Under 26 and Students

In order to gather information about this group of users, a focus group was performed with five students who represented a cross section of the student community regarding subjects studied, age and gender. The focus group lasted for approximately forty minutes. A summary of the gathered information is displayed below.

• Require cheap prices and student discounts as their main priority.
• Are not restricted to a fixed date, so can have more flexibility as to when they travel.
• Desire much information concerning the dates that the deals are available.
• Dislike registration forms.
• Desire much information about holidays.
• Want a student section with all the student deals and some student deals on the home page.
• Want the booking engine to be immediately visible.
• Do not like popups.

Additionally, several interviews were performed with a variety of students to increase knowledge in specific areas highlighted by the focus group.

Generic Users

The generic users category includes anyone outside of the first two groups. The members of this group would be users of the Internet who discover the website through advertising or a search engine. It also includes business or academic users who want to book a holiday for personal use.

To derive information about their needs, the other categories of users were asked which generic website they found to be most useful. Most students claimed that Spicejet was the best travel website that they have been to. The academic and business users preferred makemytrip.com. An evaluation was then conducted on these websites to determine what made them effective.

Our website would therefore have to incorporate the professional look of makemytrip, but also include a look and feel that would attract the students like spicejet and JTB Travel. It should also contain the appropriate information to attract the academic and business users. It has to offer a wide range services to each of the user groups so as to lure them away from the other generic websites.

It would have to be made clear in the marketing of the website that by using it, users can perform whatever they need from a single website.