2 research outputs found
Adding flexibility to B2C booking systems using a virtual intermediate travel agent
Today, business to consumer applications have been implemented by building front ends to the old legacy systems. In this paper we question if this is enough? Many customers going to the Web to make a booking may be flexible with regard to dates and times, where to go and even if to go. The interfaces that are offered today expect detailed and specific data and do therefore not account for this flexibility. In this paper we discuss the possibilities of retaining some of this functionality offered by the human travel agent by enhancing current Web interfaces. After presenting a background study, we will suggest interfaces that to a better degree can aid the customer in performing a booking. While we use booking as an example, many of the ideas presented here can be applied to other systems as well. © 2005 IEEE
INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN USERS AND SYSTEM FLEXIBILITIES WITH PERCEIVED USABILITY OF ONLINE AIRLINE RESERVATION SYSTEMS
It is very critical for the organizations to design flexible systems that are easy to
use and can accomplish all the requirements by way of offering customizability.
Philosophers argue that users are good in adapting the systems; however, research
shows users dissatisfaction with existing Online Airline Reservation Systems in terms
of task completion. Therefore, researchers are eager to find out ways for improving
online usability of the systems, how users' Perceived Usability of the system is
formulated by its flexibility functions. This research therefore examines travelers'
expectations, preferences and online behavior (Users' Flexibility) and aligns that with
designing of flexible online airline reservation systems (System's Flexibility) and
users' as evaluators of the online systems to determine its Perceived Usability through
users' effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction (Perceived Usability).
In this dissertation, both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to
analyze the data collected in the context of SF, lJF and PU of the systems. A redesign
solution for enhanced usability was developed based on HCI guidelines and the
flexibility tactics used in online travel agencies, which led to a proposed interface
with the integration of opaque mechanism. The two interfaces were used in the
experiment. Participants were requested to complete the evaluation of the existing and
proposed interfaces.
The findings suggested that users can be classified on the basis of their Flexible
Traveling Behavior which led to the development of a Users' Flexibility measuring
scale. It is further investigated that integration of opaque fares concept would increase
the usability of the system. Since flexibility is referred to its ability to respond to
internal or external changes, systems incorporated with opaque fares would serve the
role of external change agent by way of providing flexibility in users' decision
making and will also serve the role of internal change agent by way of providing the
capability of accepting changed decisions