Template for Communication

Legibility (weight: 16.5/40)

Identify at least three labels which do not make sense.

Here are a few labels that do not make sense:

• Offres du jour: the whole site is in English, so this French label has nothing to do here. We can see the same problem with 'plan du site' at the bottom.
  This is problematic (4 on the scale).
• Package tript: difficult to imagine what was meant there... maybe 'Trip package'? It is a legibility problem: the user can't easily understand what is meant by this label. It does seem to be a sort of jargon, so it would be better to use simpler words, which are immediately understood by the common user.
• Shared package: again... not really sure what was meant. What is the difference between searching a 'Package tript' and a 'Shared package'? Is the word 'shared' inducing the idea of groups that was not in the previous one?
  These two problems are very problematic. Indeed, the user can't easily understand what is meant by these labels.
• My account: what is the point of putting 'my account' when we have the login form below... and aren't logged in at all ?
  This is problematic (5 on the scale) because when the user click on this link, we don't have anything to show as the user isn't logged in.
• The 'Menu' label isn't very important. First, the user can't see easily that it refers to the left column, and second, there are some elements of the menu at the bottom of the page.
  This problem is not important (1 on the scale). It doesn't hinder the user to understand the rest of the website.
• The label 'create package' isn't clear. The user can't easily understand what is meant. It is quite problematic (4 on the scale).

How would you rephrase them?  

We could respectively rephrase them as follows:

• Today's Offers
• Solo Trips and Group Trips: if we understood correctly the initial idea that was meant to separate the two searches...
• My account... should just be left out. The space could then be used for another content
• Menu could also be left out.
• We could use a label 'Propose a trip' instead of 'Create package'.

 

Communication consistency (weight: 16.5/40)

Identify at least three inconsistencies in the use of the language.

• Two languages are used. It is a problem of consistency. The website should be written in one unique language, or should have different pages for the different languages, but shouldn't have several languages mixed on the same page. It is also a problem of legibility, some users could have understanding problems.
  This is problematic (4 on the scale). Indeed, some users can't understand many languages.
• The slogan 'Born To TRavel' is not written consistently. The uppercase R should be a lowercase.
  This is not very problematic (2 on the scale) because it can be seen as a style touch. But it is in the slogan, which is very visible.
• There are many typing errors, or spelling errors. It makes the text inconsistent and the website not trustworthy.
  This is problematic (4 on the scale) because the user will have problems to understand what is meant and won't trust the site at all.
• The paragraphs in the right part of the page are not consistent. We find prices in the titles, durations, etc. We find also titles which are the place of the trip or which are sentences.

All these problems are about trust. The users will not trust our website if it doesn't look professionnal and consistent.

Explain your solutions to resolve these consistency issues.  

• We should choose one language, english or french depending on the targeted users. It is also possible to do the same pages in different languages, but never a page with several languages.
• We would write 'Born To Travel' instead of 'Born To TRavel'.
• We would correct spelling and typing errors, in order to make the website professionnal and trustworthy.
• We would make the paragraphs more consistent, by using only the place of the trip in the title, by writing the price in each paragraph (and only one price!), etc.

It is also possible to note that there are inconsistencies in the graphics, and not only in the language. Indeed, we have 3 pictures with a white border and the forth one doens't have any border.
Another inconsistency we saw is the left column. The titles of the chapters are either nouns either verbs (search, recommendations). In order to make it consistent, we chose to separate it in 3 parts: Search, recommended and propose.
Finally one could homogenize the descriptions by adding a 'more' link at the end of each one, that would give access to the full description of the package.

Typography (weight: 7/40)

Give some arguments for what might be problematic with the typography?

Going from top to bottom, we can first see that the slogan has an uppercase 'R' in 'travel'.
Then the whole hierarchy on the menu is messed up:

• the menu label isn't emphasized and does have the impression of beeing on the same level as the menu items (although they are somewhat separated in different tables)
  It can be problematic (4 on the scale) because the menu isn't easily understandable. Especially 'package tript' and 'shared package', as they are the first things we see and are bound to be the most used features, but are neither understandable nor emphasized.
• the menu items label seems to be less imoprtant than the sub menu items, as the latter are underlined but of the same size as the former
• the login form has a different font face than the rest of the menu. And the alignment is not good. The password field isn't aligned with the word 'password'.
  Though, it is not very problematic, compared to the other problems.

On the content part, we can identify the following problems:

• The reddish label color is a bit aggressiv and not easily readable on this blue background. This is a problem of readability. The user shouldn't have to make an effort to read the text.
  It is an important problem (4 on the scale) because the background and font colors are the first things that are seen by a user.
• The 3rd label 'Sweep someone off their feet' isn't emphasized.
  It is an important problem (4 on the scale), because the user can't see easily what is the title, what is the content, what are the main informations. But we are trying to advertise something, so we need to attract the user's attention, and not make him run away...
• The links aren't underlined the same way.
  It is a quite important problem (3 on the scale) because the user can't see easily where he can click for more information and where he can't.

And last, but not least, we can identify about three font faces. Although it is alright to have a special font face for the slogan, the content should at least be uniform... Compared to the ohter problems this one might seem more benign (2 on the scale), but the visual non-uniformity is the first thing that catches the user's eye, so it shouldn't be ignored either.

What would you do differently?

• First, we would use the same font for the whole text, except maybe for the slogan. We can empasize on a particular part by changing only the size of the font (for example for the login/password form).
• We would write Born To Travel and not Born To TRavel.
• We would give a consistency to the right column, by choosing a unique style.
  For example, we could choose to write the paragraph's titles in white color and underlined. The price, duration, etc. should not be in the title, but in the paragraphs. We should also choose to underline only links, or only titles, but not both. And always with the same color.
• For the menu, we would empasize the titles 'Search' and 'Recommandations'.

Additional Comments

Some changes could also be done in the choice of colors, in order to emphasize on particular parts of contents... and also to render the interface more attractive. For example, the last paragrpah, with last-minute vacations, could be in an other background color, instead of beeing written in bold font.
Some symbols could be used. For example for the price or the OK button. it could render it more atractive for the users. A logo could also be added following the same idea.