Improving Holidu's search results page experience

Holidu is a search engine and price comparison platform for vacation rentals, aiming to make finding and booking them as easy as possible. Like any successful digital service today, Holidu is not without pain points. I was challenged to find important usability issues in the Holidu results page and suggest solutions for them.  

Approach

User Pain Points

1- It is hard to tell this is a search engine

Users failed to understand what the website's aim is until they hit the "View Offer" button to see they are being redirected to somewhere else.

"I don't see clearly that this website is showing me the best deal out of multiple options."

"I don't know what VRBO is, is it like VAT or something?"

2- Frustration while previewing images

While sliding images on cards, users tend to go fast and don't realize the card ran out of images and the last unintentional click brings them to a new window, while they cleary are not ready to leave the website yet.

3- High visual load and lack of some critical info

Users mentioned the results page have so many things to look at which made them feel overwhelmed. Meanwhile they had a lot of scepticism about the meanings of buttons like "Fantastic".

"I dont know where to focus, there is too much information, too many colors and buttons in a single page."

"What does fantastic mean? And why is everything fantastic?"

Design Solutions

1- Make price comparison visible

By slightly modifying the layout and adding some text implying the best option is selected, user is enticed to hover and click to see other options, making it clear for Holidu to communicate its aim and value to users.

2- Avoid unintentional new tabs

By adding a simple yet very useful "reset slider" option, unintentional new tabs can be avoided.

3- Lower cognitive load and increase transparency

Final UI comparison