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Building trust through restricted information:A case study of the Hotwire.com air redesign
IA Summit 2008
Melissa Matross
Senior Manager, User Experience
Trust
brands I trust
Excellent serviceStands behind products with a “no questions asked” return policy
brands I trust
Excellent serviceStands behind products with a “no questions asked” return policy
Quality for good priceFocus on trend & design
brands I trust
Excellent serviceStands behind products with a “no questions asked” return policy
Excellent serviceMakes life easier when bad things happen
Quality for good priceFocus on trend & design
brands I trust
Excellent serviceStands behind products with a “no questions asked” return policy
Excellent serviceMakes life easier when bad things happen
Quality for good priceFocus on trend & design
Excellent end-to-end experience for userQuality productsFocus on key products
brands I trust
Service
Focused experience
Quality
brands I trust
Owned by Expedia, Hotwire.com is a discount travel site
Business model: Opaque booking model
Car
Hotel
AirDecreasing opaque
Single opaque & multiple retail
Flight timesDuration
Number of stopsCarrier
Product Conceal
Approx. 30%
SavingsModel
100% opaque
No retail
Exact locationBrand
Room typeApprox. 60%
Opaque
Retail back upRental agency
Approx. 20%(sometimes
50-60%)
We’ve tried to mitigate against distrust through:
Education
Testimonials
Direct comparisons
Orbitz
American Airlines
Kayak
Sidestep
When presented with the choice between opaque and retail more than 2/3 of the users chose opaque
Conclusion: Users are more flexible than they think & price is the primary motivator for our users
Multi-airport Search
Search Results• All options within list; some filtering• Lowest price options displayed; no account for preferred airports
Impact• About 25% of customers searched for alternate airports (either 1 or both)• Those customers did approx 75% of all Hotwire air searches• As search options increased, purchase rate decreased
Conclusion: Dedicated customers were overwhelmed by the different options and were not getting what they wanted
Flexible Date Search
Search • Link from main search box• Inquires if user is flexible
Search Results• Lowest price options presented
Impact• About 10-15% of customers searched flexible dates• Flexible date customers purchased twice as frequently as primary search
Conclusion: Users that indicated flexibility upfront were able to find lower priced alternatives and were more likely to buy with Hotwire
To recap:
Opaque = distrust1
To recap:
Opaque = distrust
Shopping for travel = distrust & work
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To recap:
Opaque = distrust
Shopping for travel = distrust & work
Competitor offering of data/options = more work & responsibility for the user
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2
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To recap:
Opaque = distrust
Shopping for travel = distrust & work
Competitor offering of data/options = more work & responsibility for the user
Most users are more flexible than they think
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To recap:
Opaque = distrust
Shopping for travel = distrust & work
Competitor offering of data/options = more work & responsibility for the user
Most users are more flexible than they think
Flexible users are more engaged and more likely to purchase when prices are lower
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Goals for air redesign:
• Improve access to opaque inventory
Goals for air redesign:
• Improve access to opaque inventory
• Provide users with expected fare results while exposing them to lower fare alternatives
Goals for air redesign:
• Improve access to opaque inventory
• Provide users with expected fare results while exposing them to lower fare alternatives
• Articulate trade-offs between fare types
Goals for air redesign:
• Improve access to opaque inventory
• Provide users with expected fare results while exposing them to lower fare alternatives
• Articulate trade-offs between fare types
• Improve general user experience
Users are open to a series of trade-offs
Small
Medium
Large
Connections
Schedule
Carrier
Non-stop or 1-3 stops
Morning/afternoon departure
Delta or Jetblue
Alternate Airports MIA or FLL
Alternate Dates + or – 1 day
Changeability Change penalty
Flexible Dates Anytime in April
Flexible Destinations Maui or Cabo
Products Flight or Packages
Tradeoff Example
Trade-offs
Barry on trade-offs:• We don’t like giving up things to get what we want• Each additional option presents something we have to
give up if we don’t choose it
With increased choice, we want it all. We imagine alternatives that don’t exist, and we are less satisfied with reality.
Trust
Travel Agent
Live Demo
Seducible moments
Limited Choice
Tradeoffs
Tradeoffs
Anchoring & Framing
Anchoring & Framing
User Research results:
• Positive reactions to the layer: • “easy to understand”• Recognition that a little flexibility could save money
• Most people selected an alternate because they liked being presented with lower priced fares
• Results page described as “intuitive, colorful, clean and easy to navigate”
10-20% increase in alternate searches
10-20% increase in alternate searches
50-55% higher opaque purchase rate for engaged customers
10-20% increase in alternate searches
50-55% higher opaque purchase rate for engaged customers
10-20% increase in conversion
From Smarter Travel:
Hotwire makes flexible searching easier
Last week, Hotwire unveiled improvements that make it easier for users to find the cheapest flights. Now, every time you search, the site will automatically check alternate airports and travel dates one or two days before or after your designated dates. It also lets you search for the cheapest days to fly within a 30-day window. Notably, all these functions work for international as well as domestic flights.
Other sites offer similar search tools, but most require you to take extra steps or perform multiple searches to figure out if an alternate airport or different travel dates would be cheaper than your initial travel plans. Kayak, for example, can look at both alternate airports and travel dates with one search.However, you have to use a variety of check boxes and pull-down menus to tell it what you want, and then the results are shown all jumbled together, rather than neatly separated like they are on Hotwire. Orbitz offers the same 30-day flexible date search tool as Hotwire, but Hotwire displays its results in a more easily scannable (to my eyes, anyway) format.
Overall, I'd say these improvements vault Hotwire to the front of the flexible search class.
Trust
What’s next?
What can you do?
Understand what your users actually want and what they say they want
1
What can you do?
Understand what your users actually want and what they say they want
Understand how they make decisions and present trade-offs appropriately
1
2
What can you do?
Understand what your users actually want and what they say they want
Understand how they make decisions and present trade-offs appropriately
Identify what makes your offering unique
1
2
3
What can you do?
Understand what your users actually want and what they say they want
Understand how they make decisions and present trade-offs appropriately
Identify what makes your offering unique
Take risks
1
2
3
4
What can you do?
Understand what your users actually want and what they say they want
Understand how they make decisions and present trade-offs appropriately
Identify what makes your offering unique
Take risks
Have fun!!
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Thank you.
Questions?
Melissa Matross
Senior Manager, User Experience
Mike Brown
Senior Product Manager, Air & Car
Ann Ku
Senior Interaction Designer
We’re hiring!!!