User Experience Improvement for Online Travel Agencies Through Eye-Tracking: The Onlineweg.de Case Study

Abstract

Every transaction-orientated website such as the website of an online travel agency (OTA) has to perform. One of the most relevant KPIs to measure performance is the conversion rate, due to its direct impact on profitability. Good user experience and usability are essential for the conversion rate. Consequently, there is a high need to know which barriers on the website prevent transforming visitors to customers due to the lack of user experience and usability. The goal of this case study is to give answers to which usability pitfalls can be identified on the website of the OTA onlineweg.de by using eye-tracking within the toolbox of user experience research methods. Therefore, booking processes, other essential customer processes, information architecture and given digital content of the portal will be analysed to understand the needs within the target group of millennials. The relevant needs of the target group will be modelled through personas and user tasks. Specific task setting is important for eye-tracking studies due to the fact that gaze behaviour depends essentially on users’ goals using the website. These user tasks are tested and analysed via eye-tracking in the digital lab of the faculty of tourism. In addition, and to support the results of the eye-tracking study, more qualitative aspects of the user experience will be obtained by interviews. The findings are summarized in suggestions on how to improve usability, conversion rate and time on site of the website onlineweg.de.