by kliadmin | Jun 11, 2015 | Competitive Index, Press Releases, usability, UX
by Jennifer Knodler
It’s been a few years now, but I recall distinctly when the transition to mobile in the travel industry happened. I was in the midst of traveling often for business and I said to Sidra Michon, Product Usability Manager at KAYAK, that I felt like I needed to sort hotels by “Free access to print your boarding pass”. She chuckled at how real my problem was. A few months later, Brian Sullivan, then at Sabre, suggested to me that I wouldn’t need anything but my phone (my shiny new iPhone, that was) in the coming months.
Then, it was a domino effect. I could book my flight, complete a purchase for my luggage, use my phone as a boarding pass, book a hotel, check in, aggregate my travel itinerary, order takeout to my hotel room, hail a cab, use Wi-Fi on the flight and in the airport, map my route, even if walking in NYC. I could dictate emails while in transit, listen to webinars via conferencing software, check the CRM system for updates, get notified about travel changes and delays. The single most powerful tool that I had available was my smartphone. I didn’t need a wallet, a computer or a pen.
Today’s travelers are exactly as Moxie describes: “Tethered, Tolerant and Talking vs. Mobile, Multitasking and Messaging”. They need to be reached in different ways. Dana Bishop, primary report analyst and Director of Quantitative Research, was awed by the mad scramble of traditional travel companies to throw their hat in the “last minute arena”, as she puts it. It seemed that this Mobile, Multitasking and Messaging culture wants instant, satisfying and simple, too.
As a result, the Competitive Report Division of KLI, run by Bishop, recently announced a new report in our Competitive Index portfolio that focuses on overall functionality and experiences offered by today’s last minute hotel booking apps. 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 push to learn about the innovation that consumers are buzzing about, what they expect to see next, what barriers to a perfect experience exist.
“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 consumer’s top priorities.”
Apps in this assessment include: Airbnb, BookingNow, Expedia, Hipmunk, HotelPlanner.com, Hotels.com, HotelTonight, Hotwire, Jetsetter, Last Minute Travel Deals, Orbitz, Priceline, Room 77, Stayful, Travelocity and TripAdvisor.
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 Bishop. “Organizations crave both 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.”
Read the full press release here.
To purchase the published report, please reach out to Key Lime Interactive for more information here.
by kliadmin | May 28, 2015 | Competitive Index, mobile, News, Press Releases
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.”
Apps in this assessment include: Airbnb, BookingNow, Expedia, Hipmunk, HotelPlanner.com, Hotels.com, HotelTonight, Hotwire, Jetsetter, Last Minute Travel Deals, Orbitz, Priceline, Room 77, Stayful, Travelocity and TripAdvisor.
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.
by kliadmin | Jan 23, 2015 | Competitive Index, Cruise, News, Press Releases
Key Lime Interactive Ranks Norwegian Cruise Line’s Website Best-In-Class in Comprehensive User Experience Report.
Miami, FL – Key Lime Interactive (KLI), an industry leader in competitive index reporting across a variety of industries, released the results of their Contemporary and Premium Brands 2014 Cruise Competitive Benchmark Study at the close the third quarter ranking Norwegian Cruise Line as Best-In-Class. The report compares the website for seven cruise brands including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Disney Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise Line. The report reveals that Norwegian Cruise Lines offered the best “overall site satisfaction” over a variety of indices such as brand affinity. The Key Lime Interactive Competitive Benchmark study defines these indices as “behavioral loyalty.”
“Consistently positive emotional experiences result in consumer loyalty,” reported Ania Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of Key Lime Interactive. “Norwegian’s site visitors indicated that they had a high likelihood to return to the site and book a cruise in the future. Most importantly, the site significantly outperformed its competitors’ in terms of time spent on the site. Time spent increased the brand’s perception relating to attributes such as ‘entertaining’, ‘appealing’, ‘fun’, and ‘family-oriented’.”
These emotional experiences and demonstrated behavior were measured using a task-based user research approach in which hundreds of users participate in a study passively, in their natural context, from geographically widespread locations. A mix of experienced and inexperienced cruisers were recruited to visit a cruise website and perform a series of tasks. Before, during and after task completion, several lines of questioning were asked so that Key Lime Interactive’s team of researchers could evaluate a series of drivers and determine how each site performs. These detailed results help design and digital marketing professionals at each brand better understand the online customer journey. Digital marketing and product development teams count on these findings to meet the needs and expectations of their target audience in strategic planning sessions.
Norwegian significantly outperformed the other players in areas such as “Offering Satisfaction” and “Value Proposition.” Additional analysis across six other drivers is featured in the report.
Norwegian stakeholders responded favorably. “…Not only are we prioritizing what users claim they need, but we get a first-hand view of what users are doing on the site. In our experience, what our guests say, and how they actually behave online doesn’t always align. This methodology provides the details we need to in order to focus our development plans in the coming year,” says Rob Casas, Vice President of eCommerce at Norwegian Cruise Line.
Casas and others rely on Key Lime Interactive reporting to drive the development roadmap into the next quarter and beyond. In many cases, deficits or strengths easily translate to quick fixes or strategic change to improve prospective buyer experience.
Additional Report Information
Key Lime Interactive’s Cruise Experience Mobile Heuristics were used to determine the overall score and ranking of seven (7) companies including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Disney Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise Lines. These heuristics consisted of a capabilities assessment, comparative feature ranking and overall user score and ranking.
The methodology first aimed to understand by using consumers’ self-reported preferences; which features and tasks were must-haves when it came to interacting with the site. These identified features were then placed into priority order to highlight their importance. This ranking was used in an algorithm to tabulate the final scores.
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.
“Other reports highlight what we’re doing well from an expert user experience researcher perspective. This report is different because it tells us what we’re doing well from the user perspective. When adjusting the opportunities for improvements listed we can see the direct impact on overall site success.” says Casas as he anticipates Norwegian’s scores in the next report release.
All assessments are as of August 22, 2014. The next iteration of the study will be available in the summer of 2015.
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 Cruise, 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.
by kliadmin | Dec 10, 2014 | Competitive Index, Cruise, News, Press Releases
Key Lime Interactive Ranks Norwegian Cruise Line’s Website Best-In-Class in Comprehensive User Experience Report.
Miami, FL – Key Lime Interactive (KLI), an industry leader in competitive index reporting across a variety of industries, released the results of their Contemporary and Premium Brands 2014 Cruise Competitive Benchmark Study at the close the third quarter ranking Norwegian Cruise Line as Best-In-Class. The report compares the website for seven cruise brands including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Disney Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise Line. The report reveals that Norwegian Cruise Lines offered the best “overall site satisfaction” over a variety of indices such as brand affinity. The Key Lime Interactive Competitive Benchmark study defines these indices as “behavioral loyalty.”
“Consistently positive emotional experiences result in consumer loyalty,” reported Ania Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of Key Lime Interactive. “Norwegian’s site visitors indicated that they had a high likelihood to return to the site and book a cruise in the future. Most importantly, the site significantly outperformed its competitors’ in terms of time spent on the site. Time spent increased the brand’s perception relating to attributes such as ‘entertaining’, ‘appealing’, ‘fun’, and ‘family-oriented’.”
These emotional experiences and demonstrated behavior were measured using a task-based user research approach in which hundreds of users participate in a study passively, in their natural context, from geographically widespread locations. A mix of experienced and inexperienced cruisers were recruited to visit a cruise website and perform a series of tasks. Before, during and after task completion, several lines of questioning were asked so that Key Lime Interactive’s team of researchers could evaluate a series of drivers and determine how each site performs. These detailed results help design and digital marketing professionals at each brand better understand the online customer journey. Digital marketing and product development teams count on these findings to meet the needs and expectations of their target audience in strategic planning sessions.
Norwegian significantly outperformed the other players in areas such as “Offering Satisfaction” and “Value Proposition.” Additional analysis across six other drivers is featured in the report.
Norwegian stakeholders responded favorably. “…Not only are we prioritizing what users claim they need, but we get a first-hand view of what users are doing on the site. In our experience, what our guests say, and how they actually behave online doesn’t always align. This methodology provides the details we need to in order to focus our development plans in the coming year,” says Rob Casas, Vice President of eCommerce at Norwegian Cruise Line.
Casas and others rely on Key Lime Interactive reporting to drive the development roadmap into the next quarter and beyond. In many cases, deficits or strengths easily translate to quick fixes or strategic change to improve prospective buyer experience.
Additional Report Information
Key Lime Interactive’s Cruise Experience Mobile Heuristics were used to determine the overall score and ranking of seven (7) companies including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Disney Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise Lines. These heuristics consisted of a capabilities assessment, comparative feature ranking and overall user score and ranking.
The methodology first aimed to understand by using consumers’ self-reported preferences; which features and tasks were must-haves when it came to interacting with the site. These identified features were then placed into priority order to highlight their importance. This ranking was used in an algorithm to tabulate the final scores.
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.
“Other reports highlight what we’re doing well from an expert user experience researcher perspective. This report is different because it tells us what we’re doing well from the user perspective. When adjusting the opportunities for improvements listed we can see the direct impact on overall site success.” says Casas as he anticipates Norwegian’s scores in the next report release.
All assessments are as of August 22, 2014. The next iteration of the study will be available in the summer of 2015.
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 Cruise, 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.
by kliadmin | May 5, 2014 | airline, Competitive Index, mobile
by Phil McGuinness
At Key Lime Interactive, we’ve provided competitive research analysis in the Auto Insurance and Banking Industry mobile app offerings for years. Now, on the heels of TripAdvisor reporting a milestone of 100 million iPhone and Android app downloads, we decided to take a quick peek at four top travel booking apps to see how they compare. We selected four brands and evaluated the Android app flight finding and booking process to find out which have the best usability, ranking them not only on number of features, but execution.
Our Methodology
The apps were awarded points or scored based on two criteria
- The total number of available capabilities to users
- The successful execution of each
In review, each app was credited for an integrated capability, such as sorting, filtering, alerts, or the ability to save flight information. After this we looked at the execution of each feature to provide more nuance to the rankings, such as the number of sorting/filtering options provided or the flexibility of alert settings for apps that had flight alerts. The final positioning of each app in our ranking is based on a combination of those two measurements.
NUMBER 4: Expedia
Expedia is far and above the best looking app of the this group, from the landing screen that scrolls hotel and flight destinations via colorful pictures, to the search results loading screen that mimics the view out your airplane window. The app is also extremely quick and responsive, allowing both departing and return flights to be selected without any extended load time. However, there is not much that stands out in this app beyond those features. The flight search has only a few basic options. The results page and booking engine are relatively sparse, with only four sorting options available for results. Although the aesthetics are exceptional, the lack of functionality in Expedia’s app results in a lower ranking in comparison to the other apps we reviewed.
NUMBER 3: Priceline
Priceline, which acquired Kayak in June 2013, ranked just ahead of Expedia in the find flight and booking analysis. The app has a strong branding message. William Shatner and Kaley Cuoco are available in the lower left hand corner to chauffeur you through a flight search. During the search process, Priceline saves recent airport searches in a list, which rewards the user for repeated uses of the app. The results page also provides six different sorting options, from Number of Stops to Airline, which is great for users who want to avoid specific airlines or too many layovers. While the remainder of the experience is solid, Priceline lacks to the bells and whistles of some of the apps in this competitor set.
NUMBER 2: TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor’s strengths are apparent from the minute you land on the results page, where sorting and filtering options are available. This allows users to select time of day for departure or arrival, the number of stops, or to view specific airlines. Additionally, users can request alerts for flight prices from within the app, and the bottom bar links to comparison rates from other providers making it easier for bargain hunters to find the best price. Finally, users who want to save their information for later can e-mail their itinerary after selecting flights – a very convenient feature for frequent travelers who need to keep their itinerary close at hand.
AND THE WINNER IS… Kayak
Kayak’s no-frills interface belies a wealth of functionality, and ranks first primarily due to stronger execution of features that can be found in the TripAdvisor app. Kayak has the most robust sorting and filtering menus available, as well as extensive options for setting alerts. The app is also the only one we evaluated that allowed multi-city flight searches. Anyone thinking of hopping around Europe this summer will appreciate this feature. During the flight search, the Kayak app allows users to add any nearby airports to their search, truly a plus when traveling to or from areas with multiple airports that may have better fares. The quality of Kayak’s many features make it best in class for flight finding and booking.
We hope you found this ranking helpful. Key Lime Interactive offers expanded custom competitive research. If you’d like more information, please contact KLI here.
by kliadmin | Apr 8, 2014 | auto insurance, Competitive Benchmark Study, Competitive Index, mCommerce, mobile, mobile banking, News, Syndicated Reporting
KLI couldn’t be happier to welcome Dana Bishop to our team as our new Director of Quantitative Research. Dana has been working in the field of user research for 20 years and flaunts extensive experience with a variety of research methods. Above all, Dana has perfected the art and science of creating simple, yet highly-informative large-scale online user experience research studies. Her graceful orchestration of traditional scaled questions and directed tasks for users results in detailed feedback, thoughtful analysis and poignant evidence that informs design for clients far and wide.
Prior to joining Key Lime Interactive, Dana was lead researcher and manager of Keynote Systems’ Competitive Research group. While at Keynote, Dana led longitudinal quantitative research studies across numerous verticals and global markets for companies such as Carnival, Expedia, Travelocity, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Yahoo!, and State Farm Insurance. Dana began her career in the 1990s in San Francisco where she spent 3 years at Charles Schwab & Co conducting a nationwide field study and weekly in-lab sessions with customers; as well as time spent running usability testing for edu-tainment software in school environments.
After just three short months as part of the KLI team, Dana’s expertise is in high-demand! Custom studies are exceeding client expectations and all the while, Dana and other Key Limers are preparing the following types of reports for incremental release:
KLI Competitive Research. Naturally, with the addition of Dana to the Key Lime team, we’ve both expanded and refined our competitive research. Dana is spearheading several existing and new reports that fall under the following categories:
Competitive Index:
Currently our Auto Insurance Competitive Index and our Mobile Banking Competitive Index are widely used by nearly all top players in their respective industries. For this research KLI runs a survey to deeply understand the perceptions, beliefs, needs and desires of users when using their mobile devices (both web and apps) in context of a given industry and then indexes and compares capabilities across major players; ultimately ranking them and revealing strengths and opportunities for the industry and individual companies to move ahead. Inquire about the purchase of either of these reports, or suggest an index for your industry…
Competitive Benchmark Studies
Additionally, KLI publishes annual Cruise Competitive Benchmark results in June each year. This is a task-based assessment of the leading cruise industry websites by users (a mix of first-time and experienced users). The study analyzes the user experience in trying to learn about the cruise line, find a cruise of interest, and book online. It measures the user experience in terms of satisfaction, site reliability and performance, as well as NPS and likelihood to return and purchase. Dana’s keen understanding of what the cruise industry needs and pays attention to when executing sound design changes is part of what makes this benchmark study novel and desired. The study capitalizes on the value proposition offered by the various brands: Are they selling the ratio of cost to experience well to their digital consumers? Are they painting a clear picture that informs decisions and promotes action? At present, leaders in the industry are working with Dana to refine the June release to include exactly what they’ve been missing. Want to be involved in that conversation? Have ideas for a similar study in a different vertical? Learn more…
Custom Competitive Benchmark Studies
To take this one-step farther and truly meet the demands of KLI clients, Dana is leading the development of Custom Competitive Benchmark studies for several clients in the retail, travel, medical and financial industries. These studies are quite similar to the general Competitive Benchmark studies in that they are also task-based assessments of sites within a given industry by users. They also focus on which site(s) are providing the best user experience; but differ in that they allow companies to custom design aspects of the study along with KLI researchers. Companies can “ customize” by selecting the competitors they are most interested in benchmarking themselves against, as well as having input about the tasks users complete, and timing of when the study fields. Need to benchmark yourself against competitors in your industry? Learn more…
