All classifieds and listings based sites are essentially the same. But as we move to mobile, it's getting harder and harder to make decisions about which hotel to stay at, or which house to rent. How can we satisfy the stop-start nature of mobile usage for these complex decisions, improve personalised recommendations, and create product differentiation? Has Faceted Search reached it's limits? Is there a better way? Get in touch: https://au.linkedin.com/in/jonharrison2000

1. Is it time for a new way
to choose a hotel?
Jonathan Harrison
https://au.linkedin.com/in/jonharrison2000
And what might that look like?

2. Contents
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM
• What’s wrong with Faceted Search?
• What does designing for mobile really mean?
• What’s the context: online travel trends, users and behaviours
• Summarise the objective
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Specifying location
2. Evaluating & triaging results
3. Anxiety of missing a better offer
4. Improving recommendations
SUMMARY OF ADVANTAGES

3. “
Introduction
I've come across the same user experience issues time and time again in my time working on some of Australia's
top digital marketplace platforms. And as audience moves from desktop to mobile, these issues are becoming
increasingly exacerbated. It’s not just the smaller screen size of mobiles, but that the way we use them is different.
And yet nobody is doing much about it. Despite a shared desire to innovate and differentiate, the user experience
when trying to pick a product, be it a house, hotel or a date, seems stuck in the same paradigm since the first
noticeboard-style classifieds sites arrived on the web.
My focus is on the travel industry, a passion of mine, but so many classifieds style sites share the same product
strategy objectives:
1. Improve user experience on mobile
2. Create product differentiation to grow loyalty in a crowded marketplace
3. Provide more intelligent recommendations by leveraging big data
So let’s take a look at the some of the problems, break them down a little, and see if we can start thinking differently
about how to address them more effectively...
• I’ve spent 11 years working on classifieds and marketplaces websites
• Despite different products, the UX on all these sites is almost identical
• As are the min customer issues when it comes to trying to choose the best product for their needs
Has the current search model of faceted search reached it’s limits?
Is it time for something new – designed especially for mobile?

4. Faceted Search: the heart of all listings sites
But are all product decisions the same?
• Faceted Search sits at the centre of finding almost any product
online
• But it was built from the system outwards. – how to query a
database – rather than user centric, building it around peoples’
real decision making processes
• And it hasn’t really evolved since inception on the web around
15 years ago
• It’s great for drilling down when you know what you want
• But not great for the kind of trade-off decision making required
with so many products
Let’s take a closer look >>

5. Faceted search is not great for ALL product types
T H O U G H I T ’ S U S E D A L M O S T E V E R Y W H E R E
Great
 When you know what you’re looking for
 For homogenous products that come in
variations (different sizes & colours)
 For catalogued products with definite values
(numerical or meta-data)
 When you’re happy to exclude e.g. Shirt >
White > XL (no point in showing me Small)
 Where results are more black & white (you
have my size or not)
Not great
 When you’re making trade-off decisions
 When comparing different products with
multiple attributes changing at once
 Where you must weight up the pros & cons
of a combination attributes and
compromise
 Where you’re not comfortable excluding
criteria, because other attributes may make
up for it
 When assessing qualitative attributes e.g.
how much I like the view
No one wants the cheapest hotel. It’s about trade-offs
Flights Hotels
Real-estate
DatingClothes
Movies
Articles

6. And mobile further exacerbates the issues

7. There’s more to mobile than screen size
B E H A V I O U R , M I N D S E T A N D E N V I R O N M E N T A F F E C T U X
Environment & behaviour
• Out in public or in transit
• Used when looking for a
distraction or multi-tasking
• Often Interrupted and distracted
during use
• Smaller screen size restricts no.
of options that can be displayed
at once and compared by the
user
• Prevents simultaneous display of
facet controls and results –
crucial in making Faceted Search
effective^1
Impact
• Results in lots of short burst
usage, vs. dedicated lean-forward
experience of a PC
• Fewer options displayed together
inhibits the ability to compare,
and increases reliance on recall
• Requires simple touch gestures
vs. typing
Requirements
• Must be able to pick up where
you left off to make progress
• Tasks being performed need to
be simple – achieved with low
concentration
• Design the workflow around the
fact only 1 or 2 results are shown
at once
• Must interact with simple touch
gestures vs. typing and fiddly
dropdowns and check boxes
^1 Nielsen Norman Group, 2015

8. Online travel trends
O T H E R F A C T O R S T O C O N S I D E R
INDUSTRY TRENDS
• Market consolidation
• Rise of direct bookings and
meta-search
• Product parity
Grow brand loyalty through improved UX and product differentiation
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
Build loyalty through:
• Customer rewards
• Best end-to-end UX
• Product differentiation
Source: Future of Online Travel Booking 2014 – CEO interviews
PRODUCT TRENDS
• Discovery process
• Social
• Cross-sell hotels &
Packages
• Personalisation &
Recommendations
• Mobile

9. Online travel enjoyed by wide range of users
Wide range of personas
• Slightly more females
• 25-44 years’ old
• However those 55yo+ will increase
substantially
With such a wide range of users,
simplicity of product and small
learning curve is imperative
Demographic profile of US internet users who
visit travel websites ^4
Environment
• 77% of all trips booked in Australia
involve online research^1
• 69% of all trips involve online booking^2
It’s more about HOW users are accessing online travel

10. OTAs must improve their mobile experience
Mobile is letting the experience down
• 45% of travel searches on mobile^3
• But only 25% book their trip on mobile
• Smartphones are generally starting point, then move to PC^5
• Users report a sub-par mobile experience
Google Traveller research study 2013
What does this mean?
• Must be able to pickup where
you left off – and between
devices
• Must improve the user
experience

11. Objective
Simplify the decision making process
• For products that require us to weigh up the pros & cons of a
combination of attributes and make comparisons
• Where evaluation criteria are not easily quantifiable (such as
photos of the room or how nice the pool looks)
Design a UX for mobile behaviour
• Allowing users to pickup where they left off
• Using simple interactions & gestures
Improve the ability to make recommendations
• Collect more data on preferences
These solutions would apply to most listings sites including real-estate (buy/rent/share); jobs; cars;
or flights… but we’ll focus on hotels.

12. 4 Specific problems & recommendations
1. Specifying location
2. Evaluating & triaging results
3. Anxiety of missing a better offer
4. Improving recommendations

13. Specifying location
Key issues
1. I know the general area I want to
stay in but can not specify it
– North of a river. East of a bad
neighbourhood.
– I may know the exact block or street
2. Radius inputs assume distance in
all directions is equally
satisfactory
3. I don’t want the area or district to
be a hard line – if something’s just
outside I’d consider it
4. There’s no way to narrow the
location before comparing hotels
on the list view
X X
PROBLEM
1
I don’t want to be
south of the river
Where are the exact
boundaries.
Don’t want all from
both districts
This property would be
fine – don’t want hard
cut-off

14. Specifying location
Select the area on the map
Define the area of consideration
• Simple touch based gesture for mobile
• Soft edges indicate that Hotels just outside the
area can still be shown and de-prioritised
• The area would be saved for this trip –
possibly used for more relevant
recommendations in future
X X
SOLUTION
1
Now my List View can be triaged
Next
Draw around the area you wish to search
or hit Next to skip

15. Evaluation & Triaging
Key issues
1. Tremendous cognitive load
to assess each criteria and trade-off,
remember it’s value, then compare to the
next property and so on
2. Can’t remove options I don’t want
Cutting down a list is natural. As the user
evaluates each option, there’s no way
record that decision.
3. Can’t pickup where I left off
Invested time is lost. No closer to
resolution. Not ideal for mobile where :
– usage is short, distracted, interrupted.
– Need simple decisions and gestures
4. Difficult to evaluate
Without viewing the property. We still don’t
know where the property is – 2km on the
wrong side of the river?
E V A L U A T I O N A N D C O M P A R I S O N I S C O M P L E X
PROBLEM
2
Is the combined
value of this
greater than…
X
X =
X
… and keep
scrolling or go
to page 2!
…the combined
value of this,
compared to…
X
X =X
…the combined
value of this,
compared to…
X
X =X
…the combined
value of this,
compared to…
X
X =X

16. PROBLEM
2
PROBLEM
The user must remember the individual
assessment of each hotel.
Should follow real-world conventions
IMAGINE
All these results were printed out and laid
on a table. How would you sort through
them to pick one in the real world?

17. Evaluation & Triaging
a) Iterative triaging vs. comparing all options
C U T T I N G D O W N T H E L I S T M A K E S D E C I S I O N S E A S I E R
SOLUTION
2
Do I like this
option?
Do I like this
option?
NO YES
Reflects how we refine in the real-world

18. Evaluation & Triaging
b) Order your shortlist
• More useful for comparing options
• Reflects and saves your internal
assessment
Note: Do we need a shortlist page? Maybe the
ability to remove options and re-order the remainder
is enough.
A M O R E N A T U R A L W A Y T O P I C K A F A V O U R I T E
SOLUTION
2
Grab to re-order
Each trip could have
it’s own shortlist
Rank your best options, then book

19. Evaluation & Triaging
c) Pick up where you left off
Advantages
• Cutting down the list makes
decisions easier
• Don’t need to remember your
assessment of every option...
• Progress is saved – getting
closer to completion
• Users can still interact as
before, using the list scroll
without swiping
A N D C O L L E C T S E N T I M E N T A S Y O U G O
SOLUTION
2
Each option placed
on a card to
indicate swipe-ability
Increased real-estate
encourages individual
assessments
Increased real-estate allows
more information to assist
decision: 2nd photo & map
AND All those positive and negative preferences are saved
UPDATED
Removed properties that
become cheaper re-appear
and are indicated*

20. Anxiety of missing a better offer (FOBO!)
A L L E V I A T E A N X I E T Y T O B O O K
PROBLEM
3
How does this price
compare to all the
others?
How does this
compare to
other hotels
nearby?
Issue 1: Anxiety over what options I’m not seeing
Decisions aren’t so binary, but about trade-offs and compromise
Issue 2: Results have little context
beyond the few I can see or remember
What if a place WITHOUT
Wifi is better in every other
way?
What if $5 more gets me a
MUCH better property
What if a much better hotel
is only 10m further, but in
the next district?
Anxiety to commit

21. Anxiety of missing a better offer
a) Prioritisation rather than exclusion
H I G H L I G H T I F A N A T T R I B U T E I S O U T S I D E M Y P R E F E R E N C E S
SOLUTION
3
Pricing put into
context of all results
E.g. Price is just
outside my
preferences
Goal is to include NEARLY perfect options and close matches
Close matches are
deprioritised rather than
excluded
E.g. location and
price are outside my
preferences

22. Anxiety of missing a better offer
b) Alleviate commitment anxiety
A R E T H E R E A N Y B E T T E R O P T I O N S N E A R B Y ?
SOLUTION
3
Proximity to
current hotel
Save or remove
Alleviating the anxiety of missing a better option
Would have missed
this as it’s $10 over
but a better option
Nearest properties
by price and
location shown
Properties already
removed would not
be shown

23. How to get smarter recommendations?
Key issues
• Travellers expect a more unique tailored
experience ^1
• More intelligent recommendations to tailor
the user experience are a key trend^1
• Level of data collected on preferences is
low – Bookings, favourites, maybe property
views
• Need to improve ability to spot people’s
preferences, but we have very limited data
to do so
G A T H E R I N G M O R E D A T A
PROBLEM
4
“The reality is that the most effective personalization is
when you don’t ask a consumer to do anything explicit.
What they are asking you to do is to tell them you like four-
star hotels that have a pool, that have free Wi-Fi or are in
the city center. Most consumers don’t want to do that. What
they’d rather do is scan through a list of hotels and then pick
the one that they like. What you don’t know is why they
picked that. “
– Steve Hafner, Kayak . Future of Online Travel 2014
Spotify buys Seed Scientific, 2015
Booking.com & Expedia hiring specialists in machine
learning, data scientists, AI expertise…
Collecting +ve & -ve sentiment becoming more popular in
verticals striving to optimise recommendations
^1: Euromonitor: http://www.etoa.org/docs/default-source/presentations/2014-the-new-online-travel-consumer.pdf?sfvrsn=4 p18

24. Improving recommendations
Collect MUCH more data on preferences
• Collect large no. of data
points per booking
• Better recommendations
= higher conversions +
easier user experience =
increased loyalty
• Data could be sold back
to hoteliers, split by
demographic, to improve
property presentation
and targeted marketing
B O T H P O S I T I V E & N E G A T I V E – L O O K F O R P A T T E R N S
SOLUTION
4
We can see the most
Liked properties are a
similar price range
Adding new data about properties at later date
may reveal new trends, like this user wants to
be near a ferry wharf
We can see this user
doesn’t like properties
near this area
Or hotel chains
NEW negative
data
MUCH more
positive data

25. Summary of user problems
1 Can’t specify my location
accurately
I know the rough area I want to stay in. It may be north of a river, or to
the left of a bad neighbourhood. Radius inputs assume distance in all
directions is equally satisfactory.
2a I can’t remove the options I don’t
want
So many results it’s difficult to work through them. Time invested
deciding against a place is lost - not captured by the system. This
triaging process is a natural decision methodology. The system could
also make use of this data.
2b Can’t pickup where I left off Mobile usage is short, interrupted, distracted. Need to rely on simple
decisions, simple gestures, and pickup where you left off.
3a I want prioritisation, not
exclusion
There are rarely hard exclusion criteria in this situation – it’s all about
trade-offs. I want my preferences to drive prioritisation more than hard
exclusions . What if there’s a GREAT place for only $10 more, or 2 mins
further walk – I’d want to see that.
3b Anxiety over what options I’m
not seeing
Similar to the above, when viewing a property you quite like, it’s
difficult to compare it to the nearest options to build commitment to
book, for fear of there being something slightly better in some other
attribute
4 Poor recommendations Systems ability to recommend is limited by the data currently collected.
ALL UX worsens on mobile A key feature of FS is to display facet controls on the same screen as
the results. Smaller mobile screens prevent this, and limit the no. of
options that can be evaluated at once.
These create barriers to booking and slow the process

26. Solution summary
Feature Benefit
SPECIFYING LOCATION
Specify
preferred area
on map
Ability to match to real-world
preferences rather than using arbitrary
radiuses
EVALUATING & TRIAGING RESULTS
Show map in
search results
Location is a key decision factor and
map is required to provide context and
orientation
Price range
guide
Shows price of hotel relative to others
in search results to provide context
and anchoring
Ability to hide
properties you
don’t like
Narrows down choices making
decisions easier, AND allows you to
pickup where you left off, ideal for
mobile. Collect more data for better
recommendations. Maybe sell back to
hoteliers
Reorder
favourites
Reflect the order of your preferences
in the system
Feature Benefit
ANXIETY OF BETTER OFFER
Close matches
are included
and indicated
Preferences drive prioritisation rather
than exclusion. Alleviates anxiety of
missing out on a great place because
one attribute was JUST outside your
criteria e.g. $5 more or 5 mins further
walk.
Display similar
hotels on
property page
With ability to save/remove. In the last
stages of consideration, this alleviates
anxiety there may be a better option
OTHER
Familiar
workflow and
non-reliance
on new
features
App can be used as allowing users to
explore the new features at their own
pace
Saving +ve
and –ve
assessment
Generates much more data for
improved recommendations

27. Summary of mockups

28. Advantages of these concepts
These concepts address the industry trends and needs to improve mobile experience,
recommendations, and create product differentiation.
Specifically, they:
• Provide a solution designed for the screen and usage patterns of mobile users
• Allow us to pickup where they left off, facilitating mobile behaviour
• Allow us to sort and triage options as we would in the natural world
• Alleviates anxiety to commit and fear of missing out on a better offer, by:
– prioritising rather than excluding
– showing the nearest alternatives
• Put pricing of each hotel into context (how close it is to the cheapest and most expensive
options)
• Collect more preference data to improve customer insights and personalised
recommendations
Several behavioural biases are also addressed in these concepts, including:
• Loss aversion
• Anchoring & Context
• Comparable choices
• Choice conditioning, building commitment through Sunken Cost

29. Appendix

30. Alternative – “Better or Worse”
• Easier to choose A or B
than pick a favourite
• If you swipe Yes, it
becomes the fixed top
option
• The disadvantage is
you’d have to review all
hotels. Can’t view the
entire list and triage.
Prevents you shortlisting
more than one.

31. Inadequate triaging
• The only way to narrow down results
is with faceted search, which we’ve
established doesn’t reflect this type of
trade-off decision making
• NB There’s still value in the filter
option for some criteria – but only if it
deals with the FOMO
T H E R E ’ S N O W A Y T O T A K E I N C R E M E N T A L A C T I O N
As activity moves to mobile, issues with faceted search
are exacerbated:
• Can’t show controls + results effectively
• Smaller screen allows scanning less results
PROBLEM
2