No Reservations? No problem – Competitive Report Reveals Which Last-Minute Hotel App Ranks #1 Key Lime Interactive has expanded their Competitive Report portfolio with a new Competitive Index report for last-minute hotel apps. The report identifies which of sixteen travel industry booking agents and OTA’s best meets consumers self-defined needs.
Miami, FL – Key Lime Interactive’s (KLI) Competitive Research division has investigated the overall functionality and experiences offered by today’s last minute hotel booking apps. In an upcoming competitive report titled Last-Minute Hotel Booking Mobile Competitive Index Report, KLI reviews sixteen (16) apps including those designed specifically for booking last-minute travel as well as the top OTAs in the U.S.
This is more than an industry standard travel technology survey. KLI asks users traditional questions about their current behavior to understand trends, but they also push to learn about the innovation that consumers are buzzing about, what they expect to see next, and what barriers to a perfect experience exist.
Key Lime Interactive recognizes the importance of aligning business-centric goals with consumer-centric needs to produce winning solutions and makes this a core component to all deliverables. This incorporation of user feedback is a primary component for this and all studies across various industries ranging from finance, retail, hospitality, etc. This time, consumers also rank existing features on these last-minute apps and new developments, which takes a pulse of the market.
“With many players in direct competition to secure a place to rest your head while traveling, the indecision about which booking agent or OTA to use can be paralyzing to the user.” says Phillip McGuinness, report contributor. “As with all of our reports, we survey the target audience to see what they need and want in terms of features and capabilities first. Then, we take those desires into consideration when comparing and ranking the apps, giving more weight to consumers top priorities.”
The review examines their iPhone and Android apps (where applicable) and ultimately ranks the apps, awarding top rank to those who most effectively meet the consumer’s self-defined need.
Buyers receive a detailed report that identifies the survey results and the associated ranking of the 16 apps. They also benefit from detailed best-in-class features including screen prints and expert analysis. Opportunities for improvement are discussed as well as a new trends and innovation section where new concepts such as the use of an app to open hotel room doors or a mobile chat feature to communicate with hotel staff are highlighted.
“Differentiation such as the ability to set style preferences, access customer reviews, set filters, as well as view saved search history and favorites become apparent. Better, the impact that these features have on the user experience or the ability to meet user preferences is identified.” states Dana Bishop, primary report analyst and Director of Quantitative Research. “Organizations crave a way keep pace with what consumers want as they build their roadmap while also tracking and scoring themselves against the competition; to have a baseline that they want to beat as they continue to evolve. This offers them just that.”
To purchase the published report, please reach out to Key Lime Interactive for more information at sales(at)keylimeinteractive(dot)com
Researchers, Designers, Executives, Journalists and Bloggers in the Hotel, Travel and Leisure Industry are encouraged to contact Key Lime Interactive with any additional questions.
About Key Lime Interactive
Key Lime Interactive is an user experience research firm with proven excellence in both quantitative and qualitative user and consumer testing. To serve our growing client list of Fortune 100 companies, we conduct competitive research, true intent / voice of customer studies, and prototype studies using quantitative methods. Additionally, we’re experienced in moderating one-on-one interviews/ usability studies, focus groups, and eye-tracking studies for both the traditional and mobile web. Currently, Key Lime is working to help top brands better understand their customer via behavioral personas and customer journey mapping. Ultimately, our goal is to empower teams to use consumer/user experience data at any and all phases of product development; from strategy to implementation. We aim to provide the true perspective of target users and build exceptional consumer-driven solutions.
I received my Apple Watch this past Thursday. I chose the space grey Apple Watch sport with the black band, which was worth the wait. It’s fairly subtle, with one person (okay, a kid!) thinking it could be a real watch. Overall, I am impressed with its performance, especially for a v1 device with limited connectivity options. Powered by my iPhone 6, even on LTE instead of wireless, there is very little lag in most apps. However, the remote app has some issues connecting to iTunes libraries. It’s fantastic as a remote for the Apple TV, but very limited and challenging to sync with my computer’s iTunes library.
Performance at home is fantastic. I was able to leave my phone in my bedroom and wander all over my apartment with the watch. I made calls on it of durations between 30 and 40 minutes with no problems. I will say the speakers could be a bit stronger, though. It’s hard to hear people if they’re speaking quietly, or also on speakerphone. Messages and alerts come through in real-time, though. Pleasantly, if you’re interacting with an app on another device you do not receive an alert on the watch. While this makes sense, it isn’t true for the iPhone/iPad, so it was a great software addition that should come to more devices in the family.
I was deeply impressed with its performance in transit. Using Bluetooth, the watch is still connected to your phone so you can change music or get activity updates while underground with no cell service. Where there is cell service, it will push notifications to you. I was expecting the watch to be fairly useless while traveling, but that is certainly not the case.
It’s useful while at work. Again, the performance over LTE has few noticeable lags for any app, apart from maybe 5-10 seconds sometimes for NYT updates. The calendar alerts are fantastic. They pop up 10 minutes before your meeting and let you scroll through all of the meeting details. There’s even an option to email the meeting creator, which is the only email option I’ve seen on the watch so far. The dictation is good enough that I wish they allowed text responses to emails. It would be a really useful update. My biggest frustration while using it at work was when I went out of range for a meeting in a far conference room. I didn’t bring along my phone because the watch was a great substitute, but it didn’t alert me as I was exiting its range. Some sort of notification would be helpful, as it’s challenging to gauge distances, especially inside buildings.
The messages app is delightful to use. Being able to dictate messages makes it extremely functional. However, the feature could be improved by making it easier to edit these messages. I’ve definitely found myself canceling messages and re-dictating them due to one or two incorrect words in places that would make overall comprehension challenging. I would also like to be able to send the messages without having to touch the watch. There currently isn’t a verbal command that lets you send a message. Despite these usability challenges, I still found myself sending the majority of my text messages this weekend using the watch. It’s the easiest way to send text messages I’ve seen so far, though it would definitely be improved by easier (or any!) editing capabilities and a way to send without touching it.
Email is surprisingly functional on the watch. Initially, I assumed it would be just notifications, but you can scroll through the entire email. Not everything renders on the watch, especially graphics, but you can see the entirety of provided text, which is very useful. My biggest pain point when using the email feature was how difficult it was to delete emails. When I clicked on a notification, I had to scroll through the email to get to the delete option. In your mailbox you can swipe for a trash option, but as a notification that only gives you the option to clear notifications. Being able to delete from the notification without scrolling through the whole thing would be a useful addition.
My largest gripe centers around Apple Pay. Figuring out how to add a card to the watch was NOT intuitive. It kept directing me to my phone, but I assumed it was the regular Passbook section. I tried re-adding my card, but it didn’t let me. I had to Google how to do it to find out it was in the Apple Watch app on my phone. Even then, I had to re-verify my card for the watch by calling my credit card company. When I tried to use it at Whole Foods by tapping the button twice it kept telling me it was ready, but ultimately it was unable to make the payment. Obviously, this was pretty frustrating. I ended up using my phone. Seeing as the watch is likely one of Apple’s best chances at making Apple Pay catch on, it’s a shame this was the least intuitive watch experience I had all weekend. This experience should definitely be improved. The Apple Pay on-boarding would have been easier with a diagram clearly illustrating where to go on the phone. The BEST solution would be letting me choose on the watch whether to add the credit cards from my phone. I don’t see why I need to go through the phone. I’m not sure why it doesn’t work in stores, but that’s definitely a huge issue that needs to get fixed.
The native activity app is interesting. I’ve given it a small amount of information and it’s been making attempts to inspire me to greater efforts. I personally am not a super active person, but what I like about the activity app as it exists currently is that it works with you. It’s not being overly critical or alerting me too frequently, both of which would result in me turning it off. It’s sitting there in the background letting me know when I’ve hit a goal or reminding me when to stand up. I don’t listen to every stand reminder, but I’ve listened to more than I’ve ignored. I’m curious to see if it changes my behavior over time. It’s definitely a much better way to interact with this information than the Health app on the iPhone, which I’ve always found oddly buggy.
Of the 3rd party apps I’ve interacted with so far on the device, I’m most impressed with the New York Times app. They’ve done a wonderful job of creating a new kind of article specifically for the watch. Some articles feature just a headline, some have pictures, and some have 1-2 sentences. It’s a fun surprise to scroll through them a few times a day. I do hope in the future it’s possible to read full shorter articles on the device, but I understand their choice and think it makes a lot of sense for the watch that exists today. 95% of my interaction with the NYT iPhone app is through notifications, so NYT on the watch is an ideal match. Now I actually get more information with the brief articles and images. I prefer the tablet for actual reading, but again I would be interested in having a more email-like experience for the NYT.
While I was initially unimpressed with the battery life, it was fine over the weekend. It does drain my phone battery faster, BUT it means I’m spending significantly less time on my phone so that evens it out for the most part. Like all Apple devices, I would appreciate a longer battery life, but I will say it survives a 12-hour day much better than the iPhone. Having the two devices has made it possible to have weekend days without airplane mode or constant recharging. Speaking of charging, I wish it were possible to wear the watch while charging it. One of the best use cases for me so far has been using the watch to act as an Apple TV remote. I do most of my Apple TV watching at night, so it would be great to be able to plug it in and continue using it. I’m also curious about the watch’s potential as an alarm, given that the taptic feedback might be a more pleasant way to wake up.
At this stage, I would rate the Apple Watch as a ‘nice to have’. If you, like me, own the whole family of devices and upgrade pretty regularly, go for it. It’s an awesome addition to the family, and you’ll find a lot of unexpected uses for it. I think it needs to be able to stand alone, ideally by v2. However, it’s still challenging enough to use that I wouldn’t recommend it to my parents just yet. I do think it will get there, and I will definitely be keeping mine and not returning it. Its best uses for me are: messaging, Apple TV remote, email, and keeping me off my iPhone (supposedly the #1 secret purpose). Those are important enough things in my life that I find value in a device that improves my access to them.
Note to Apple: I would be happy to put a $5 data share plan on it so I could leave my phone behind while at conferences, meetings, bars, parties, etc.
Enterprising Women Magazine Announces 2015 Enterprising Women of The Year Award Winners Prestigious Awards Program Recognizes World’s Top Women Entrepreneurs
RALEIGH, N.C. Feb. 9, 2015 – MonicaSmiley, publisher and CEO of Enterprising Women magazine, has announced the winners of the 2015 Enterprising Women of the Year Awards, an annual tribute to the world’s top women entrepreneurs. Honorees will be recognized at the 13th Annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards & Conference, Sunday, March 29 to Tuesday, March 31 at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
The annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards is widely considered one of the most prestigious recognition programs for women business owners. To win, nominees must demonstrate that they have fast-growth businesses, mentor or actively support other women and girls involved in entrepreneurship, and stand out as leaders in their communities. Many of the honorees also serve as leaders of the key organizations that support the growth of women’s entrepreneurship.
Award winners were recognized in seven categories this year: annual sales revenues of more than $100 million; annual sales revenues of more than $25 million and up to $100 million; annual sales revenues of more than $10 million and up to $25 million; annual sales revenues of more than $5 million and up to $10 million; annual sales revenues of more than $2 million and up to $5 million; annual sales revenues of more than $1 million and up to $2 million; and annual sales revenues of up to $1 million.
Winners in the “over $100 million in annual revenues” category:
Kay Ivie, Ivie & Associates, Inc., Flower Mound, TX
Beatriz Manetta, Argent Associates, Inc., Plano, TX
Jennifer Maier, WDS, Inc., Lake Wylie, S.C.
Julia Fournier, HCMWorks, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Veronica Muzquiz Edwards, InGenesis, Inc., San Antonio, TX
Jacqueline E. Muller, 3DOM (Asia Pacific) Ltd., Hong Kong
Moni Singh, STEM For Kids, Raleigh, N.C.
The 2015 Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Celebration and Conference will bring together dynamic women business owners from North America and around the world for two full days of top-notch workshops, networking opportunities, corporate sponsor exhibits, and awards presentations. The celebration will shine the spotlight on award winners and finalists, with award presentations at the Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Gala Dinner. During the annual “Hall of Fame Luncheon,” one woman entrepreneur will be inducted into the Enterprising Women Hall of Fame, an outstanding nonprofit will receive the 2015 Advocacy Award, and two women will be recognized with the 2015 Legacy Award.
The event is open to winners and finalists of the Enterprising Women of the Year Award, corporate supporters, members of the Enterprising Women Advisory Board, VIPs in the women’s business community, readers of Enterprising Women magazine, and members of the many partner organizations affiliated with Enterprising Women.
Partner organizationsrepresented on the Enterprising Women Advisory Board and supporting the 2015 event include:
The Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO)
Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP)
Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC)
National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)
National Women Business Owners Corporation (NWBOC)
Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women (IEEW)
The Global Initiative for Women’s Entrepreneurship Research
Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC)
Quantum Leaps
Springboard Enterprise
UnitedSucces
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC)/Women Entrepreneurs Inc. (WE)
Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence
Women’s Leadership Exchange
The International Alliance for Women (TIAW)
Asian Women in Business (AWIB)
eWomenNetwork (EWN)
Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC)
National Association of Women REO Brokerages (NAWRB)
QUOTES:
“When this awards program began 13 years ago, there were only a handful of nominees in what was then the highest revenue category – over $10 million in annual revenues. This growth reflects the fact that more women are scaling their businesses to the $100 million plus level. The Enterprising Women of the Year Award has grown each year in prestige and stature so women entrepreneurs at all levels want to be recognized with this award for the great work they are doing. We could not be more proud of the outstanding women who make up the Enterprising Women Class of 2015,” Smiley said.
DETAILS:
– For more information or to register to attend the 2015 Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Celebration and Conference, visit http://enterprisingwomen.com.
ABOUT ENTERPRISING WOMEN MAGAZINE: Enterprising Women, with headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, is the nation’s only women-owned magazine published exclusively for women business owners that chronicles the growing political, economic and social influence and power of entrepreneurial women. The magazine provides a friendly meeting place, a public forum and a national stage for the critical issues confronting women’s businesses and daily lives from the unique perspectives and experiences of entrepreneurial women. Published in both print and digital editions, the online edition of the magazine reaches nearly one million readers in 185 countries. For more information, please visit http://enterprisingwomen.com or call (919) 362-1551.
In a recent collaboration with User Experience Magazine I published an article entitled: The Future of UX Research: Uncovering the True Emotions of Our Users. The motivation for writing this article was to expose the UX community to the possibilities of using biometric and neurometric measurements to understand the emotions of our users. Current methods for understanding a user’s emotional response are at best limited, and at worst, entirely inaccurate. As the field of user experience evolves, we need to explore new methods for measuring emotional responses using technologies borrowed and refined from neuroscience and human biology. I also wanted to highlight some of the latest technologies available to user researchers, as well as the challenges of working with these tools.
I was thrilled to receive so many positive comments about the article as well as many questions about using these tools. This recap provides some of the key aspects of using biometrics for user experience research as well as answers to the most frequently asked questions about the topic.
Here are some do’s and don’ts for using biometrics in your user experience research projects:
Do:
Hire specialists on your team with a neuroscience, cognition, or experimental psychology background (preferably a Ph.D.). They will be most helpful during the study design and also during the analysis of your biometric data.
Run lots of pilot tests. Incorporating biometrics can add unforeseen challenges to your study and requires extra practice to ensure that data is collected accurately with actual participants.
Ensure that you have a sufficient sample size. Biometric studies require more participants than a typical usability test to account for the potentially large variability between participants. You will also encounter more situations where data needs to be excluded because due to improper equipment calibration, equipment failures, etc.
Don’t:
Examine biometric data in a vacuum. It is important to triangulate data across a combination of different methods including nonverbal observations, participant retrospectives, surveys & rating scales.
Assume that your data is perfect. Measuring biological and neurological responses, especially with the tools accessible to UX researchers, is not going to be 100% accurate. I would recommend looking at general trends in valence (i.e. positive/negative spectrum of emotions) changes instead of trying to pinpoint exact moments where very specific emotions were felt.
Questions & Answers
There have been a variety of tweets and posts generated as a result of publishing this article. Here are some of the most common questions with my thoughts:
Do participants mind wearing all of that equipment? Does anyone complain about it being uncomfortable?
Before making any purchases, I heavily researched all of the existing hardware currently available to make sure that it was as minimally intrusive to participants as possible. In many cases we are only using one or two measurements at a time. I try to use only one measurement that requires physical contact with the participant, such as wearing a GSR wristband combined with facial analysis that only requires a webcam. At the end of a session I always ask the participant whether wearing any of the gear was uncomfortable for them or if it impacted their experience at all. Most said that once the session began they quickly forgot that they were wearing anything.
Is it [biometrics] worth it? Wouldn’t it just be easier to interview an individual or give them a survey to complete?
We are at the very beginning of an exciting journey to uncover more about how our users are actually feeling. Biometrics is definitely not for everyone, and it is not a useful endeavor for all situations. I actually don’t think that these tools are ready for mainstream UX researchers just yet. The tools and software continue to get better every day, and will likely become more useful to UX researchers within the next few years. However, for those who are very serious about obtaining objective, quantitative measurements about your user’s emotional journey, I would recommend trying out these tools to see if they are useful for your team.
I’m very interested in learning more about biometrics! How did you learn about this topic? Would you recommend any resources?
There really isn’t one place to find out everything you would want to know. Biometrics is still a very new topic for the UX community and most of the resources out there are geared for people in the fields of human biology and neuroscience. I started reading a lot of academic papers to understand how to collect and analyze the data. There are a few worthwhile articles in the ACM Digital Library that provide case studies where biometrics were used in the context of human-computer interaction. I would also recommend looking into each biometric and neurometric measurement (e.g. EEG, GSR, etc.) individually. You can get a basic sense of how these tools work by visiting the websites of the device hardware and software manufacturers. My article provides links to many of the major vendors who make UX researcher-friendly products.
Just as smartphones and tablets displaced the once-dominant PC, wearable technology has begun to take over the tech-scene. They have been projected to reach $4.5 billion in revenue this year and $53.2 billion in global retail revenue by 2019 (Juniper Research). These devices are popping up everywhere from smartwatches, fitness bracelets, and even smart-clothing and jewelry, but what if your wearable gadget could potentially save and/or prolong your life?
It is probably safe to say that we have all heard of, worn, or witnessed someone wearing an insulin pump, glucose monitor, hearing aids and/or prescription eye glasses, but we now live in a world where science fiction has turned reality. A world where contact lenses are embedded with microchips that monitor your health while improving your vision (Google and Novartis, “Smart Lens”). A vest that could save your life from sudden cardiac death (Zoll, “LifeVest”). A ‘build your own’ onesie that can detect your infant’s breathing and movement to help reduce SIDS (Mimo, “Smart Infant Monitor”). IBM, Apple, Medtronic, and Johnson & Johnson are even teaming up to develop the HIPAA-enabled “Watson Health Cloud” to collect the estimated million gigabytes of data per individual.
The age of wearable devices is upon us and a revolution in healthcare has emerged. Consumers, Physicians and the medical community, as well as investors, need to know that they can trust the data from the product, so accuracy and availability is essential! Since the risk of life or limb from a fitness bracelet is obviously not as high as the “LifeVest”, safety guidelines have already been drafted to regulate wearable tech devices, as well as the smartphone apps that accompany them. The FDA released its initial draft guidance for General Wellness: Policy for Low Risk Devices on January 20, 2015 and its draft guidance for Medical Device Data Systems, Medical Image Storage Devices, and Medical Image Communications Devices on February 9, 2015. This guidance identifies that they will not regulate “wellness” wearables that encourage a healthy lifestyle or reduce the risk of developing a chronic disease, but wearable Medical Devices that claim to treat, diagnose, or restore a structure or impaired function due to a disease, however, are regulated the same as all other medical devices and do require FDA approval. Basically, your Fitbit isn’t going to be regulated by the FDA as long as its claims are preventative and in a low-risk category. The FDA’s intention is to continue to focus their resources on technology products that pose a higher risk.
These devices offer numerous solutions to patients as well as to physicians and home healthcare professionals, equipping them with tools to track and manage the patients’ health information easily and effectively – ranging from medical and safety critical, to leisure and entertainment. In the case of medical and safety critical, this creates unique concerns and imposes new constraints that existing human factors theories may not fully support.
General Wellness: Policy for Low Risk Devices (Draft Guidance) (January 20, 2015)
Medical Device Accessories: Defining Accessories and Classification Pathway for New Accessory Types (Draft Guidance) (January 20, 2015)
Medical Device Data Systems, Medical Image Storage Devices, and Medical Image Communications Devices (Final Guidance) (February 9, 2015)
Mobile Medical Applications (Final Guidance) (February 9, 2015)
