LAS VEGAS -- On the reflective side of one-way glass sits a
test subject in a soundproof room, multiple sensors applied to her face,
wearing high-tech glasses that track her eyes' every movement.
On the other side sits a researcher and several computer
displays monitoring the subject's movements and emotions via red and green
waveforms.
No, it's not a scene out of some sci-fi film. It's an inside
look into what Expedia Inc.'s user experience research team does on a daily
basis.
The team set up a mobile lab at the recent Expedia Partner
Conference at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, displaying its work in
electromyography (EMG), a tool used to enhance Expedia's user experiences.
"In terms of the methods that we implement, we have a
very broad research methodology toolkit," said Tammy Snow, Expedia's
director of user experience research.
That toolkit includes EMG, "something unique to the way
Expedia builds our experiences," Snow said. "We care very much about
the emotional impact of experiences."
Emotional impact is what EMG measures. Eye-tracking glasses
enable a researcher to see what a test subject is looking at, whether it's on a
desktop computer or a mobile phone. Sensors placed on the forehead, where one
might furrow one's brow, help read feelings of confusion or tension. Sensors
placed on the cheeks to read muscles that form smiles enable researchers to
recognize when a user is positively responding to something.
Researchers track their subjects' emotions in real time so
these can be linked to exactly what they're looking at, then ask them why they
felt a particular emotion. Snow said EMG is all about tracking those emotions
and tweaking products based on users' responses.
"When it comes to actually shopping for, researching
and booking travel, there are a lot of tension points," Snow said, because
travel is an expensive product and can't be returned if it's not what a user
expected. "Anything that we're doing on the site or in our applications
that adds to that tension is not going to be good."
Conversely, anything that increases a user's "delight,"
as Snow calls it, is a positive.
Expedia runs EMG tests on its own products, including its
numerous websites and smartphone applications. The company also tests
competitors' products. Tests often take place in its research labs in Bellevue,
Wash., Singapore and London, as well as in users' homes and, sometimes, on the
road, like at its Partner Conference earlier this month.
EMG does three key things for Expedia, Snow said. First, it
enables the company to run frequent studies on a variety of experiences, not
limited to online travel or online shopping, to find patterns or themes that
elicit positive emotions from subjects.
She added: "We can use that to help influence design
decisions and product decisions, so if a team comes to us and says, 'Hey, we're
looking at implementing something and we want there to be good, strong
emotional engagement; what are some of the patterns you've seen?' We can
provide that information to them and help guide their decisions."
Second, EMG studies that are undertaken on Expedia-specific
projects help "identify how delightful or frustrating the experience is,"
Snow said.
Finally, when a design concept has a goal of increasing the
emotional engagement of users, Snow said, EMG tests can be used as a metric to
determine if it has met its goal.
EMG has had measurable results since it came into use at
Expedia in 2013. It has enabled the company to provide hotel partners with a
set of guidelines on the types of photos users most like to see on website
listings to help drive conversion.
It has also informed Expedia's efforts to include
high-quality imagery on its websites and apps and improve photo galleries and
media viewers. EMG has also highlighted the importance of avoiding large blocks
of text.
"It's helped us understand that the more we can provide
a really healthy balance of visuals with the textual information, [the more] we
reduce frustration, and we have the opportunity to increase delight," Snow
said.
Going forward, EMG will focus on advancing one of the
missions that new CEO Mark Okerstrom has set for his company: becoming more
locally relevant globally. EMG will be used to determine whether people around
the world react and respond to things in the same way that people in the U.S.
do.
EMG studies will also focus on ensuring that the Expedia
brand is reflected throughout all points of a customer's journey, from
advertising to booking and more.
"EMG will play a key role in helping us understand
whether or not we're actually doing that well," Snow said.