Heuristic Evaluation - Booking.com

Overview

I examined Booking.com's desktop web site to find usability problems that could affect the hotel booking experience. Using Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics as my guide, I found several issues that may impact how users search for hotels, compare options, and complete their bookings.

I looked at things like system feedback, real-world conventions, user control, consistency, error prevention, memory load, efficiency, simple design, error recovery, and help systems.

Platform: Booking.com (Desktop)

Device: MacBook Pro 14-inch, 2021 (Chrome)

Evaluation Framework: Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics

Aesthetic and minimalist design

Interfaces should not contain information that is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in an interface competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

Problem: Property cards display multiple pieces of information simultaneously, creating visual competition between different data points. Users encounter property names, ratings, pricing, location details, amenities, availability messaging, review information, and action buttons all within the same card space. The interface also includes various informational overlays and disclosure panels that add to the overall information density.

How could this affect users: Users may experience cognitive overload when trying to quickly scan and compare multiple properties. The competing visual elements make it difficult to establish a clear scanning pattern or identify the most relevant information for decision-making. The dense information layout could slow down the comparison process and make it harder for users to efficiently evaluate their options.

Recommendation: Organize information with clearer visual hierarchy, showing primary details prominently while providing access to secondary information through progressive disclosure or expandable sections.

Recognition rather than recall

Minimize the user's memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another.

Problem: Filter panel contains numerous options across many categories. While comprehensive, the organization could be improved to help users find relevant filters more easily. The large number of available filters may make it challenging to identify which ones would be most useful for specific search needs.

How could this affect users: Users might spend extra time navigating through filter options to find what they need, or may not discover useful filters that could help refine their search. The extensive options, while thorough, could potentially overwhelm some users.

Recommendation: Reorganize filters with improved grouping and consider highlighting the most commonly used options to help users navigate the choices more efficiently.

Error Prevention

Good error messages are important, but the best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

Problem: Booking.com displays frequent urgency messages like "Only 2 rooms left!" and "Limited supply!" across many properties. Website also shows promotional pricing with crossed out prices. While these messages may serve to inform users about availability and demand, they consistently appear throughout the browsing experience and could encourage rapid decision making rather than careful consideration.

How could this affect users: This creates environment where users might feel compelled to make quick booking decisions without adequate time to verify important details like dates, location, room specifications, or cancellation policies. This pressure driven environment increases the likelihood of booking errors - users may accidentally select incorrect travel dates, book accommodations in the wrong location, choose unsuitable room types, or overlook important restrictions.

Recommendation: Remove or reduce urgent messaging like "Only 1 room left!" during the final confirmation step. Let people focus on accuracy over speed. The goal is giving users confidence in their booking while preventing costly mistakes that lead to disputes and refunds.

Next Steps

Booking.com works well technically and has lots of accommodation choices.While the platform does its main job of helping people find and book places to stay, the areas I found especially around making the interface clearer and organizing information better could be improved to make users happier.

My recommended changes focus on making the experience clearer and easier to use so people can make better booking decisions faster. Making these changes could help reduce how hard users have to think, make it easier to compare options, and make the whole platform easier to use.

Thank you for your attention!