Usability & User Experience of Spain’s Leading Second-Hand Car Websites by Xperience Consulting (Spain)

Most of us can agree that purchasing a second-hand car requires a considerable amount of research. But how simple is it to find what you’re really looking for on a second-hand car web-site?

Xperience Consulting of Spain conducted a study that analyzed the usability of used car web-sites and the factors influencing user’s choices while shopping on these sites.

The aim of the Xperience Consulting’s study was to analyze usability and measure the simplicity of use on 5 different web sites from the second-hand cars industry. Xperience Consulting used UserZoom technology with real end users. Fifty users with medium-high level of internet experience were asked to solve real tasks on the used car web-sites in their natural context of use (home).

Xperience Consulting carried out task-based analysis to determine the following:

· How norms influence decisions on certain pages

· How behavior influences users to make a decision on purchase of second-hand car

· Analysis of user needs regarding the kind of information and services that guide them through the internet search strategy

To read the full report:

http://www.uxalliance.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Industry_Study-_Second_Hand_Car_Websites.pdf

Traveling with American Airlines' New Mobile Boarding Pass by Gavin Lew of User Centric, Inc (USA)

On November 13, 2008, American Airlines started offering mobile boarding passes for select flights departing from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. These mobile passes are equivalent to the paper boarding passes you can generate at check-in kiosks or on your home printer but are displayed on the screen on your mobile device or PDA. Instead of handing your paper pass to TSA guards at airport security and then to the gate agent, you show them the barcode on your device's screen.

As a heavy mobile user and frequent traveler, this option initially sounded like it would be ideal for me so I tried the mobile boarding pass within days of its initial launch. This article documents my experience. Overall, the process had its ups and downs. Notably, I needed to use more mobile features than I expected and I suspect technical improvements are probably needed to ensure that mobile passes consistently work with all scanners.

The Boarding Pass: I've got mail?

The online check-in process began as normal - I logged onto the AA.com site and selected the flight check-in process. Once I selected my reservation, three options were shown:

1. Print
2. Email for Print
3. Email for use on Cell Phone or other Mobile Device

Full article and images of Traveling with American Airlines' New Mobile Boarding Pass are available.