Key Lime Interactive Ranks Norwegian Cruise Line's Website Best-In-Class in Comprehensive User Experience Report.
Miami, FL - Key Lime Interactive (KLI), an industry leader in competitive index reporting across a variety of industries, released the results of their Contemporary and Premium Brands 2014 Cruise Competitive Benchmark Study at the close the third quarter ranking Norwegian Cruise Line as Best-In-Class. The report compares the website for seven cruise brands including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Disney Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise Line. The report reveals that Norwegian Cruise Lines offered the best “overall site satisfaction” over a variety of indices such as brand affinity. The Key Lime Interactive Competitive Benchmark study defines these indices as “behavioral loyalty.”
“Consistently positive emotional experiences result in consumer loyalty,” reported Ania Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of Key Lime Interactive. “Norwegian’s site visitors indicated that they had a high likelihood to return to the site and book a cruise in the future. Most importantly, the site significantly outperformed its competitors’ in terms of time spent on the site. Time spent increased the brand’s perception relating to attributes such as ‘entertaining’, ‘appealing’, ‘fun’, and ‘family-oriented’.”
These emotional experiences and demonstrated behavior were measured using a task-based user research approach in which hundreds of users participate in a study passively, in their natural context, from geographically widespread locations. A mix of experienced and inexperienced cruisers were recruited to visit a cruise website and perform a series of tasks. Before, during and after task completion, several lines of questioning were asked so that Key Lime Interactive’s team of researchers could evaluate a series of drivers and determine how each site performs. These detailed results help design and digital marketing professionals at each brand better understand the online customer journey. Digital marketing and product development teams count on these findings to meet the needs and expectations of their target audience in strategic planning sessions.
Norwegian significantly outperformed the other players in areas such as “Offering Satisfaction” and “Value Proposition.” Additional analysis across six other drivers is featured in the report.
Norwegian stakeholders responded favorably. “…Not only are we prioritizing what users claim they need, but we get a first-hand view of what users are doing on the site. In our experience, what our guests say, and how they actually behave online doesn’t always align. This methodology provides the details we need to in order to focus our development plans in the coming year,” says Rob Casas, Vice President of eCommerce at Norwegian Cruise Line.
Casas and others rely on Key Lime Interactive reporting to drive the development roadmap into the next quarter and beyond. In many cases, deficits or strengths easily translate to quick fixes or strategic change to improve prospective buyer experience.
Additional Report Information
Key Lime Interactive’s Cruise Experience Mobile Heuristics were used to determine the overall score and ranking of seven (7) companies including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Disney Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise Lines. These heuristics consisted of a capabilities assessment, comparative feature ranking and overall user score and ranking.
The methodology first aimed to understand by using consumers’ self-reported preferences; which features and tasks were must-haves when it came to interacting with the site. These identified features were then placed into priority order to highlight their importance. This ranking was used in an algorithm to tabulate the final scores.
Key Lime Interactive recognizes the importance of aligning business-centric goals with consumer-centric needs to produce winning solutions and makes this a core component to all deliverables. This incorporation of user feedback is a primary component for this and all studies across various industries ranging from finance, retail, hospitality, etc.
“Other reports highlight what we’re doing well from an expert user experience researcher perspective. This report is different because it tells us what we’re doing well from the user perspective. When adjusting the opportunities for improvements listed we can see the direct impact on overall site success.” says Casas as he anticipates Norwegian’s scores in the next report release.
All assessments are as of August 22, 2014. The next iteration of the study will be available in the summer of 2015.
To purchase the published report, please reach out to Key Lime Interactive for more information at sales(at)keylimeinteractive(dot)com
Researchers, Designers, Executives, Journalists and Bloggers in the Cruise, Travel and Leisure Industry are encouraged to contact Key Lime Interactive with any additional questions.
About Key Lime Interactive
Key Lime Interactive is an user experience research firm with proven excellence in both quantitative and qualitative user and consumer testing. To serve our growing client list of Fortune 100 companies, we conduct competitive research, true intent / voice of customer studies, and prototype studies using quantitative methods. Additionally, we're experienced in moderating one-on-one interviews/ usability studies, focus groups, and eye-tracking studies for both the traditional and mobile web. Currently, Key Lime is working to help top brands better understand their customer via behavioral personas and customer journey mapping. Ultimately, our goal is to empower teams to use consumer/user experience data at any and all phases of product development; from strategy to implementation. We aim to provide the true perspective of target users and build exceptional consumer-driven solutions.
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