travel

Intelligences

Building Accessible Experiences

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Building Accessible Experiences: EPIC2022 Platinum Sponsor Panel by Booking.com
An EPIC2022 Sponsored Panel by Booking.com Moderator: KIRIN KHAN (Booking.com) Panelists: MAYA ALVARADO (Booking.com), ISABELLE RODOT (Booking.com), ULA LEWICKA (Booking.com), ALESSANDRA ESTE (Booking.com), FRANCA VAN DER BORDEN (Booking.com) With more of our daily interactions taking place online, there are both benefits and barriers for people with disabilities. Work from home setups can helpfully remove the need to transport assistive technology on a daily basis. Frustratingly, many still experience barriers on apps and websites that do not meet accessibility standards. Booking.com is on a journey to learn from people with disabilities and how they navigate digital and physical environments, to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. In this session we will provide the background and context on how we see that accessibility and resilience intersect. We will share how researchers at Booking.com are bringing the voice of people with disabilities to product teams to make travel more accessible. Join us to...

Intelligences

Using Ethnography and Narrative Analysis to Uncover Customer Agency: Intrepid Travel’s Online Booking Project

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ALICE WATSON Intrepid Group This paper draws on a discovery research project focused on the customer experience of Intrepid Travel's automated booking system. The Data Analytics team initially investigated customer behaviour when booking and found problems with high exit rates on the first and second steps of the 3-step booking process. A paradox was also found between the numeric NPS and CES scores for booking, and comments which revealed high volumes of customers requiring assistance from customer service to complete their online booking. The Product Manager for this project prioritised an extended discovery research phase to provide a more holistic understanding of the customer experience of online booking and answer some questions that arose from customer behaviours highlighted by the Data Analytics team. The UX Researcher's task was to design a research project that would analyse why customers were struggling to complete Intrepid Travel's automated booking process and provide recommendations to improve this system for a...

Intelligences

Doing Ethnography in AirSpace: The Promise and Danger of ‘Frictionless’ Global Research

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photo of author doing field research in Shanghai, taking photographs, supported by a local translator
TOM HOY Stripe Partners ‘AirSpace’, according to Kyle Chayka, is the increasingly homogenized experience of the western(ized) business traveller, driven by major tech platforms (including Google, Airbnb and Uber.) As international travellers, ethnographers must account for the impact of AirSpace on their research practice. After delineating the concept of AirSpace the paper posits three dangers ethnographers must negotiate: (1) The cost of control: AirSpace offers researchers control, but can narrow the scope of research (2) The risk of superficiality: AirSpace provides shortcuts to cultural understanding, but can limit deeper comprehension (3) The assumption of equivalence: AirSpace provides shared reference points, but can create the illusion of equivelance with research subjects. By exploring these three dangers the paper invites readers to reflect on their own research practice and consider how to utilize the benefits of these platforms while mitigating the issues outlined....