User Research for an online travel company

We were looking for are interviews with Japanese and Chinese consumers specifically. The interviews were particularly important to us because we want to get feedback before we develop a product.

Situation

Agoda wanted to get user feedback from Chinese and Japanese speaking users in Singapore. Such research would enhance their understanding about website usage by that group of people. Agoda website was available in Chinese and Japanese versions in Singapore.

The client tapped on our User Research expertise where our team members conduct the User Research in local languages. UXArmy helped to find Usability problems. Users were expected to walk through Agoda website using a think aloud process so Agoda team can see how users interact with the site.

Services used by client:

• Recruitment of respondents
• User research

How did UXArmy do it?

This recruitment was particularly challenging due to rare availability of Japanese speaking respondents in Singapore. Going by the UXArmy policy of ‘zero compromise’ in recruitment, we activated multiple people in our team’s local network. After several rejections of candidates due to our stringent phone screening process, we managed to get the required number of respondents exactly matching the target audience.

The primary goal of the User Research was to discover problems respondents face while using the Japanese and Chinese version of the website. UXArmy conducted in-depth interviews sessions and involved translators where necessary. This was followed by an exit questionnaire. Each respondent did the research session on two devices - computer and most used mobile device that specific respondents preferred to use for accessing internet - Smartphone /Tablet.

User research findings also showed significant variations among users of Tablet and mobile phone users. Generally, tablet users were more forgiving to the User Interface than Smartphone users. Additionally, the user expectations had actually risen from what was being offered on the website leading to some findings which needed attention of client.

For the remote user research, the Client team wasn’t willing to install any external code on their website due to security concerns expressed by IT department. UXArmy solution does not require the website code to be changed, so this concern of client was resolved and the remote research was done. Respondents’ Voice, Screen videos and heatmaps were shared with client.