5 ms·

Based on the astounding level of UX dark patterns on TripAdvisor's existing design I can't say I have high hopes for whatever "revamped design" they come up wit

by gomox 8y ago

Based on the astounding level of UX dark patterns on TripAdvisor's existing design I can't say I have high hopes for whatever "revamped design" they come up with.

faitswulff 8y ago
Judging by the screenshot, it's basically Twitter.
- 076ae80a-3c97-4 8y ago
  Yeah, it looks uncannily similar!
- basgys 8y ago
  Definitely! That confused me. At first sight, I was wondering about the origin of the content. It was a bad idea to rip off Twitter's visual identity in my opinion.
superasn 8y ago
Yes what's with all these travel sites and shady marketing techniques. The worst of the worst is booking.com. Oh my god, booking a hotel on booking.com gives me anxiety. The constant notifications like "10 people are going to book it", "sorry we sold our last room", "you missed it by 1 min", "last room booked 2 mins ago" feel like they want to just scare you to death with scarcity. Wtf, this site definitely crosses the line between marketing and just plain shady.
- phreack 8y ago
  These dark patterns are not just looking for anxiety-induced buying. They also help distract from hidden fees, extra charges from currency conversions, and all around lack of clarity on reservations. However, I do know of people who can traverse the website without a bother of all its issues and get really good deals, so there apparently is value to be found under all the screaming UI.
- ankit219 8y ago
  I covered the exact same thing on one of my blogs here[1]. Shameless plug The reason for these is that they calculate Customer Lifetime value as one time transaction. So they put all their efforts to get a customer to convert on his first visit or so. Booking has a bounce rate of 35% compared to 88% on hotels.com. Although there is a group of travelers who absolutely despise this, and they would never book from such sites. As a traveler, researching and booking are part of the experience and should not be anxiety inducing. [1]: https://medium.com/futureoftravel/how-travel-booking-websites-use-different-tactics-for-a-user-to-book-faster-45b9bfc708d4 https://medium.com/futureoftravel/how-travel-booking-website...
- disiplus 8y ago
  edreams is just as shitty and even more deceiving, i just use it now to find all avaliable flights and then go to the airline page and book there.
  - namdnay 8y ago
    Careful, depending on the airline and their distribution model, it can often be more expensive to book direct (airline.com) than indirect (through an online travel agency such as edreams). I know this is often the case with Emirates
    - fyfy18 8y ago
      It's definitely worth comparing, if you just want the cheapest bare flight I've found booking through the cheapest agency on comparison sites can be cheaper. However you will usually end up with Ryanair level of service where you can't change anything and are the lowest priority if you the flight is full. A couple of years ago a friend booked an intercontinental flight, they saved €20 by booking through an agency, but later wanted to cancel the flight due to illness. If they'd booked even the cheapest option direct, they could have paid to do so, but as it was through an agency they couldn't.
    - jlangenauer 8y ago
      On the other hand, if something goes wrong, or you wish to cancel or change your flights, you'll have to deal with the online travel agency, and won't be able to deal with the airline.
- CaptainZapp 8y ago
  What's even worse with booking.com is their constant spammization. You know, when I book my room without breakfast there's a reason for that. For example: I don't eat breakfast and are completely happy with a cup of coffee (offered by most better hotels in your room). So, please kindly stop spamming me three times that you "noted that I didn't add breakfast to my booking". I also don't appreciate three reminders that I can book some overprized airport transportation service. See, there's a reason I didn't book that. Namely that public transport gets me to my hotel in the same time as your overprized service for 1/30th of the price. And since I travel mostly with hand luggage, luggage is really not an issue. So please stop to spam me already! But the absolute worst is that after I book a hotel I get spammed with mails that "prices in $WHEREVER" just went down. First of all it's a brazen lie. How do I know? Because I booked a hotel in Sapporo during Golden Week[1] on short notice. Prizes for hotel rooms during golden week don't go down; ever! So yeah, that's one thing. You're liars! What's worse, though, is that you fuck over your hotels by enticing bookers to cancel and search for something cheaper. I for one would call all those practices pretty damn scammy. And if somebody has a good alternative to booking.com I'm more than happy to give it a go. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_%28Japan%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_%28Japan%29
- gomox 8y ago
  I would have to agree. Booking.com is on its own league.
- hn_throwaway_99 8y ago
  You say this, and many commenters agree, however Priceline (because of booking.com) was the top performing stock of the 00s IIRC. The economics of all these travel sites is now mainly: pay Google less in AdWords fees than you make in commission and expenses (Booking/Priceline is the number 1 spender on AdWords). Booking is the market leader in their conversion, getting people to convert at about twice the conversion of competitors, and they got this way through relentless A/B testing. They were one of the first companies to push A/B testing so hard. Their high conversion rates mean they can consistently bid more for travel AdWords than competitors. I hate all these dark patterns too, but the data (and booking's business performance over nearly 2 decades) show that it clearly works.
hliyan 8y ago
Yes, it seems as if some companies (I'm not saying TripAdvisor's one of them) spend more time trying to hack the minds of their customers rather than trying to improve the viability of their business models or the value delivered by their products.

by gomox 8y ago

Based on the astounding level of UX dark patterns on TripAdvisor's existing design I can't say I have high hopes for whatever "revamped design" they come up with.

faitswulff 8y ago

Judging by the screenshot, it's basically Twitter.

076ae80a-3c97-4 8y ago
Yeah, it looks uncannily similar!
basgys 8y ago
Definitely! That confused me. At first sight, I was wondering about the origin of the content. It was a bad idea to rip off Twitter's visual identity in my opinion.

superasn 8y ago

Yes what's with all these travel sites and shady marketing techniques. The worst of the worst is booking.com. Oh my god, booking a hotel on booking.com gives me anxiety. The constant notifications like "10 people are going to book it", "sorry we sold our last room", "you missed it by 1 min", "last room booked 2 mins ago" feel like they want to just scare you to death with scarcity. Wtf, this site definitely crosses the line between marketing and just plain shady.

phreack 8y ago
These dark patterns are not just looking for anxiety-induced buying. They also help distract from hidden fees, extra charges from currency conversions, and all around lack of clarity on reservations. However, I do know of people who can traverse the website without a bother of all its issues and get really good deals, so there apparently is value to be found under all the screaming UI.
ankit219 8y ago
I covered the exact same thing on one of my blogs here[1]. Shameless plug The reason for these is that they calculate Customer Lifetime value as one time transaction. So they put all their efforts to get a customer to convert on his first visit or so. Booking has a bounce rate of 35% compared to 88% on hotels.com. Although there is a group of travelers who absolutely despise this, and they would never book from such sites. As a traveler, researching and booking are part of the experience and should not be anxiety inducing. [1]: https://medium.com/futureoftravel/how-travel-booking-websites-use-different-tactics-for-a-user-to-book-faster-45b9bfc708d4 https://medium.com/futureoftravel/how-travel-booking-website...
disiplus 8y ago
edreams is just as shitty and even more deceiving, i just use it now to find all avaliable flights and then go to the airline page and book there.
- namdnay 8y ago
  Careful, depending on the airline and their distribution model, it can often be more expensive to book direct (airline.com) than indirect (through an online travel agency such as edreams). I know this is often the case with Emirates
  - fyfy18 8y ago
    It's definitely worth comparing, if you just want the cheapest bare flight I've found booking through the cheapest agency on comparison sites can be cheaper. However you will usually end up with Ryanair level of service where you can't change anything and are the lowest priority if you the flight is full. A couple of years ago a friend booked an intercontinental flight, they saved €20 by booking through an agency, but later wanted to cancel the flight due to illness. If they'd booked even the cheapest option direct, they could have paid to do so, but as it was through an agency they couldn't.
  - jlangenauer 8y ago
    On the other hand, if something goes wrong, or you wish to cancel or change your flights, you'll have to deal with the online travel agency, and won't be able to deal with the airline.
CaptainZapp 8y ago
What's even worse with booking.com is their constant spammization. You know, when I book my room without breakfast there's a reason for that. For example: I don't eat breakfast and are completely happy with a cup of coffee (offered by most better hotels in your room). So, please kindly stop spamming me three times that you "noted that I didn't add breakfast to my booking". I also don't appreciate three reminders that I can book some overprized airport transportation service. See, there's a reason I didn't book that. Namely that public transport gets me to my hotel in the same time as your overprized service for 1/30th of the price. And since I travel mostly with hand luggage, luggage is really not an issue. So please stop to spam me already! But the absolute worst is that after I book a hotel I get spammed with mails that "prices in $WHEREVER" just went down. First of all it's a brazen lie. How do I know? Because I booked a hotel in Sapporo during Golden Week[1] on short notice. Prizes for hotel rooms during golden week don't go down; ever! So yeah, that's one thing. You're liars! What's worse, though, is that you fuck over your hotels by enticing bookers to cancel and search for something cheaper. I for one would call all those practices pretty damn scammy. And if somebody has a good alternative to booking.com I'm more than happy to give it a go. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_%28Japan%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_%28Japan%29
gomox 8y ago
I would have to agree. Booking.com is on its own league.
hn_throwaway_99 8y ago
You say this, and many commenters agree, however Priceline (because of booking.com) was the top performing stock of the 00s IIRC. The economics of all these travel sites is now mainly: pay Google less in AdWords fees than you make in commission and expenses (Booking/Priceline is the number 1 spender on AdWords). Booking is the market leader in their conversion, getting people to convert at about twice the conversion of competitors, and they got this way through relentless A/B testing. They were one of the first companies to push A/B testing so hard. Their high conversion rates mean they can consistently bid more for travel AdWords than competitors. I hate all these dark patterns too, but the data (and booking's business performance over nearly 2 decades) show that it clearly works.

hliyan 8y ago

Yes, it seems as if some companies (I'm not saying TripAdvisor's one of them) spend more time trying to hack the minds of their customers rather than trying to improve the viability of their business models or the value delivered by their products.