Evaluating Online Travel Agencies’ Usability: What Heuristics Should We Use? Cristian Rusu 1(&) , Virginica Rusu 2 , Daniela Quiñones 1 , Silvana Roncagliolo 1 , and Virginia Zaraza Rusu 1 1 Pontiﬁcia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile {cristian.rusu,silvana.roncagliolo}@pucv.cl, danielacqo@gmail.com, rvzaraza90@hotmail.com 2 Universidad de Playa Ancha, Valparaíso, Chile virginica.rusu@upla.cl Abstract. Online travel agencies’ customers have nowadays a wide range of alternatives and are more demanding. Usability is a basic attribute in software quality. Heuristic evaluation is arguably the most popular usability inspection method, well-known and widely used. A heuristic evaluation may be performed based on generic or speciﬁc heuristics. Many sets of speciﬁc (usually domain-related) usability heuristics were published. Heuristic quality scales to validate and/or evaluate new heuristics were proposed. The paper analyzes evaluators’ perception on three sets of usability heuristics, when evaluating the same product: Nielsen’s generic heuristics, a set of cultural-oriented heuristics for e-Commerce, and a set of heuristics for smartphones applications (SMASH). We made an experiment with 38 Computer Science students, enrolled in a Human-Computer Interaction introductory course, using the online travel agency Expedia.com as case study; the web and mobile versions were evaluated. We assessed students’ perception based on a questionnaire that rates each heuristic individually (Utility, Clarity, Ease of use, Necessity of additional checklist), but also the set of heuristics as a whole (Easiness, Intention of future use, Completeness). Keywords: Online travel agency  Heuristic evaluation  Usability heuristics Heuristic quality 1 Introduction Usability is a basic attribute in software quality. The concept is known for decades and is still evolving. The ISO 9241-210 standard deﬁnes usability as “the extent to which a system, product or service can be used by speciﬁed users to achieve speciﬁed goals with effectiveness, ef ﬁciency and satisfaction in a speciﬁed context of use” [1]. Lewis identiﬁes two approaches on usability evaluation: (1) summative, “measurement-based usability”, and (2) formative, “diagnostic usability” [2]. Usability evaluation methods are usually classiﬁed in two categories: (1) usability testing, based on users’ participation, and (2) inspection methods, based on experts’ judgment. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 G. Meiselwitz (Ed.): SCSM 2018, LNCS 10913, pp. 121–130, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91521-0_10