TripAdvisor.com

For this critique, I chose to write about tripadvisor.com. Tripadvisor is a premiere trip planning search engine which gives users suggestions for hotels, flights, local restaurants, attractions, night scenes, cruise getaways and rental vacation homes. It does all this through a simple and intuitive user interface described below. In relation to spelling, fonts, colors and layouts, the site could not be more pleasing on the eyes. It’s vibrant green and simple white backdrop provides an inviting interface. Each header is bolded in a larger font, while its sub headers are subsequently smaller. The layout is also extremely intuitive and well thought out. At the center of the page is the trip advisor panel. The panel gives you immediate access to choosing a hotel, flight, restaurant, or attraction. The navigation bar near the top of the page expands on these options and gives them their own page, full of all the details you would need. Their top destinations are presented on the right of the home page, an interactive map of popular and unpopular locations are presented below it, and frequently visited links are presented at the bottom of the page. They only qualm I have is how they present their popular hotel destinations and travel destinations. Those panels are located at the bottom of the page and are chalk full of small text links to popular destinations. It really makes the bottom of the homepage look crowded and much longer than it should be. A great aesthetic revision to the layout would be to cut those two panels out and instead have an interactive panel that cycles the top destinations complete with pictures and a short description. In terms of consistency, error handling, writing style, and menu design the site excels as well. All pages on the website follow the same green, orange and white theme keeping to the home page’s layout and keeping things consistent. The headers are also consistent throughout each page as well as the paneled page layout. Error handling is also present in all forms on the page. Text fields prompt you for alphanumeric values, picking travel dates provide users with a selectable calendar, and drop down menus list all the sub options users can pick from. Each text field also provides a notice to the user if they enter in any incorrect information. Also, as a passive way to prevent errors, the site gives users a list of suggestions as they type. Each topic on the page is written simply and clearly, telling the user exactly what options they have, as well as well written editorials and customer feedback. In terms of information architecture, navigation, audience appeal, and security/credibility the website does a great job at each aspect. Information is presented in a neat and concise way – a travel options widget, a top locations list, a map of the best and worst travel locations, as well as a quick links to the most commonly used pages are provided on the homepage. Navigating from page to page is done by a menu bar at the top of the page, which directs you to the home page, flights, hotels, vacation spots etc. The use of high quality pictures as well as interactive menus and maps on each page definitely provides an appeal to the users, giving them their travel options but also making the process fun and exciting. For revisions, I can only think of changing their information architecture of the bottom of each page from placing small text links bunched together to something more user friendly, visual, and interactive. In terms of security and credibility, trip advisor pulls information from trusted websites such as Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotels.com. Any data they collect is also kept under their nondisclosure clause and is used to improve the user experience.
 * TripAdvisor.com ** by Siwatm Piyasirisilp
 * Introduction **
 * Low Level Aspects **
 * Middle Level Aspects **
 * High Level Aspects **