Website Usability Evaluation of Two Top Airlines in the

Philippines offering Online

Booking

RATIONALE

The growing number of Internet users and the globalization of technology have led most of the multinational firms to make use corporate websites. Not only to communicate but to make any transactions easy for its variety of customers. Airline companies are no exception to this trend of marketing in line with e-commerce, that in due effect may be one of the basis to the company’s competence.

A website that is failing may reflect as company’s poor performance.

INTRODUCTION

• The web is currently being offered as the universal panacea for all users performing any information seeking task. (P.A. Smith 1999).

• Usability evaluation finds its beginnings in early research on human-information processing theory (Newell & Simon, 1972; Simon, 1979, 1981) and Human-Computer Interaction (Card, Moran, & Newell, 1983).

• At the heart of usability evaluation is the application of social science research and theories of computer and information technology to the challenge of designing tools that are useful and usable to humans. Understanding humans as technology users necessitates an understanding of humans as audience, where audience is understood in the postmodern sense as actively engaged information producers and consumers (Ryan, 1994).

Two of the most top performing airline companies in the Philippines are offering online booking, specifically the Philippine Airline (PAL) and the Cebu Pacific Airline. Thus, these two are subject to the scope of the study.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study attempts to evaluate the website usability of two top airline companies in the Philippines, specifically the Philippine Airline (PAL) and the Cebu Pacific Airline, that answers the following;

1. How satisfactory the websites performance in terms of:

* quality of information?

* quantity of information?

* dependability of interface?

* appearance?

* communication?

* security?

* total customer satisfaction?

2.What are the factors that affects the performance of the website?

3. What are the recommendations that would improve the performance of the two websites

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The proponent conduct this study to evaluate the website usability of the two airline company’s online booking. With an effort to prevent and minimize the possible risks and problems that may be encountered by the management and specifically to the valued customers. In that way a much better and systematic process will be improved.

• MANAGEMENT– The management and staff will acquire new ideas from the

study and it would somehow help them decide appropriate and necessary changes needed

• CUSTOMERS– The study aims to increase productivity by meeting the

demands of the customers with better service and quality. By maintaining and keeping customers satisfied, there is a great possibility that they could increase further their market share which will entail higher demand, loyal patrons and leads to the growth of the company.

• USABILITY ANALYST– The study will greatly help the researchers /

analysts to prepare themselves for the more sophisticated work in the future. This will also help them to relate the theoretical knowledge acquire in school with the industries real scenario. More specifically, they will be a familiar with assessing usability especially in the field of e-commerce.

METHODOLOGY

This study utilizes the descriptive normative research methods with the use of a questionnaire as a primary instrument for data collection. Unstructured interviews and observation of the operation were employed as secondary instruments to verify the data collected and come up with personal descriptions and preliminary ideas regarding the study.

The verified data collected were tabulated, and analyzed and became the basis of expositions regarding the findings of the study.

• RESPONDENTS– The respondents of the study are first – time users

and common users of online booking for the two airline companies. There will be 5 first – time users and 5 common users for both airline companies regardless of the age, gender and status.

• INSTRUMENTS– The respondents will be asked to perform specified

task or in using the websites. This study also utilized the questionnaire as the primary tool for collecting of data. The data gathered from the questionnaire will be polished through conducting interviews for amplification. The questionnaires will be based on Mehlenbacher, et. al Journal release and any other related journals regarding website usability.

TREATMENT OF DATA

• The questionnaire will have the following scale and ratings:

SCALE RATINGS

VERY SATISFACTORY 3.26 - 4.00

SATISFACTORY 2.51 – 3.25

LESS SATISFACTORY 1.76 – 2.50

NEEDS IMPROVEMENT 1.00 – 1.75

• VERY SATISFACTORY– outstanding, consistently exceeds standards

• SATISFACTORY– meets expectations, shows potential

• LESS SATISFACTORY– Sometimes does not meet requirements

• UNSATISFACTORY– Corrective actions are necessary

SET OF TASK

1. Take at least two – three minutes to explore the website and get the feel of how it looks and works.

2. Book a trip from Cebu to Bacolod.

3. Get the cheapest round – ticket from any destination in the Philippines.

QUESTIONNAIRE

• STILL IN PROGRESS…..

• QUANTITY OF INFORMATION• QUALITY OF INFORMATION• DEPENDABILITY OF INTERFACE• APPEARANCE• COMMUNICATION• SECURITY• TOTAL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

PRESENTATION OF DATA

PHILIPPINE AIRLINES (PAL) ranked 1st with a score of 2, 268 votes while CEBU PACIFIC ranked the 2nd with a score of 520 votes for the Best Airlines of the Philippines

SOURCE: www.mytopdozen.com

IN PROGRESS ……………..