Technology: Are you user-friendly?

To be effective, a website must be user-friendly.
There’s no point ploughing thousands of pounds into a website
only to find out that clients aren’t using it.

Even though most agents aren’t able to make the multi-million
pound investments in technology that the likes of Lastminute.com,
Ebookers or TUI can, there’s plenty they can learn from the
big players to improve their own sites.

Travel Weekly put four industry websites under the microscope to
find out how easy they are to use and what areas could be
improved.

The Usability Company, a consultancy that assesses how easy
websites are to use, looked at sites operated by Thomas Cook,
MyTravel, Kuoni and Tourism Australia to establish which work well
and which require a rethink.

Usability Company chairman Catriona Campbell said: ”It is
important to make sure your site is efficient.

“A site that is easy to use encourages loyalty. If a user
can’t find what they need they are unlikely to return. This
will affect conversion rates and your revenue stream.”

Here’s what The Usability Company had to say about our four
chosen sites.

First impressions: the homepage is well
presented, making it easy for customers to see the latest deals on
offer.

Find what you wanted?
The search facility is easily accessible in the centre of the
homepage and has the advantage of allowing customers to search for
‘holidays’, ‘flights’ or ‘flights and
hotels’. This caters for different types of customers who are
also able to specify a budget for their holiday and can conduct a
more advanced search if required.

Clients are able to choose how they view the search results, for
example by price or destination. There are no photos of the resort
provided when searching for a holiday.

Clients will no doubt feel uncomfortable proceeding with a booking
when they are not able to view the accommodation they have
selected.

What about booking?
Customers can book online or call a number that is prominently
displayed at the top of every page of the site. Booking online is
an easy step-by-step process. One negative is that halfway through,
customers are informed that the price of an in-flight meal has been
automatically added as an additional cost. The only way to remove
this and proceed with the booking is to phone the call
centre.

Anything else?
Customers can choose to receive e-mail alerts of late travel deals,
a great feature when thinking of booking a last-minute
holiday.

First impressions: the search facility is not
straightforward, but good features of this site include the travel
guides and holiday ideas sections, as well as the well-designed
accommodation pages.

Find what you wanted?
MyTravel offers customers a search facility on the homepage but
this does not stand out clearly. When choosing the departure point,
customers are only given the option to select a specific airport.
Options such as ‘from any UK airport’ or ‘from
any London airport’ would give more flexibility.

It is not until customers have chosen a specific flight that the
accommodation options become available. Many will want to browse
the accommodation options available before making a decision about
which flight they want to take.

What about booking?
The online booking process is clear and easy to complete with the
different stages of the process indicated across the top of the
page.

The accommodation pages provide inviting photos and an ‘in
our opinion’ section gives a quick summary of the
accommodation to help customers make their decision. A phone number
is provided but this is not very prominently displayed. It is not
clear that this is the number to call to make a booking.

Anything else?
Excellent features of this site are the travel guides and holiday
ideas sections.

First impressions: the Kuoni agents’
website is well presented and allows holiday searches by
destination, type and cost. The online booking feature allows the
user to obtain a quote and book a holiday, along with extras such
as excursions and car hire.

Find what you wanted?
Once in the agents’ website, navigational features such as
agency pages, register, weekly offers and limited editions appear
on the far right. These titles would benefit from more detail about
content. For example, ‘register’ features links to
training-related material and courses.

The ‘build your dream holiday’ button is a little out
of context as the user is an agent not an actual customer.
Additionally, the underlying content reads ‘Welcome to our
secure live reservations service. This facility allows you to check
availability…” Therefore, the button does not
accurately describe the underlying content.

The ‘latest weekly offers’ are accessed via another
link on the homepage that launches a second browser window.
However, too many windows can become irritating and overwhelming if
the user has to constantly keep closing them.

What about booking?
The booking engine is well laid out and takes the agent through a
logical process. The progress indicator displays the number of
steps but offers no titles. Previous selections, such as holiday
date parameters, are not saved – forcing the user to repeat
all the selections again.

Anything else?
The booking stage for car hire in the US presents a bewildering
list of US car models such as Chevy Metro two-door Ecar, with no
additional information on the vehicle. An agent outside in the UK
is unlikely to be familiar with the specifications of US cars and
will therefore be unable to advise customers of the most
appropriate model.

First impressions: not a booking site but Tourism
Australia’s online Aussie Specialist Programme. This
colourful and engaging site offers agents a convenient and flexible
way to learn about the destination. Because it is not a booking
site, the usual criteria do not apply.

Find what you wanted?
The site uses different ways to present content and does not rely
solely on text to convey its messages, which is stimulating for
users. The modules are self-paced and users can save their response
after each page – useful as many agents will not have time to
complete the course in one go.

Many screens are displayed in pop-up windows allowing several
screens to be open while navigating around the site. This might
confuse users and affect concentration.

Anything else?
Certain parts of the site seem unfinished with links leading to
blank pages, as though some modules are missing. This may lower the
confidence the user has in the site and diminish its
credibility.

A telephone number is prominent on the screen which is useful if
users get stuck but a Frequently Asked Questions section would be
useful on this site.

There are a number of questions posted in the site’s forum
which could be dealt with in an FAQ section. This would reduce the
number of calls to the helpline.