Critique_woo

Kevin Woo


 * Priceline**


 * Low Level Items (spelling, fonts, colors, layouts, etc.)**

Spelling and font use are consistent throughout the website, which indicates its purpose. For example, in the region where you can select what type of service you'd like (such as flight, cruises, rental cars), the style remains in all lowercase. In addition, very small text can be found when trying to explain a disclaimer. There are many instances where text in images are continued into non-imaged text. For example, on the mainpage there exists an image with the text "No Booking Fees Earn Airline Miles", but underneath the image is text that continue,"on most published price flights". This inconsistency is most likely intentional as part of their marketing scheme. The layout of the site consists of different services and options. There is a section dedicated to finding a particular flight, if you chose to use their flight service. There is also a portion of the site dedicated to travel suggestions, newsfeed, promotional deals, and the like. While it is great to try and give the user options, the layout of these items feels very cluttered. It is unnecessary to provide suggestions and travel suggestions on a page where you're planning to book your flight. Instead, I think providing a general link to pages that lists travel suggestions and the newsfeed separately would be good since it allows the user to focus on booking the flight. The color scheme of the site is also a bit of an eyesore, with spots of bright orange on a white/bright blue background. Something less flashy may be better since it would cause less distractions.


 * Middle-level aspects (consistency, error handling, writing style, menu design, etc.)**

The website maintains its consistency in providing the service. In selecting a flight or booking a hotel, the user is presented with the familiar calendar where they can select the days they want to book. Features specific to the service is also provided, such as selecting an airport if the user is booking a flight. The information to be filled in is easy and not cluttered, by using a series of clearly defined labels for user input. The user is prevent from making errors by having the user select pre-defined options in some input. For text input, the text is checked upon submission to prevent incorrect data being used. For example, when entering a name, I can't use special characters or numbers. The menus are pretty straightforward, with the matching text indicative of what to expect. For example, clicking on 'flight' will bring you to a page that allows you to book a flight. Except for financial transactions, it is easy to undo simple errors such as negating a selected flight plan or if you incorrectly filled in your personal information like credit card information. Promotions could use an improvement. An improvement would be to stop using random "Read more" links located near a promotion (sometimes not at all), which upon clicking will bring up an annoying popup window. These are sometimes blocked by the browser, so it is not a good way to convey information. Instead, I think dedicating a page to explaining promotions in plain english as well as an option to view the legal bindings would be good and more informative. This will reduce the error of human misinterpretation of services.


 * High-level concepts (information architecture, navigation, audience appeal, privacy protection, credibility, etc.)**

Navigation to the services is relatively easy. We are not given much control over how things are done on the site. Rather, we are prompted with questions, only to have that followed with another set of questions. This makes it easy for new users to navigate the site since it's very linear. For example, after selecting a specific date and airport when booking a flight, the user is prompted to select which price plan the user wants. After that, the user is prompted with questions on personal information and eventually the user is taken to a payment screen where the user books the flight permanently. For returning users, there is still little control since the booking process has to be repeated, with the exception of entering personal information/credit card information. Navigating promotional deals and information on how their service works is a bit difficult. Promotional deals are explained mostly in popup windows and links to access them are somewhat littered around the site in no clearly defined area. Their page in explaining their service doesn't say much at all, and do not link any pages that may provide you with a more indepth explanation nor does it provide you with a link to access the particular page they are talking about. The audience is anyone looking to travel on a budget, since priceline provides a variety of deals and even has its own 'Name Your Price' scheme. Priceline keeps a record of the services you've used, but whether this is visible to only you or not is unknown. It is unknown if they store our personal information encrypted or if they sell our data to 3rd parties. Overall, this website lacks the transparency I would like to have. However, because Captain Kirk is the Priceline Negotiator in commercials, Priceline is obviously credible. Captain Kirk gave us new science before, now we get promotional deals with his blessing.