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Information loads and organization in the airlines web interfaces.


 As I stated in a previous blog entry, there are four elements that a web developer should focus on when designing an interface. These consist of efficiency, accuracy, recall and emotional response of the end-users interacting with the web or graphical interface. The efficiency of web navigation and organization of information is the key to promote positive emotional response.  So how did the top airlines of 2012 handle these issues when developing their websites? This is an interesting topic to investigate since I have not seen any literatures or resources that examine airline websites and their efficiency.

 I have included flow diagrams to describe information architecture of three airlines and their websites. They are very different yet similar but with this diagram you (the reader) will have some visual references to what I am about to describe.  Information architecture diagram will help us understand the structure and navigation of an entire site.

 Let’s review the structure of these websites: 

 Action and reaction of website occurs when the user clicks or “hovers” over menus/submenus

 There were menus that all websites included:

  • Flight Information: Check In, Reserve, Flight Status, On-board experiences
  • Airline Membership: Include mileage club members and benefits
  • Planning Trip: Third Party sources for reserving hotel, car, and tour
  • Promotions: Vacation promotional prices
  • Latest News
  • Links within menus and submenus function differently between sites. However have noticed common themes that websites try to adopt so that information displays within the same window instead of routing it to separate windows.
  • Repeated information: Why is it necessary to put the same information in different places? (See Image 1)
IMAGE 1
  • Promotional and latest news information is located below the main menu and submenus, segregating them away from the main functionality of reserving and planning trips.  Promotion and latest news takes about 15% of the display resolution within the web interface.
  • Drop down menus were commonly used for all websites to show submenus
  • On average, in order for end users to get reach the final targeted information, they would need to go through 4 main menus and about 3 to 4 submenus

IMAGE 2

 So what are some difference between these websites and our company XXX?

 As you see within the diagram (See Image 3), we have an abundance of information that are currently being displayed within our website.
IMAGE 3

  • We have 7 main menus and 9 to 10 submenu within. Additionally long submenu names are misleading because it appears to have additional links by taking two lines as submenu buttons.
  • As the end user clicks the menu and submenu, the end user is routed to a different window.
  • Promotion and ads are displayed on the main homepage without common structure. For example, one of the ski promotions is located in the lower left, where another promotion is displayed on the top of the page taking approximately 5% of the resolution.
  • Latest News is located between sections and it is difficult to identify.


 Jakob Nielsen has indicated that end users leave the webpage within 10 to 20 second. Therefore the first 10 second are very critical. Furthermore, end users expect to find the information they want within a minute. Lynch and Horton (1997) also stated that in order to keep end user’s attention and interest, hierarchical organization is necessary. The acceptable terminology (taxonomies and controlled vocabularies) for end users and chunking information also enable end users to keep their attention without frustration.

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