INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN USERS AND SYSTEM FLEXIBILITIES WITH PERCEIVED USABILITY OF ONLINE AIRLINE RESERVATION SYSTEMS

It is very critical for the organizations to design flexible systems that are easy to
use and can accomplish all the requirements by way of offering customizability.
Philosophers argue that users are good in adapting the systems; however, research
shows users dissatisfaction with existing Online Airline Reservation Systems in terms
of task completion. Therefore, researchers are eager to find out ways for improving
online usability of the systems, how users' Perceived Usability of the system is
formulated by its flexibility functions. This research therefore examines travelers'
expectations, preferences and online behavior (Users' Flexibility) and aligns that with
designing of flexible online airline reservation systems (System's Flexibility) and
users' as evaluators of the online systems to determine its Perceived Usability through
users' effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction (Perceived Usability).
In this dissertation, both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to
analyze the data collected in the context of SF, lJF and PU of the systems. A redesign
solution for enhanced usability was developed based on HCI guidelines and the
flexibility tactics used in online travel agencies, which led to a proposed interface
with the integration of opaque mechanism. The two interfaces were used in the
experiment. Participants were requested to complete the evaluation of the existing and
proposed interfaces.
The findings suggested that users can be classified on the basis of their Flexible
Traveling Behavior which led to the development of a Users' Flexibility measuring
scale. It is further investigated that integration of opaque fares concept would increase
the usability of the system. Since flexibility is referred to its ability to respond to
internal or external changes, systems incorporated with opaque fares would serve the
role of external change agent by way of providing flexibility in users' decision
making and will also serve the role of internal change agent by way of providing the
capability of accepting changed decisions.