In the classic Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch John Cleese goes through a litany of cheeses in search of one that might be in stock. At first he is undaunted as he discovers that type after type is unavailable. If thereʼs no Stilton he cheerfully asks after Gruyère instead. Of course, in the end his frustration is so replete as to result in “a senseless waste of human life.”
My point, however, is simply that the collective effect of small interactions adds up to what we call user experience.
I was recently reminded of this while booking a hotel room online with Holiday Inn. My path toward visions of violence started innocently enough. The home page uses simple, well-established patterns for selecting location and date, which made for a straightforward and familiar opening. But when I got to the search results things started to go horribly wrong.
The first thing I noticed was that there were a LOT of options. I also noticed that several of the options seemed to involve the exact same room, with the same amenities, but at different prices.
This piqued my interest, so I looked a little closer. It turns out that Holiday Inn (and other major chains) have implemented a pricing policy that is essentially based on the customerʼs risk tolerance. You can have the same room at different prices, depending on whether or not you want to pay the full amount in advance, or have the option of no-charge cancellation. In fact, there were three different pricing options for the exact same room, with the only difference being a cryptic combination of cancellation options.
But this fact was not easy to discover. In fact, the difference between the various prices is quite well hidden. In the context where it matters most – where Iʼm choosing a room – there is no explanation at all of how Advance Purchase, Great Rates, and Best Flexible Rate differ. If you click on the rate title you get an i-frame containing an ALL CAPS MESS OF INFORMATION about the room, with absolutely no visual organization. To make a bad situation even worse, the most important part of the description (the cancellation policy) appears off-screen, at the bottom of the frame.
Things continue going downhill when we look at the copy (if we ever find it). The widget with the relevant information is titled Room Description. Under the fold is a section called Description, which contains the clearest (though, by no means simple) explanation of the rate difference. But why would I look at description, when I already saw the room description at the top of the section? At the bottom is a piece titled Cancellation Policy, which is definitely relevant. However, the text reads: “Canceling your reservation or failing to arrive will result in the forfeiture of your deposit.” What deposit? A deposit isnʼt mentioned anywhere else.
Nowhere do they simply state the difference between the various prices. And itʼs a pretty important difference, because with the cheapest rate you pay the entire amount in advance and you cannot cancel. You can call them a month in advance and you wonʼt get your money back. Thatʼs a detail the average person would want to know, donʼt you think?
Sadly, this is just fail after fail. Each little interaction brings us closer to the realization that there is, in fact, no cheese in this shop. It left me with the feeling that they were either actively trying to deceive me with an online shell game, or they were utterly incompetent.
Trying to be a good citizen, I decided to offer some constructive feedback. Unfortunately, the site offered no feedback mechanism. What about Get Satisfaction?, I wondered. Not there either. After my stay, they did send me a link for a multiple choice survey that gave no opportunity for open feedback. Useless.
Itʼs important to note that there were many points in this process where the siteʼs designers could have steered the overall experience in a better direction. Is it immediately clear how the rates differ? No. Okay, is it at least easy to find that information? No. Okay, once I find the information, is it easy to understand? No. Is there a way to provide feedback or ask a question on the site? No. Are they reachable through social media channels? No. Then why should I do business with them?
In the time it took me to write this post, Holiday Inn redesigned their site and addressed several of the issues I raise. However, I think the example still has value as an illustration of my two main points: that small interactions make up overall experience, and that we have multiple opportunities to turn experiences toward the good by improving micro interactions.
My faith in Holiday Inn has been somewhat restored by the redesign. They still have the confusing, punitive pricing, but at least they try to be a little more transparent about its meaning. The new site includes a description of each price option right on the results page. They also have a feedback mechanism that, while a little subtle, appears on every page.
The downside is that the pernicious no-refund option is the first one you see, and the other options usually appear below the fold. And, given that we know about the paradox of the active user it is easily possible that many people will fail to read the rate descriptions.
Holiday Inn has definitely made some effort to better their online experience. I’m not one to sneer at incremental improvement, and their redesign demonstrates that they know they have a problem. However, if they insist on keeping this awful pricing model, I think they need to explore a new way of displaying rooms and rates that isn’t so linear, and that better communicates what the rates mean for the customer. Still, better is better. Perhaps thereʼs a scrap of cheese there after all. The gun stays in the pocket. For now.
Posted in on April 21, 2010
blog comments powered by Disqus