Interview
The interview was carried out on the ferry and the
person matched our target group, adults between 20 and 40 years old that are
travelling on their leisure. The individual was a 36 year old male traveller
from Germany. I began the conversation by introducing myself and then telling
him that I was conducting a study for a school project and if I had his consent
to interview him. He said that it was ok and you can see conversation below.
Q: Would you mind
telling me your age?
A: I am 36 years old.
Q: Where are you from?
A: I am from Germany
and visiting Sweden.
Q: That sounds fun, so
where are you headed?
A: I am going to Vasa
museum.
Q: Are you enjoying the
ride with the ferry so far?
A: Yes, I like it very
much. I really like the view.
Q: I’m glad you are
enjoying the ride. Did you do any research before travelling with the ferry?
A: Yes I googled around
and then came around SL’s website and then I bought a card.
Q: Alright. So did you
time in the departure for the ferry by looking at the time tables?
A: No, I saw that the
go very often and I just came here.
Q: Do you use SL’s
website or any other informative resource that might aid you when travelling
here in Stockholm?
A: Sometimes I use SL
but I ask people a lot. But I only use SL when I am in the hotel where I have
internet.
Q: Ok, so I guess the
same applies for your phone, you can’t just pick it up and browse the internet?
A: Yes, I don’t use
internet on my phone here in Sweden.
I ended the conversation by thanking him for his time
and wished him a pleasant trip.
State of the Art Analysis
Since our traveling route is
between “Slussen” and “Allmänna Gränd” Waxholmsbolaget’s website seems to be a
fairly good choice for the analysis. As you can see below, Waxholmsbolaget’s
website is a fairly good looking website. It definitely fullfils some of
the user experience goals such
as the satisfaction when it
comes to the good design and the simplicity of the website. The categorization of the headers is also
well chosen which makes it easy to
navigate through the website. For an example, one can easily click
on the header “RESA” and find out more about tickets and prices and take a look
at the time tables or just simply click on the header “OM WAXHOLMSBOLAGET” and
find out more information about Waxholmsbolaget. This clearly points out that
the website gives a good perception because
the presented information is readily perceived in the way it was intended. The
website also uses interface metaphors to
make use of known action to lead the user to new actions. For an example, the
British flag is used to alert the non-Swedish speaking user which will
automatically press on the flag because the information that he is currently
seeing in Swedish is not understandable for the user. Another example would be
the picture of an ear which you can see at the top of the web page. In addition
to all this Waxholmsbolaget even have a cooperation with SL and by a simple
click you will be redirected to SL’s website in case you need to combine
several of the traveling options, bus, boat and train.
However, all
of the information written and provided is in Swedish except for the “VISITOR”
header. The statements made in the paragraph above about the categorization of the headers being good which makes it easy to navigate through the website and the fact that the
website provides a good perception are only valid for the Swedish speaking
user. Picking
English as a reading language is not an option however they are still
providing information in English under the visitor section. This tells us that
Waxholmsbolaget want their target group to
be wider than just the Swedish people but they are not putting in the effort to
make the necessary changes to the website. They have apparently not given much
thought to the problem space that
rises when they are just trying to make a quick fix by making a visitor section
instead of giving an alternative to change the whole website’s reading
language into English. For an example, the minibox on the main page
where you can enter the date and the destination you want to travel between
will probably not be used by visitors since they don’t understand the
information because it is presented in Swedish. Even though there is a visitor
section the orientation of getting the same service is quite different. Another
example is that the information about the fact that you have to buy the tickets
for “Djurgården ferry” from SL’s website was very clear in the Swedish section.
All you had to do was to click on the header “RESA” and then click on “Om
Djurgårdsfärjan”. However there is no such information about “Djurgården ferry”
provided in English. Even if you search on “Djurgården ferry” in the search bar
at the top of the website no information will be provided since none exist. One
can easily say that that the information provided for the non-Swedish speaking users
is not well adapted to the intended users and
as a result the website is not easy to use and lacks
in usability.
If you click
and place your cursor on the “Visitor” header with the British flag on it you
will be redirected to the visitor section a drop-down menu will be presented in
English (see figure 1 below). Waxholmsbolaget’s boats can take you to
various destinations in the archipelago. If that is what you are interested in
you can click on “Archipelago boat services”. They also provide information
about different destinations and day trips in the archipelago (see figure
2 below). If you want to find out more about Waxholmsbolaget or get some more
useful information you can click on “About Waxholmsbolaget” or “Useful
Information” respectively. One thing that I think is very good is the
way that they present the information about the various day trips in the
archipelago by using google maps. Using a popular tool such as Google Maps
increases the reliability
of the data (see figure 3 below). Furthermore, one can easily
find out the cost of the tickets and the timetables under the visitor section. At
least the information presented about the tickets and timetables was just as
clear as it was in the Swedish section of the website.
Figure 1: http://www.waxholmsbolaget.se/visitor/
I think that Waxholmsbolaget’s website
serves its overall
functionality when it comes to planning your travel with boat. The
website’s usability is however somewhat limited. The Swedish
section fullfils some of the usability
goals such as memorability and learnability because it is easy to
navigate and
understand the website however this is not true for the English section.
Especially if you are trying to find information about "Djurgården
ferry" which is a natural thing to do since most of us will probably think
that if they are handling the boat services they are probably handling the
ferry services as well. So, the extent to which a specified user can use
the product to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a
given context of use is not very satisfactory if we take their
whole target group
into account. A big part of the problem is caused by the fact that they
are not putting in the effort to make the website easy to use for the
visitors who do not understand Swedish. Furthermore there is another problem
and that is based upon the fact that SL handles a big part of the public
transportation in Stockholm. Because if you want to travel with Djurgården
ferry you have to buy the tickets from SL because it is a part of SL-traffic. However
I still think that they should at least be able to provide the information in
good manner which they are doing in the Swedish section. Why they are
neglecting this information in the visitor section is a mystery. Waxholmsbolaget
definitely have some changes they should make. For instance, they should make
the website well adapted
to the intended user, not just the Swedish people but also visitors from
other countries since they are included in their target group. While the
graphical design is good the overall interaction design of the
website is not so good and needs to be improved so that the website can be used with
ease and interacts nicely with the user.
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