Recent
media coverage in Metro highlighted the problem of the small print
when buying travel insurance. A boy's family were lumbered with a £4,000 rescue bill after the boy fell into
difficulty in India whilst paragliding. Although the family had
taken comprehensive insurance, which included 'dangerous sports'
such as Hand gliding, Paragliding was not covered; in this case
the small print was very small.
Research conducted by The Usability Company demonstrated how difficult
it was for users to get a 'full picture' quote online for family
travel insurance from the following companies by testing with real
users:
www.Americanexpress.co.uk
www.columbusdirect.co.uk
www.directline.com
www.eaglestar.co.uk
www.endsleigh.co.uk
www.thomascook.com
'All I want is a quote' was a familiar frustrated cry from participants
that could not understand why in general the companies required
so much personal information, which invariably slowed down their
progress through the site.
Four out of six users couldn't understand what they were purchasing
cover for. They had been asked to find adequate cover for Scuba
Diving. It was generally agreed that people would have to phone
up to see if they were in fact covered for the less common sports.
Perhaps the greatest flaw was that users did not find it easy to
find a telephone number throughout the numerous stages of the process.
When pressed to finish the process with each insurer, all participants
could find a travel policy of some sort on the sites. However users
admitted that under real world circumstances most would have given
up and gone elsewhere.
Users do not want to be required to enter personal information
just to get a quote; they are more likely to proceed with buying
the insurance if the quote process is as quick and simple as possible.
The sites need to be made easy to read for all users. 3 out of
the 6 sites tested were difficult to follow for users without domain
knowledge of the insurance sector.
The number of consumers booking through a travel agent has dropped
from 74% in 2002 to 64% in 2001. In the same period, the volume
of bookings at internet-only travel agencies increased from 8% to
17% (forrester.com)
The message is clear, users are turning to the web in increasing
numbers and the usability of the site will determine the winners
and losers in the online insurance sector.
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