booking.com

Is Booking.com the most persuasive mobile website in the world?

This question refers to a similar article published by our esteemed contributor Paul Rouke last year.

In his article asking whether Booking.com is the most persuasive website in the world Paul discovered that over the years Booking.com has continually evolved and refined its online experience, adding the fundamentals of persuasive design in order to gain a competitive advantage.

By using visual appeal and retaining the user’s attention through clarity, strong visual hierarchy and utilising one primary action per screen, Booking.com provides a compelling user experience.

However in light of new research looking at top mobile travel sites, I’m going to investigate whether this persuasiveness translates to the mobile experience.

Hamburger menus for mobile navigation: do they work?

Hamburger menus are ubiquitous in mobile web design, but the jury is out on whether the little three-lined icon actually works.

A lot of people hate hamburger menus because they feel not everyone knows what it means and that menu options are hidden from view.

However much of the negative feeling seems to be based on a vague notion that the icon harms the user experience, without any actual evidence to back it up.

Last week Booking.com released the findings of its own study into the use of hamburger menus and it turned out to be good news for fans of the three-lined icon.

I’ve summarised the results below along with the results of several other studies into the uses of hamburger menus, so you can make up your own mind.

For more on this topic, read our posts on 14 inspiring mobile commerce websites and 11 ways to improve the navigation on your mobile site.

How to increase conversions by creating buyer urgency & fear of loss

A sense of urgency and fear of loss are powerful sales drivers in ecommerce.

Undecided shoppers can be encouraged to make an impulse purchase if they think they’re in direct competition with other people for a product that has limited availability.

I recently rounded up 11 examples from ecommerce sites that use stock levels to create buyer urgency, but that’s by no means the only tactic available.

Here is a range of other techniques used by well known brands that can prove to be very effective in driving conversions.

And just to clarify, I’ve intentionally avoided group discount and flash sale sites (e.g. Groupon) that are built around scarcity and deadlines.

10 essential features for mobile travel sites

Looking for a break on a mobile? Gosh your commute must be especially arduous today.

Here’s some help: a guide to the most convenient features available on mobile travel sites, which could possibly help you find your way to pleasant pastures a lot quicker and also highlight some great design for other mobile commerce designers.

Ben Davis gives excellent advice on features needed for great mobile commerce design in general, which I’ll be using here, but skewing it towards features more suited to travel sites. 

For this feature I’ll be taking a look at a range of travel sites all optimised for mobiles: EasyJet, Ryanair, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Secret Escapes, Voyage Prive, Expedia, Mr & Mrs Smith, Laterooms and Skyscanner.

Booking.com: the most persuasive selling page in the world?

In my last article, I asked whether Booking.com is the most persuasive website in the world.  

Now I want to provide more insights on how it is delivering content on a crucial page in the browsing journey: the hotel detail page. 

If you’d like to read more about the persuasive techniques used on the search results page, take a look at my article titled Booking.com improving conversion with best practice persuasive design.

Is Booking.com the most persuasive website in the world?

One of the most important areas to invest time into is developing the persuasive layer of your online experience and deliver more reasons for your visitors to do what you want them to do.

In fact, I see persuasion as being one of the next big battlegrounds online.

As more websites are upping their game around the fundamentals of good user experience and usability principles they’re looking for the next area of growth and to gain competitive advantage. 

One brand I’ve paid particular attention to since 2009 has been Booking.com. I previously wrote a piece back in October 2011 about the wide range of persuasive techniques used on its search results page.

Since then Booking.com has continually evolved and refined its online experience, adding in new features, functionality and in particular using even more persuasive techniques.

In this article, which is the first in a series,  I’ve highlighted many of these newer features and provided tips and advice on how to apply these techniques to your business. 

Booking.com’s journey into fear this Halloween

Halloween falls in a difficult holiday period, just at the end of ‘shoulder season’ (September to October) and right at the beginning of the dreaded off-season (November to March).

So it seems the end of October must be a write-off for travel company marketers. Or so you would think…

However, Booking.com is taking advantage of a holiday season yet to be exploited by other travel companies, Halloween, and is managing to build a comprehensive marketing campaign around it.

We’ve already looked at the eight brands making the most of Halloween in 2013, but right at the top of the pile is this campaign from Booking.com.

Welcome to America’s Most Haunted Hotels…

Booking.com: improving conversion with best practice persuasive design

Persuasive design is something that has been around for many many years, not least in the way high street stores and supermarkets lay out their stores to encourage and entice customers to buy as they arrive and walk around.

In the online world, PET (persuasion, emotion, trust) is an approach that was pioneered by Human Factors International, and alongside usability and user experience, designing with persuasion in mind is an extremely powerful approach to positively impact on conversion rates.

In my experience, one site which has persuasion rooted in its design, content and layout is Booking.com.  

In this article I provide a breakdown of some of the key persuasive elements that booking.com deliver.