1 Introduction: Contracts and e-Contracts

The comprehension of contracts can be helpful in communication between companies and its clients. According to Passera et al. [1], contracts are frequently analyzed from a juridical logic point of view, in which portray documents to be interpreted by law principles. For this, contracts are mostly created with the objective to solve legal disputes, instead of promoting a relation between the parts involved, which should be a requirement for any business.

The jurist César Fiuza [2] describes a pedagogical function of contracts, responsible for stimulating social relations between the parts involved in a business: “approximate people, abate their differences. The contractual clauses give the involved parties a sense of respect to the other, as well as to oneself, since it is pledged one’s word. By means of contracts, people acquire their rights, as a contract is a miniature of a legal order, in which each part involved has their rights and duties expressed in clauses”.

When businesses are conducted through online channels, the contract function gets even more subdued in the process. In an article published by The Guardian in 2011 [3], a research by Skandia (a company specialized in investments) presents the fragility of electronic contracts, since the percentage of people that contract and pay for services or products without even reading the terms of use is high.

This research showed that only 7% of clients read the terms of use when purchasing an online product of service, while 21% acknowledged having suffered later for marking the contract agreement box without reading its content. For every ten interviewed users, at least one felt attached to a contract longer than estimated as a result for not reading the contract clauses. And one in every twenty people lost money for not being able to cancel or change hotel reservations. According to the Newspaper, 43% of people do not read the terms and conditions of contract for considering a boring activity or for not fully understanding the clauses. Stanford University verified that 97% of users click the agree box without even reading the terms and private policies related to the services purchased [4]. Based on these facts, Alves and Araújo [5] alert that “consumers’ vulnerability became higher with e-commerce, as the interlocutor does not fully comprehend the characteristics of a company that offers products and services through internet”.

However, in face of the facilities of the web and technologies advancements, it was expected a more agile communication between the parts involved. Information about products, or services, should be more accessible and detailed to users, since there is no physical limit to the amount of data regarding a product. Likewise, contract terms can be available on the internet without the necessity of physical storage, using papers. The possibilities of visual information and objective search engines in dynamic online systems can also bring easiness to users in relevant information identification and comprehension. In theory, as concluded by Schreiber [6], the consumer should have lesser obstacles in e-commerce than the traditional brick and mortar businesses.

It is important to emphasize the security issues related to online purchases, a big influence in users buying decision. The perception of consumers regarding a company’s credibility on security, privacy of information and usability has direct impact on their trust in the company. For this reason, Kim et al. [7] suggest that the key to success on e-business is the construction of reliable trustworthy transactions processes, where e-sellers offer a trustful environment. Likewise, Renzi and Freitas’ research [8] has presented the integrated mutual feeding of usability and reliability in the e-commerce of books: planned information to bring good usability in a website can help increase users’ trust.

Passera et al. [9] propose the use of information design in contracts, given its potential to change definition, structure and management foundations of commercial relations. The researchers suggest the use of visual direction to facilitate the assimilation of juridical terms, as well as to take contracts beyond mere legal documents and make them efficient communication tools.

In this context, becomes evident the necessity to study the influence of information design, its foundations and methodologies, and usability on online contract processes and their connection to digital environments that users trust and comprehend.

The present research has the objective to introduce the topic of information design, usability principles and infographic information as a mean of interaction and communication between companies and consumers through digital contracts and present preliminary results of an online questionnaire applied to HCI specialists regarding the topic, using Booking.com (the hotel reservation site most used worldwide, according to a research from Skift [10]) as the object of study. The decision to analyze hotel reservation e-contract processes came from the verification of the high number of users worldwide that use primarily the internet to search and book hotels.

The questionnaire objectify confirm relevant variables of information design, identified in theories, that may influence the usability of e-contracts. It is expected to have a general understanding of users’ mental model and their expectations regarding organization of information during their assimilation and decision processes when booking a hotel.

2 Information Design, HCI and Usability

Shedroff [11] presents the beginning of information design from graphic design and editorial fields of knowledge, with the objective of organizing and presenting data in order to transform them into information with meaning and value. The International Institute for Information Design (IIID) [12] describes information design as “the definition, plan and modeling of a message content and the context it is inserted with the intention of satisfying the information needs of the receptors”. Bonsiepe [13] characterizes Information Design as when content are visualized by means of selection, order, hierarchy, connections and visual distinctions that result in an efficient action. The design can facilitate the reception and interpretation, allowing therefore, more efficient actions. Frascara [14] defines it as a contemporary society’s necessity, as it enables a great volume of information to be clear, in a homogeneity access. Its objective is to assure the effectiveness of communication through the easiness of perception processes, reading, comprehension, memorization and use of the information. For the author, a good information design makes information accessible, appropriate, complete, concise, meaningful – to fulfill users objectives – opportune, comprehensible and appreciated for its usefulness. It invites to be used, reduces tiredness and errors in the process of assimilation, speeds the work and makes the information attractive and adequate to contexts is fit in.

The efficiency of assimilation of information is also highlighted by Jacobson [15], who points that Information Design is to improve society’s capacity in acknowledging, processing and disseminating information in order to create understanding. It is verified that diverse definitions of Information Design focus mainly on users and the efficiency of their actions, similar concerns of study from Interaction Design.

Preece et al. [16] put Interaction Design’s primarily objectives as the reduction of negative aspects of user experience, such as frustration, and highlight of positive aspects, building interactive products with easiness, efficiency and pleasant to use. It is important to integrate studies of Information Design with HCI investigation to understand users’ mental model, expectations and the most relevant information for better decisions. Studies from Nielsen, Schneiderman, Mijksennar, Tufte etc. are relevant to a deeper understanding of this relation and base to build a questionnaire suitable for this research.

Three principles for managing written content for the web are exposed by Nielsen [17]: be objective; write content for easy reading; use hypertexts to segment long information throughout pages. The author emphasizes the importance of presenting most important content first, since users do not waste too much time when reading on the web. Users need to identify in a quick visual browse what is the major content of the page and how it can help them. Nielsen complement about legibility: high contrast, flat colors for background and typography big enough for users to read easily. Mijksenaar [18] goes further and points the best way to design information is “to give form to information; to emphasize or to minimize; to compare or to ordain; to group or to classify; to select or to omit; to choose between immediate or slow recognition; and present it in an interesting way”.

The author defines two major categories: (1) differentiation, which points to type distinction, colors and shapes, and (2) hierarchy, which indicates relevance distinction with the use of size and intensity.

Tufte [19] proposes principles to help guide informational projects from a visual point of view: show the data; induce the viewer to think about the substance rather than about methodology, graphic design, the technology of graphic production, or something else; avoid distorting what the data have to say; present many numbers in a small space; make large data sets coherent; encourage the eye to compare different pieces of data; reveal the data at several levels of detail, from a broad overview to the fine structure; serve a reasonably clear purpose: description, exploration, tabulation, or decoration; be closely integrated with the statistical and verbal descriptions of a data set.

The author [19] expresses what would be graphical excellence:

  • Graphical excellence is the well-designed presentation of interesting data – a matter of substance, of statistics, and of design

  • Graphical excellence consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision, and efficiency.

  • Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space

  • Graphical excellence is nearly always multivariate

  • And graphical excellence requires telling the truth about the data.

The relation of usability with Information Design urges the recall of usability principles to help guide the proposed investigation. The 10 heuristics of usability of Nielsen and Molich [20] focus primarily on websites through desktop interfaces. As similarly do the 8 golden rules [21] of Schneiderman. We do not intent to present heuristics related other apparatuses, such as Inostrozza’s heuristics for mobile, Apted et al.’s heuristics for tabletop, Neto and Campos’ heuristics for multi-modal environments and Renzi’s heuristics for cross-channel interaction [22], as any comparison between these possibilities could defocus from the priority concerns of this research.

The 10 heuristics of Nielsen and Molich [20] are base for the usability evaluation technique (heuristic evaluation) that is still in use today and became foundation to later variations of the technique. The heuristics are consecution to users’ needs in a time where the world was moving to the second wave of computing (one computer to one user):

  1. 1.

    Visibility of system status – the system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time;

  2. 2.

    Match between system and the real world – the system should speak the user’s language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order;

  3. 3.

    User control and freedom – users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo;

  4. 4.

    Consistency and standards – users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions;

  5. 5.

    Error prevention – even better than good error messages is a careful design, which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place.

  6. 6.

    Recognition rather than recall – minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible;

  7. 7.

    Flexibility and efficiency of use – accelerators - unseen by the novice user – may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions;

  8. 8.

    Aesthetic and minimalist design – dialogues should not contain irrelevant information nor rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility;

  9. 9.

    Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors – error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution;

  10. 10.

    Help and documentation – even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

These ten heuristics had its foundation on Norman’s six principles from 1988:

  1. 1.

    Visibility – the more visible functions are, the more likely users will be able to know what to do next;

  2. 2.

    Feedback – feedback is about sending back information about what action has been done and what has been accomplished, allowing the person to continue with the activity;

  3. 3.

    Constraints – the design concept of constraining refers to determining ways of restricting the kind of user interaction that can take place at a given moment;

  4. 4.

    Mapping – this refers to the relationship between controls and their effects in the world;

  5. 5.

    Consistency – this refers to designing interfaces to have similar operations and use similar elements for achieving similar tasks;

Similarly, Ben Schneiderman’s eight golden rules [21] were created based on his research regarding human-computer interaction, in 1987:

  1. 6.

    Objective consistency – similar situations requires consistency of actions, terminologies, prompts, menus, screens and help;

  2. 7.

    Shortcuts for frequent users – with use frequency, users prefer diminish number of interactions to increase the flow of interaction;

  3. 8.

    Offer informative feedback – for each action, should be a feedback;

  4. 9.

    Plan windows that encourage completion – sequence of actions must be organized in groups from start to finish;

  5. 10.

    Offer simple objective error recovery – plan a system that prevents users to make critical errors. If a mistake is made, the system should detect it and offer simple action to solve and recover from it;

  6. 11.

    Reverse actions easily – it relieves users’ anxiety when knowing an action can be undone;

  7. 12.

    Sustain control – operators must feel they are in control of systems and that it respond to their actions;

  8. 13.

    Short-term memory load reduction – the human limitation of processing information in short-term memory require that displays be simple.

Although focused on usability, it is relevant to use these principles to guide evaluations and understand users as a base to integrate their needs to Information Design concepts. The integration of HCI, usability and Information Design concepts helped orientate the online questionnaire, applied to frequent users of Booking.com, with digital interaction background experience.

3 Online Questionnaire

In order to understand users’ mental model of how a website for hotel reservation should work regarding Information Design, a selected group of users were invited to participate in an online questionnaire. The selection and invitation of participants followed rules where users invited had to have a minimum experience with interaction design, HCI, usability, UX and their respective concepts, in order to fully comprehend the usability references within the questionnaire questions. Participants were invited by e-mail and through the WhatsApp UX community of Rio de Janeiro. A total of 15 people agreed to participate.

A previous questionnaire was sent to a smaller group of UX specialist users to help test and map relevant topics as well as to get an overall view of the subject’s ecology. For instance, the previous test confirmed studies that showed preference of using Booking.com, as 80% responded using the referred company in the last year for hotel reservation. The test also pointed a 90% preference to use desktop for searching hotels and making reservations online.

The second and main questionnaire focused on Booking.com following an expected reservation sequential interaction: landing page, search destination, assimilation of information, decision, acquisition of reservation service and terms and conditions agreement. The online questionnaire was built with the help of Typeform (a tool to create online responsive questionnaires and forms), with a total of 14 multiple-choice questions, following suggestions from Moura e Ferreira [23] and Mucchielli [24] in keeping a survey with less than 16 items and to formulate objective questions. Although online surveys have the advantage of reaching participants with no geographical restrains, it is important that the questions are objective and clear for participants, as the interviewer is not near to help with any doubts or misunderstanding [25].

The questionnaire was build with the premise that all participants have knowledge about usability, and therefore, some of the questions points relation to heuristics and HCI. Images and a direct link to each referred page were inserted to help participants investigate further the site and have a more clear analysis for judgment. The options to answer the questions were put together to simulate a descriptive Likert scale.

The descriptive scale intended to help the questionnaire be more objective to the point and bring a better flow to participants and minimize distortion. The first questions relate to general information about participants, their basic preferences and behavior when looking for a hotel. Questions 4 to 10 follows the sequential pattern of gathering information for a reservation decision, while questions 11 to 13 focus on interfaces related to complete the reservation. The last two questions (14–15) are about terms and conditions contracts.

4 Results

The results analysis was based on data tabulation provided by Typeform and presentation of this data follows the purchase motivation sequence interaction: landing page and search tool, search results, hotels’ information page, booking procedure and reservation terms and conditions agreement.

4.1 Search and Purchase Motivation

Participants of the questionnaire frequently travel around Brazil, as well as others parts of the world, and the search for hotel reservation services is part of this process. Interestingly, the reservation process is part of the trip planning process in different ways, as 1/3 of respondents choose first the destination city, but start looking for reservation prior to having dates and flight scheduled. Another 1/3 shows that their reservation search is part of the process of planning the trip and helps to decide the best dates and location for staying. The rest of respondents already have their flight tickets purchased before looking for hotel reservation. Despite of the many inspirational options and promotional sales in the homepage, none of the respondents have these as an important step to plan their trip.

4.2 Homepage

When arriving at Booking.com homepage, three major sectors of information are noticeable: the central content space is divided in half, where the left side (occupying the first priority zone of Outing) presents the destination search tool as a big orange rounded square, and the right side offers inspirational destination offers. The top section keeps the logo and global navigation, mostly alternative helpful links, such as promotional sales, destination inspiration, vacation rentals etc.

In this section, most respondents (more than 2/3) affirm they can find easily everything they need. Even those who felt that the information organization could be a little confusing, their requirements could be fulfilled. For the rest of participants, the amount of information could be annoying and intrusive, as half of these declare to need only the destination search tool.

Considering the objective of the company and the expectations of users, the position on priority zone one and the choice of contrast of colors (orange square surrounded by its contrast color – blue) helps the search tool to stand above other sectors of information (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Booking.com homepage contrast of colors (Color figure online)

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Regarding color and typographic use in the homepage, less than 1/3 of participants think it disturbs the information recognition and cause frustration. Although the majority doesn’t think the site’s color and typographic choices prevent them from finding relevant information, only 20% of these think they are truly helpful to organize subjects and find easily information of interest.

As opposed to the visibility of destination search pointed by users, the amount of information in the general sense of the landing page can be absorbed as “too much” of irrelevant information competing with their primarily objective: find a hotel.

4.3 Search Results

Almost 2/3 of the participants perceive the options of search filtering as great. From this majority group, 1/3 think the options are perfect and all filters needed are there, exhibited in well distributed information sections, but although the other 2/3 of this group thinks the options are great, they feel the disposition of information could get in the way of finding all possibilities. A minority (20%) found the amount of information too much and the organization confusing, while 13% was indifferent. Participants who inserted opinions, suggested: “not all filtering options need to be open. Analyze which ones are more used and minimize the rest”.

Still regarding the results page (Fig. 2), the questionnaire approach the topics of information organization, the use of colors and supporting elements to help hierarchize relevant information – based on Mijksenaar principles of giving form to information (to emphasize or to minimize; to compare or to ordain; to group or to classify; to select or to omit; to choose between immediate or slow recognition; and present it in an interesting way). Although the website shows a concern for the flexibility of need and use (heuristic 7), respondents are divided evenly in their opinions on how these options are presented, as 1/3 considers that information organization, the use of colors and supporting elements adequate and help locate information, 1/3 thinks they do not help (but not interfere) and 1/3 feels they are too much and fight for attention in the page.

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Booking.com search results page. (Color figure online)

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4.4 Hotel’s Information Page

When choosing options of hotels from the results page, users can analyze each hotel separately by looking at each hotel specifications, room possibilities, prices, photos of the hotel, map location, rating, reviews by other costumers, description and facilities offered (Fig. 3). The search tool still keeps activated on the top left and an option to search similar properties resides right bellow it. Following the visual hierarchy, almost half of participants show first attention to the pictures of the hotel in order to get the hotel’s visual impression – if unsatisfactory, they return to the results page for other options. The location map is the most important information to 1/3 of participants and only 1/5 goes first to price and room availability on the bottom of the page. One person points preference to check consumers’ reviews and rating and then goes directly to photos.

Fig. 3.
figure 3

Booking.com hotel page.

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Regarding the support elements (arrows, lines, boxes) and icons – to encourage the eye to compare different pieces of data, to reveal the data at several levels of detail, to serve a reasonably clear purpose of description, exploration, tabulation, and decoration – Tufte [19], half of users points that although helpful, the amount of highlights and information can still be overwhelming. A 1/5 of users believe the icons are adequate and fundamental to create areas of topics and help find information, but another 1/5 finds that the although icons help find relevant information, other elements are not significant to the hierarchy of information. A small portion of participants thinks it is all too much.

The page holds a lot of information that could help users analyze options and make decisions, but it seems that the choice of icons and visual elements does not fully creates hierarchy and information sections nor minimizes the sensation of too much information.

4.5 Booking Phase

After choosing the hotel, users reach the reservation page (Fig. 4) in order to finalize the booking procedure. The page holds a reference photo of the chosen hotel and respective basic information (name, location, rating, check-in and check-out dates, total price and basic facilities).

Fig. 4.
figure 4

Booking.com reserve finish page.

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Bellow this quick reference for users self-locate, a box occupies the scroll down section to help users confirm details of the reservation and fill in the blanks with personal information to close the reservation service contract with Booking.com and the hotel. The participants were asked about the organization of the information (from Bonsiepe’s use of grouping and arrangements – content must be visualized by means of selection, order, hierarchy, connections and visual distinctions that result in an efficient action). The results showed that almost half (40%) of participants agree that the sections are logical and help to organize content by topics as well as find relevant information easily. A 1/3 of users find that, although the sections do not fully help, they do not hide relevant information. Only 1/5 of participants think the sections are not logical and the amount of information is annoying. One user added a comment: “the organization and sections does make sense, but there is too much information, which brings some confusion to the page. For instance, there are 4–5 warning boxes at the same time, located far apart from each other”. Overall, the organization of sections seems to facilitate the locating and understanding of information and proper actions to take. The problems noted by the specialists would be considered minor problems (or even aesthetic problems) in a heuristic evaluation, as they would not disturb the execution of the principal task.

However the pointed problems are minor and doesn’t impede the execution of reservation, the amount of information seems to bother as half of the users indicate that they can find everything they need with a little effort, but the organization of sections could be sometimes confusing. Another 1/3 also points out the confusing layout and adds that some information is unnecessary. A commented opinion alerts to layout organization disturbance to him/her: “the information I need, in case of an action, are in opposite sides”. Only a small part agrees that all information is well organized and everything needed are right there.

4.6 Terms and Conditions

To finalize the hotel reservation (Fig. 5) is necessary to confirm all booking information, include payment information, contact information (if you are not logged in yet) and agree to terms and conditions. The checking box to agree to terms involves three different terms: (1) booking conditions, related to the hotel’s conditions; (2) general terms, refering to Booking.com 12 terms for using their service; and (3) privacy policy, which explains about how security, cookies and costumers’ privacy work on Booking.com. The hotel terms (booking conditions) are direct and mostly related to rules regarding extra additional beds and cancelation. The Booking.com’s general terms involves a long description of 12 terms, from definition and prices rate to disclaimer and intellectual property rights. The how-it-works section (privacy and policy) is long and very detailed. A link “Read me, I’m important” shows as an alternative path to reach the hotel’s terms (booking conditions) in a pop up display.

Fig. 5.
figure 5

Booking.com reservation finish page.

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The disposal of the confirmation page brings security issues to half of participants (20% thinks the layout visually intrusive) and only 1/3 are ok with the sense of security and fully understands the hotel reservation policy. One participant points that the unnecessary information does not influence his/her sense of security.

The “Read me, I’m important” link brings a pop up (Figs. 6 and 7) with the hotel’s terms (booking terms) as an alternative option to reach the information. A 1/3 of the participants showed difficulties to find this link and think the information display can be confusing. Another 1/3 hardly (or never) click on this option and comments resume as: “I never click on it”, “oh! I think I have never entered here. Is it new?” and “I couldn’t visualize the pop up”. The rest of respondents are divided between (1) thinking the hotel’s terms could be more objective as it has some unnecessary information, and (2) although a good option of displaying the content, it is hard to find the link and understand what the information was about. Only one person though the link option was perfect.

Fig. 6.
figure 6

Booking.com conditions button and popup.

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Fig. 7.
figure 7

Booking conditions, general terms and privacy policy buttons.

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Regarding the three terms and conditions that users have to agree (Fig. 7) in order to conclude the hotel reservation, 2/5 of participants declare they never click because they think it is indifferent and will not influence their reservation. A 1/6 of participants also don’t click, affirming that the disposition of all the terms is exhausting and unnecessary to have so many buttons and pages of explanation. Almost 1/3 enters the terms links but browse it quickly as the big amount of information and lack of visual elements makes the reading confusing. One of the respondents assumes he/she doesn’t click and feels insecure in agreeing to an unread contract. Just 1/6 of the participants clicks and read everything.

It is important to present some of the participants’ comments from the last section of the questionnaire, an open box for the possibility of adding any further opinions about Booking.com website. This possibility has upraised interesting information from users: “the website offers a good service, but it has a lot of unnecessary information, bringing visual pollution and distracting from the basic objective”, “pages terribly polluted (visually). I prefer Airbnb, as it has solved this in a simple way”, “regarding security during the process, some of Booking.com’s rules and hotels’ rules can be conflicting and confusing”.

5 Synthesis

The questionnaire, even applied to a small group, brings attention to a discussion about e-contracts’ role in the process of interaction and consumption of a service or product. The idea of just a small percentage of users having the urge to click and read throughout an entire e-contract is an alert to further investigation on how information design and HCI principles could bring positive impact and improvements to potentially transform contracts into effective communication tools. In order to better synthesize this research phase, a table was created relating the topics addressed in the questionnaire with principles od information design and usability, and their respective authors (Table 1):

Table 1. Relation between questionnaire topics and information design and usability principles
Full size table

The sequence of interaction of users finding a proper hotel option, the analysis of characteristics and finally the acquisition of reservation seem to follow an obvious pattern where users consider many positive and negative aspects before reaching a decision. The choice of reservation influence not only the fulfilling task of choosing a hotel, but the users’ experience of their trip, as a substantial percentage of users considers hotel reservation choices as part of their travel planning.

When considering the user experience as a journey that links short scenes [22], the actions involved in looking for a perfect hotel is a short scene that can relate to users’ decision on length of stay, self-location and understanding possibilities of attractions to visit. This short scene (hotel reservation) will affect the experience while the trip is in course and afterwards, in users’ analysis of the whole experience.

Specifically regarding the sequence of actions to fulfill the reservation task involving perception of information, click decisions, searches, observation of images, comparison of prices, room availability checks, hotel facilities analysis and payment procedures, in order to users truly finish their reservation, it is mandatory to agree with Booking.com and hotel’s conditions. The sequential order of actions can be tiring as it is an important part of users’ trip planning and can affect their experience journey. Having the e-contract as a last phase of the process, it is important to consider the time and cognitive consuming actions when projecting e-contracts in order to make this last part with a less cognitive load and easier to understand. After so many clicks, users are no longer willing to spend time with further actions to finalize the reservation, and therefore, expect simpler registrations and forms.

According to Passera [26], “contract drafters too often seem focused exclusively on the contract itself rather than on facilitating successful relationships”, resulting in contracts that are unnecessarily complex and difficult to use. It is important to propose information design solutions and bring a new approach to e-contracts. The author adds “that achieving this broader potential for contracting leads in a direction where not many researchers or practitioners have looked before, and where few organizations have invested or innovated: in the human side of contracting and the important role of contract users with non-legal backgrounds. While user-centeredness and simplification have influenced many fields, they have hardly caught the attention of the legal or contracting community”.

Results imply the subdued function of the terms and conditions, as many experts, participants of the questionnaire, are indifferent to it. Although a necessary act to finish the process, the e-contract is not perceived as an influence to the reservation and not seen as a communication tool. Even Booking.com’s attempt to create a “Read Me. I’m Important” link was not completely effective, as it was considered hard to find and not part of the interaction sequence.

The questionnaire results has brought a better understanding of the whole process of actions, from interaction specialists point of view, and partially map problems in the interaction sequence. The amount of irrelevant information is, throughout the whole experience, pointed as a distraction from users’ objectives and sometimes even an annoyance in the relevant information filtering. Although considered not an obstacle to fulfill any sequence actions, its annoyance can increase the cognition load and therefore add to the tiredness at the end of the process. As an example, the website’s concern in showing inspirational places and destination good deals does not influence one bit users’ objectives, as this information do not take part of users destination decisions or their trip plans. It probably would have an impact only in cases where these inspirations match exactly users’ trip plans.

The noticed usability problems seem mostly small and aesthetic (in the heuristic evaluation 0–4 scale) and are not urgent to solve. But considering the accumulative annoyance and cognitive load it provokes throughout interaction sequence, it affects the patience of users and the interest in looking the e-contract in the final phase. A re-planning of the visual information structure and icon adjustments could help minimize distractions and enhance the experience, but a further research with the use of Think-aloud protocol with users and Heuristic evaluation with usability experts may be needed to better specify solutions accordingly. The appointed problems in information organization and absorption are related mainly to 4 usability heuristics:

  • heuristic 4 – Consistency and standards: users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions;

  • heuristic 6 – Recognition rather than recall: minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible;

  • heuristic 8 – Aesthetic and minimalist design: dialogues should not contain irrelevant information nor rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility;

  • heuristic 10 – Help and documentation: even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

The heuristic 10 is directly involved with the e-contracts, as it is related to documentation of information. Although many times disregarded by developers, the 10th heuristic can affect crucial situations for users. In Booking.com case, participants demonstrate difficulties with the detailed information regarding the presented conditions of the chosen hotel and of Booking.com itself. Principles proposed by Mijksenaar [18] and Tufte [19] could help minimize these pointed difficulties: to emphasize or to minimize; to compare or to ordain; to group or to classify; to select or to omit; to choose between immediate or slow recognition; and present it in an interesting way, to show the data; to induce the viewer to think about the substance rather than others things; avoid distorting what the data have to say; encourage the eye to compare different pieces of data; reveal the data at several levels of detail, from a broad overview to the fine structure; serve a reasonably clear purpose: description, exploration, tabulation, or decoration.

As an important section of communication between two (or more) parts involved (service providers and consumers), the terms and condition sections are of great importance in the negotiation and in exposing items to be contracted. It is extremely important the transparency of the information on this screen, and the use of information design resources to ensure a good understanding of the rights related to each part.

6 Conclusion

Results of this research bring the relevance of discussion regarding information design and HCI on e-contracts, as well as, further investigations on the feasibility of using infographics as a tool to enhance e-contracts understanding in hotel reservation processes.

According to Lima [27], the use of infopraphics is revealed as an important graphic language resource, adaptable to the new media and able to cope with the demand of modernization of communication, by unified pictorial elements, schematics and written text. The author emphasizes the use of infographics to increase understanding in situations of complex facts and explanations that need to be communicated and contextualized, as its purpose is to help readers to understand information that, communicated otherwise, could be too complex. Moraes [28] adds that infographics should present information to answer the questions “where”, “when”, “what”, “who” and “why”. As similarly, contracts should answer these same questions.

Besides the usability further investigation necessity to map specific problems, it is encouraged the use of infographics as a resource for comparison tests. It is expected that these future results could bring a better understanding of infographics’ influence in e-contracts attention and comprehension by users. The continuity of the research can arise further discussion on contractual information translated visually through elements, such as graphs, diagrams, according to facilitate a clear communication, that with new technology and interaction possibilities, endorse the development of electronic contracts containing clauses and conditions open to direct negotiation with users. Such cases, where the consumer would be able to express his will to specific contents of a clause or condition, could change the unilateral nature of the contract and potentially impact the case-law Judicial Courts with adhesion contracts.