analyzed the market to understand Ctrip's position. 📌

RESEARCH

Market Competition is Fierce

From the secondary research, Ctrip is the most popular OTA app in China, which accounts for 36.3% GMV in OTA industry in 2022 from 40.8% in 2021. Even though Ctrip is dominating the market now, the growing of other competitors is a crucial challenge for Ctrip. I discovered the direct competitors of Ctrip include Feizhu, Qunaer, Tuniu, Mafengwo, etc., and observed that these apps are similar, which also demonstrates the fierce competition in the industry.

Positioning Matrix

2022 OTA App GMV

How can I enhance the user experience to help Ctrip sustain its market position?

I conducted more researchs to figure it out 🔍

Heuristic Evaluation

I dove deep into the user flow of booking flight tickets on different OTA apps and compared their differences, strengths, and weakness to discover where Ctrip can improve and avoid.

With these in mind, i want to see users’ opinions. 🗣️

What are users saying...

To dive into users’ perspectives of the user experience on Ctrip, I first studied Ctrip’s user reviews from the Apple app store. From the negative comments, I have known users' pain point and found the direction to improve Ctrip's user experience; From positive comments, I got to know what users like about Ctrip and Ctrip’s competitive advantages.

Conclusions

️👎

Unpleasant experience due to too much advertisement /
Unable to search history
Some users reflect that they have difficulty to understand the page
Hided additional fee while placing order

️👍

Users like about travel recommendations and social community content
Users reflect that they are benefited from the coupons on the app, like breakfast vouchers and free bruise experience.

Who are the users

From secondary research, I acquired information on Ctrip’s user about their gender, region, age, etc.. And i obtained the characteristics of Ctrip’s user.

The data resource is from the 2021 China Online Travel Platform User Insight Research Report by IResearch.

Gender Distribution

Region Distribution

Age Distribution

Ctrip User Positioning

👨‍💼

Middle-level to higher income group user

💼

Business travel user

🏖

High-quality travel requirement user

What are the user's pain points in the current app?

Usability Test on Current App

To get closer to the real user experience on the Ctrip app, I conducted a usability test on 5 Ctrip users. The test result verified some of my assumptions and allowed me to gain more insight from users' click path and consideration.

Think Out Loud Method

In this test, I guide attendees to use the “Think Out Loud” approach while testing the app with given prompts and sending the screen recording to me.

Usability Test Prompts

Find travel map function
Search for multiple destinations at the same time
Find search history（Do you think it is necessary?）
Change destination or time on the result page
Save the flight you are viewing for later review（Do you think it is necessary?）
Find the tickets you just saved

Testing Result

3/5 users don’t know or not familiar with searching for multiple departures or destinations.

3/5 users reflected that they think this function is not useful, while 2/5 users deem it might be useful for comparing different places for transit

3/5 users don’t know or not familiar with searching for multiple departures or destinations.

3/5 users reflected that they think this function is not useful, while 2/5 users deem it might be useful for comparing different places for transit

5/5 users didn’t find recent search since it not visible enough. All of them think it should be improved

3/5 users didn’t know or not familiar with how to save a flight ticket into watchlist, or some tickets is not allowed to be saved.

5/5 users couldn’t find where to review the tickets they just saved as the watchlist is invisible

Conclusion

Users barely notice that they can search for multiple destinations at the same time. So i decided to make this function more visible.

All interviewees didn’t find recent search since it’s not visible enough, and they all think it should be improved.

All interviewees know how to change destination or time on result page, therefore, there is no need for change.

All interviewees know how to change destination or time on result page, therefore, there is no need for change.

Most users didn’t know or not familiar with how to save a flight ticket into watchlist, or the tickets are not allowed to be saved.

All users were not sure where to review the flight tickets that been added into watchlist

All users were not sure where to review the flight tickets that been added into watchlist

Then we wanted to further quantify the problems. 📊

User Survey

After the qualitative research, I further conducted quantitative research through a user survey on the topics i want to explore. I surveyed the current Ctrip app for 232 audiences based on the characteristics of Ctrip’s target users. The result of the user survey demonstrated users’ expectations and pointed out users’ pain points.

Survey Results

User’s Preference

Findings:

Easy-to-use and multi-functional are the main reasons render people to use a travel app.

Too much advertisement is the crucial reason that discourage people to use a travel app

Findings:

Easy-to-use and multi-functional are the main reasons render people to use a travel app.

Too much advertisement is the crucial reason that discourage people to use a travel app

Opinions on Ctrip

Findings:

Easy-to-use and multi-functional are the main reasons render people to use Ctrip.

Users also think too much advertisement is the biggest drawback of Ctrip.

Findings:

Easy-to-use and multi-functional are the main reasons render people to use Ctrip.

Users also think too much advertisement is the biggest drawback of Ctrip.

Inspiration Source

Findings:

I was surprised that there are 50% of respondents reflected that they’ve got inspired about where to go and what to do from travel app.

Destination recommendation and social community on travel app are the main resource that they got inspired from.

Findings:

I was surprised that there are 50% of respondents reflected that they’ve got inspired about where to go and what to do from travel app.

Destination recommendation and social community on travel app are the main resource that they got inspired from.

Insight

Easy-to-use is the most important point that encourage user to use the app
We need to lower the negative experience that advertisement brings to users
Travel app is an important source where users get travel inspiration from, this is where we can find our design opportunities
People used destination recommendation and social community are helpful function to users and we can improve users’ experience in those part

Easy-to-use is the most important point that encourage user to use the app
We need to lower the negative experience that advertisement brings to users
Travel app is an important source where users get travel inspiration from, this is where we can find our design opportunities
People used destination recommendation and social community are helpful function to users and we can improve users’ experience in those part

Finally, I started crafting my ideas. ✏️

Ideation

I started explore different idea by sketching.

DESIGN

Final Solution

Homepage

I also created innovative feature to help users get travel inspiration and foster the community. 💡

Search Flight

Flight Tickets

TEST

Validation Test

At the end, i surveyed several users with my redesigned prototype and let them complete same prompts as initial usability test. The results turns out to be good, users all reflected that the new prototype is more clear and simple.

Test Result

5/5 users successfully saved flight tickets in watchlist

5/5 users found watchlist

5/5 users can easily found search history

Users’ Feedback

“I like this version better”

“The design now is more clean and aesthetic, i like it more”

“Now i felt how messy the previous design was”

REFLECTION

Takeaway

If i had more time, i would investigate more into Ctrip’s business and marketing strategy. As the design cannot be independent of business, a good design should be compatible with business goal.

Moreover, accessibility is the aspect that i could reinforce by checking on WCAG.

If i had more time, i would investigate more into Ctrip’s business and marketing strategy. As the design cannot be independent of business, a good design should be compatible with business goal.

Moreover, accessibility is the aspect that i could reinforce by checking on WCAG.

Let's connect! →

📧 nicolezkx99@gmail.com

Let's connect! →

📧 nicolezkx99@gmail.com

Let's connect! →

📧 nicolezkx99@gmail.com