Airline E-commerce user experience experiment: An investigation of Thai LCCs passengers' purchasing behaviour among different online platforms

Purpose: This study examines the current state of the airline’s e-commerce platforms and seek to identify their benefits and disadvantages in the aspect of user experience. Design/methodology/approach: The study commenced by first reviewing the literatures on actual sale figure from the studied Thai LCC, user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). It then proceeded to gather the empirical evidences using questionnaires from 135 active air passengers who have online purchasing experience. The composite findings from literature review and surveys were then used to design and apply for the final phase which is a series of in-depth interviews of air passengers on their usability test sessions and experts from the related industries. Coding and clustering was utilised to analyse the qualitative data obtained. Findings: The study examines the differences in online ticket purchasing platforms including airline's website, mobile-site and mobile application. The results identified five areas of factors: physical, trust, willingness to learn, context of use and adjustment. With regard to these factors, there are no single platform that outperform others. Airlines need to ensure that UX/UI of all platforms meet the users’ requirements in all circumstances. Originality/value: The study reveals the customer thinking processes on online purchasing behaviour. It focuses on web-usability and user experience of different booking platforms. The findings allow the subjected LCC to improve customer experience and optimise its platforms. The paper could also benefit other entrepreneurs who are in the related industry or similar contexts. In addition, the study of user-experience in the context of airline industry, particularly in the emerging countries like Thailand is limited.Peer Reviewe

Sustainable development in Thailand supported by industrial design education

The awareness of sustainable development has been increasing significantly in the Thai manufacturing industry since the financial crisis in 1997. The government has launched several initiatives to promote the development of sustainable products as the concept has a potential to stimulate the national economy and address the sustainability issues. Although the progress has been reflected through the launch of numerous products in the market, most of the products available were only claimed to be sustainable or environmentally friendly. Education is a prerequisite to achieve the integration of sustainable design as it equips stakeholders with knowledge and skills required to be the future decision makers. In other words, it enables designers to create products that contribute to sustainable development. However, the researcher found a lack of sustainable design learning in Thai industrial/product design courses. This situation has motivated the researcher to carry out this PhD research with an aim to support the implementation of education for sustainable development (ESD) into Thai higher education institutions (HEIs). The literature review emphasised the need to tailor the theoretical framework for Thai lecturers due to the lack of ESD training and appropriate materials. It also indicated the lack of publications related to the Thai context and the requirements to identify barriers and needs of the target users. The shortfall was addressed through a series of interviews; experts from three different disciplines (government, business and education sectors) were invited to participate in the interview sessions and reveal the status of sustainable design and ESD in Thailand. The findings were then used to construct the ESD framework that is specific to Thai industrial/product design courses. The SustainAble web-tool was developed to make it more effective in enabling the framework to comply with the needs of Thai design lecturers. Usability testing was employed to test the framework that was presented through the web-tool. The framework evaluation demonstrated the success of the framework development and underlined the need for the web-tool. The tool can fulfill the framework and allow it to be practically applied in the context of Thai design education

The status of sustainable design in Thailand

Sustainable design encourages manufacturers to consider social and environmental impacts whilst generating economic benefits (Macdonough & Braungart, 2002). Bhamra & Lofthouse (2007) state that sustainable design can provide business opportunities to organisations though cost reduction and increased marketability. Promoting sustainable design activity has the potential to stimulate the Thai economy by responding to a global trend in sustainability. Despite this, few manufacturers have the capacity to integrate sustainability into their products due to inadequate sustainable design knowledge. Various learning strategies and materials have been developed internationally, however, they cannot be productively incorporated into Thai design education for reasons discussed in this paper. This paper presents the partial findings from PhD research that proposes to develop a more appropriate approach for learning and teaching sustainable design in Thailand. It provides overview of education for sustainability, then outlines the current status of sustainable design in Thailand by dividing into three sectors: government, business, and education. The study commenced with a review of relevant literature and secondary data, which indicated a limited amount of material for the Thai context. Primary data collection was undertaken to address this shortfall through semi-structured interviews with experts participated in sustainable design activities. The findings indicated that Thailand has increased its focus on sustainability over recent years; a range of sustainable design initiatives has been carried out. However, the implementation of sustainable design in Thailand is not widespread because of three main obstacles. Firstly, imbalance between the three pillars of sustainability — most sustainable design activities have given priority to economic issues. Secondly, a lack of solid linkage among the initiatives — most of them have run individually and have not resulted in significant impacts. Thirdly, Thailand is lacking in sustainable design knowledge — most participants involved in these initiatives lack an understanding of this concept