This document summarizes research on the usability and content of hotel mobile websites on different screen sizes. An experiment tested 14 participants using an eye tracker to evaluate a hotel website on an iPhone and iPad. Findings showed major differences in how users interacted with content depending on the device. Users on phones had usability issues and focused on less important content, while tablet users had fewer issues and prioritized important information. The implications are that responsive web design is not sufficient and content needs to be tailored specifically for different devices to optimize the user experience. Further research with more participants is still needed.

1. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 1
Copy & paste for hotel mobile websites?
Or: The power of screen sizes
Melanie Fraiss,
Sofiya Iliycheva,
Mattia Rainoldi and
Roman Egger
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria
{mfraiss.imt-m2014; siliycheva.imt-m2014; mattia.rainoldi;
roman.egger}@fh-salzburg.ac.at
http://www.fh-salzburg.ac.at

2. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 2
Why researching mobile devices
in hospitality?

3. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 3
Mobile devices in hospitality?
• ICTs play a critical role in tourism success (Buhalis & Law, 2008; Egger & Buhalis, 2008;
Neuhofer, Buhalis & Ladkin, 2012)
• Mobile devices: Ubiquitous, personalised and familiar to the
consumer (Morosan, 2014)
• The difference in their screen sizes has challenged the development
of hotel mobile websites (Gibbs & Gretzel, 2015)
• Facts and figures
– In 2012 more than 1/6 of 300 million visits to 31 hotel websites came from mobile
devices (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2012)
– In 2016 51,8% of all who book trips online will do that via a mobile device (emarketer,
2015)

4. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 4
Usability and Content
Influence the purchasing process
•Components of usability (ISO, 1998)
– Efficiency
– Effectiveness
– Satisfaction
•Content (Rahimnia and Hassanzadeh, 2013; Frokjaer et al., 2000)
– Important for profit
– Maximization
– Close link to customer
– Satisfaction

5. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 5
Responsive Web Design (RWD)
• Website design paradigm (Bohyun, 2013)
• Makes same website adaptive to different screen sizes
(Baturay & Birtane, 2013)
• Enhancement of user experience on all devices
• Desktop experience differs from mobile device experience
– Mobile Mantra (Mendoza, 2014)

6. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 6
Research Questions
• What are differences in perceived usability of a hotel
mobile website in the context of different screen sizes?
• How do perceptions of content importance vary in the
context of different screen sizes?
• What are implications that can be derived from
differences occurring on one and the same website in the
context of different screen sizes?

7. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 7
Research Design & Sample
Experimental Design in a case study
•1 Hotel Website
 ArtHotel Blaue Gans
•2 Devices
 I-Phone 5C
 I-Pad Pro
•14 participants
 Generation Y
 7 tested on each device
 Nielsen and Pernice (2010) argue that usability probelms can be
identified within a qualitative eye-tracking study with 5
participants.

8. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 8
Data collection
• Eye-tracking
 SMI Eye Tracking Glasses
 Calibration
• Think-aloud protocols
• Semi-structured interviews
 5 follow-up questions
5 tasks to fulfill on the website

9. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 9
Video from experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL9MG6Pv_d

10. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 10
Data analysis
• Eye-tracking
 SMI BeGaze
 Combination of data
 Determination of areas of interest (AOI)
 Manual gaze mapping
• Interview & Think-aloud protocols
 Transcription
 Qualitative coding in Excel

11. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 11
Findings
Content

12. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 12
Findings
Content
Gaze mapping entrance page
•Different gaze patterns
•AOI „Best available room“
•Concentration on certain points
I-Pad I-Phone

13. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 13
Content
„Ok, there is a video, but I don‘t want to watch it! (I-Phone)

14. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 14
Findings usability
letter size redirection Best available room complaints reading layout time reservation
Phone ↓ ↓ ↑ 13 ↓ ↓ 18-20' 3 out of 7
Tablet ↓ ↓ ↓ 9 ↑ ↑ 8-12' 5 out of 7
Usability
„It is going very slowly“ (Phone)
„I would change to another page if
something like that happened“ (Phone)
„Things are not in their regular places “ (Phone)
messy vs. likeable

15. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 15
Major differences
Overview
• Importance of video material
• “Best available room” – button
• Layout perception
• Usability problems
• Intention to book

16. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 16
Implications
• Same website appearance - major differences
• Cruciality of navigable website
• Focus on letter size
• Phone users desire quick interaction
• Reduce written information on phone
• No redirection to other websites on tablet vs. phone
• No video on mobile phone websites
• Tablet user focus: important content
• Phone users focus: unimportant content
RWD is not sufficient anymore - content has to be tailored to
different devices!

17. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 17
Limitations & further research
• Eye-tracking solution - technical issues
• Artificial environment
• Sample size
• Further research - quantitative

18. ENTER 2017 Research Track Slide Number 18
Thank you very much for your attention!