Evaluating Websites by Features: Do Independent Hotels in Singapore Get it Right?

This study aims to evaluate the websites of independent hotels in Singapore in the business-to-consumer (B2C) framework. The modified balanced scorecard (BSC) approach is incorporated into the evaluation by features method in order to avoid the dominance of the marketing perspective by including technical, customer, and destination information perspectives. A set of website evaluation criteria representing these four perspectives is then used to examine the websites of 37 independent hotels. Almost three of four hotels get it right in developing, utilizing, and maintaining their websites. These websites have the presence of features that are known to be contributing towards website effectiveness. Ten websites were found to function as brochureware with no capability to perform business transactions online. The results of the study propose areas for website improvement that include the destination information perspective in general and contemporary aspects of the marketing perspective

Foregrounding accessibility for user experience design

textI am interested in creating generative tools and techniques for designing accessible user experiences for end users. As a user experience designer, I am working on embracing the web accessibility standards and guidelines and including them from the beginning of the User Experience (UX) design process. My projects are directed at facilitating design students and professionals to understand two things: that the broad concept of web accessibility is important, and how they can embed web accessibility into the UX design process at a very early stage. To do this, I used different media (website, posters and videos etc.) to create awareness and educate designers in an interesting, simple and engaging way. In this report, I will discuss the definition and role of accessible design, identify limitations in existing tools and methods, and demonstrate how future designers might research, prototype, analyze, and implement their designs for all users.Desig

Benchmarking holiday experience: the case of senior tourists

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine and benchmark the senior tourists’ preferences by considering the importance attached by them and their perception with respect to internal tourism attributes (i.e. package tour characteristics) and external tourism attributes (i.e. destination features). Design/methodology/approach: The present study makes use of importance-performance analysis and employs paired sample t-test for this purpose. Findings: The senior tourists evaluated the package tour attributes to be more important and better than destination characteristics. They also perceived that the service providers have to pay immediate attention to improve the quality of restaurants and meals and hotels. Research limitations/implications: Data are collected only from inbound senior tourists in Poland. In future, research may be conducted with a more representative sample. Practical implications: The senior tourists want to explore the local cuisine and then have food choices from their culture as well. “Tour escort” is one of the most essential characteristic of a package tour and it could serve as a factor of differentiation. Hence, the tourist service providers have to pay attention to these factors. Originality/value: The paper takes into account the internal tour attributes and destination attributes to evaluate senior tourists’ holiday experienceinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

A Longitudinal Study of Consumer Perceptions of Travel Websites: The Case of Hong Kong

Knowing how consumers perceive travel websites can help practitioners better understand consumers’ online requirements. This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal study that investigated the changes and trends in the profile and behavior of online travel-website users in Hong Kong. The profiles of e-buyers and e-browsers in 2009, when compared with those established by prior studies conducted in 2000 and 2007, point in a new direction for practitioners and researchers investigating online travelwebsite user behavior. The results indicated that more middle-aged consumers have become online travel-website users, and that website security and price are perceived to be the most important factors for travel-website use by both e-browsers and e-buyers

An Analytic Image-Technology Inventory of National Tourism Organizations (NTOs)

The Internet is playing an increasingly crucial role in destination marketing and it is used as a major marketing tool among National Tourism Organizations (NTOs). Website design is influential for consumers\u27 Website preference and destination selection. This study is to understand the application of image-based technology by the major National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) through the collection and comparison of static images and dynamic images presented in their official tourism Websites. Data collected from the sampling of the world\u27s top 25 tourism destination nations reveals that all National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) use either static images or dynamic images for their Websites, but the use of static images are far more popular than that of dynamic images

FlightFit: An Application Enabling Air Travelers to Do Stretches Onboard

Currently, with the development of economy and the improvement of people\u27s living standards, more people would prefer traveling by air. However, sitting for extended periods of time on a long flight would be an uncomfortable joyless experience and it may have negative implications for health. A study from the World Health Organisation confirmed that the risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) approximately doubles after travel lasting four hours or more. So carrying out some stretches frequently as well as standing up and moving around as often as possible under permitted conditions would help to improve blood circulation and relieve muscle soreness. Designing a system which helps air travelers reduce stiffness and fatigue by doing inflight stretches effectively and conveniently is the ultimate goal of this thesis project. FlightFit is an iOS application which introduces basic stretching techniques to air travelers in an interactive way. Users can not only stretch different muscle groups by following the default sessions visually and acoustically, but can also customize their own stretching plans based on different needs through the application. The thesis project utilizes UI Design, UX Design and Motion Graphics Design methodologies, which aims at providing air travelers an accessible and effective solution to help them improve flexibility and keep body active during long flights. The whole process can be divided into four stages in this project: Research, Design, Evaluation and Implementation. Each stage involves relevant design methodologies, tools and outcomes that take part in the process to make this project highly efficient and usable. The final deliverables of this project are an interactive prototype and a motion prototype for iPhone and iPa