Background
I tend to pay my bills for an entire year at a time. This means rather than having lots of small amounts coming out of my bank account each month, I have a few large bills every now and then that I pay. The added advantage is that each time a new bill comes for the coming year I take a quick moment to shop around and make sure I’m still getting a good deal.
Last week my new home contents insurance bill came. I think I am getting a good deal but it can’t hurt to check. I decided to check about six or so home contents insurances companies to compare their quotes. Only then did I realise how much web usability still sucks… and it’s 2008!
I don’t get to do much usability work these days so I thought I would do a quick and dirty usability review on here, inspired by the stylings of my favourite usability book called “Don’t Make Me Think!“.
Starting a new Quote
Great: Allianz Insurance – One click and you’re there!
Not so great: BankWest – Six screens including a modal dialog that temporarily disables all your firefox tabs. Lots of clicks and loads of clutter. Yuck.
Getting a quote – what I liked
To be honest, there wasn’t much that blew me away when looking at the various insurance quote screens. AAMI had two nice features.
The click to talk feature is neat. You put in your phone number and someone will call you straight away to discuss your query. This is both convenient and cost effective as some people don’t have easy access to a phone.
The flexi premium screen is a good idea. It shows all excess options and how much they cost. It’s nice to be able to compare and make a decision without going back and forth between screens.
Getting a quote – what I didn’t like
New Window Popups: The insurance quotes at most sites open in a new browser window (sans browser controls). This is annoying because I use tabs in firefox to switch between various pages. A new window means I can’t use these tabs as easily.
Drop down values: Some of the drop down values are unclear and inconsistent. There is often no help available for these too. For example, I live in an apartment block and I honestly don’t know what the building or roof is made of.
Buggy Software/Unhelpful Error Messages: The BankWest quote displayed an fatal error “Potential Flood Postcode, Check Full Address” midway through the quote. Straight away I am confused: I’m not even applying for flood insurance. It doesn’t tell me my options. I can’t correct it. I try to go back, I can’t. I’m stuck. I quit.
Non Standard Terminology: Six out of seven sites I looked at use the term “quote” which makes sense but NRMA insurance insist on using “estimate“. I’m not as confident with the term “estimate“.
Firefox Browser Compatibility
I try to only use Firefox (2.0.0.13) as it is cross platform and open source. Some sites still won’t support it though. I simply don’t bother with quotes from these sites, they obviously don’t want my business.
AAMI: OK
Allianz: OK
ANZ: Session Timeout Error – Won’t work
BankWest: OK
NRMA: OK
Suncorp: OK
Western QBE: Must use IE.
Conclusion
The usability of the sites I looked at is not very good. Of the seven sites I looked at I only managed to get three quotes!
Most of the quotes I got were roughly the same price, so really my decision comes down to how pleased I am with the quote process. It shows you that in a fairly level playing field that good usability does really count.
