Upgrading a great website

Last year I was at the award ceremony of the Usability Awards 2010. For the website www.helenahoeve.nl there was a honorable mention. During this ceremony I learned some things to improve the website.

This is what I have done:

1. Changed the font from serif to sans-serif.
   This change has some impact. The top menu was too large now, so 
2. I had to remove a menu item in the top menu.
   Luckily did this change improve the readability. Due to this change I was able to
3. Display a darker background.
   Both the old and the new backgroumd was based on a picture of grass. With the new background that is more clear.
   In the bottom menu was the call for action: "Make a reservation now"
4. I have replaced the call for action in the bottom menu into: "Check availability".
   This is a more inviting call for action. Of course the goal of the website is that people makes reservations, so 
5. I made clear call to action buttons for "Make a reservation".
   For the call to action buttons I used the same grass background as for the top and bottom menu. It looks really nice.
6. The text of the bottom menu is modified a little due to the fact there is another call to action now.
7. At the page "reviews" and "back at home" I have a clear call to action to write a review.
8. At the contact page there are even three call to action buttons now.
   "Make a reservation", "Write a review" and "Mail".
9. Very important is of course the call to action button "Make a reservation" at the page "Availability".
10. At the page "Availability" I have changed the text a little. I includes now the phrase "now" to create an urgency to make a reservation.
11. The HTML code is upgraded form XHTML 1.0 to HTML 5 for all pages.
    The most important feature of HTML 5 is that you are now able to use
12. A placeholder for all "text" fields.
13. The appropiate fields are changed from "text" to "email", "url", "search".
14. Some fields are marked as required now.

I believe that these small changes improve the usability of the website.

The usability test

Okay, what to test when you want to test the usability? The ease of use? Okay, lets try.

www.bol.com
Lets buy a book ("priemgetallen").

1. Search for priemgetallen
   The first result is the right one
2. Click on "In winkelwagentje"
3. Click on "Bestellen"
   Login or create an account
4. Create an account
5. Fill in the form
   First error made, filled in name instead of given name
   Got a question about the present service allthough I use the same address
6. Click on continu
   Have to give my e-mail address and a password
   Very bad, I have to un-tick that I want a newsletter
   Very bad, I have to type my e-mail address twice
7. Click on check the given information
8. Click on Pay (and stopped)

It is easy, but some things could be improved. Good is that the postal code and the house number was enough.

www.ditzo.nl
Lets buy an insurrance for my car

1. Given the identification of the car and pressed "Bereken je premie"
2. Given all information, it is clear where you are in the process, however I need to give my email address twice and I have to wait to long to go to the next step
3. Process stopped at the moment I had to give the "meldcode" I was too lazy to search for it

www.eduhub.nl
Lets book a simple course


Selected a course form the homepage, Apple's OSX, selected the first course and then ... did not know what to do next. Process stopped.


www.hotels.nl
Try to book a hotel.


I have to enter the dates first before I can do what I want, I have to search again for the wanted hotel. 
However after found the hotel I want for the price I want I only have to enter my name and e-mail address (twice!). Easy. Process stopped to prevent a reservation.


www.nos.nl
I want to see the weather as mentioned in the journal of 20.00 o'clock. 


Found in two click the weather report of the 18.00 o'clock journal. Great.


www.helenahoeve.nl
Try to camp with my own caravan in august.

1. Look at availability
2. Created a reservation
3. Checking if the reservation is correct. Process stopped

Easy.

Best user experience so far.

1. hotels.nl
2. nos.nl
3. helenahoeve.nl - Much more information is necessary for a reservation than hotels.nl
4. ditzo.nl
5. eduhub.nl

Overall score


In my humble opinion hotels.nl should be the winner of the usability award 2010.