Site review: Adrianflux.co.uk

October 24, 2009 in All posts, review

After a fairly heavy night out, my brain appears to be dissolving in alcohol. Before it completely disappears, however, I thought I’d do a quick review of the Adrian Flux (www.adrianflux.co.uk) site. It was relaunched relatively recently (within the last 6-9 months or so). I’m going to take a look at a few pages of their brochureware and also the quote process.

As a specialist insurer, they’re meant to be ideal for car enthusiasts and the like. Now, I’m not a hardcore car geek – but the 4-wheeled ponies do pique my interest. So have Adrian Flux accounted for not only the car enthusiasts but also web best-practice? Are they the Internet equivalent of a Mini Metro? Read on and find out!

Hey…I just realised that reads like Anne Robinson on ‘The Weakest Link’…

First impressions:
Off to a good-ish start; it’s pretty clear immediately what the site sells. A strong heading/H1 tag proclaiming their intent, and a rotating Flash banner that cycles a bunch of creative options that illustrate the kind of things they insure – modified Golf’s, motorbikes, classic camper vans and so on.

There’s also some pretty heavy call-to-action buttons on the homepage that instantly cry out for attention. This is good – but they’re both the same weight, aesthetically-speaking – and so fight for dominance. One is clearly the more important (’Get a quote’) yet it’s hard to distinguish between that and t’other.

The background is a little strange and block-colour-ish, and the big, spaced-out plain white backgrounds are accentuated by this.

Tiny testimonials on the right-hand side could do with dialling up a bit: the text size is tiny and, coupled with a faux 3D background, are difficult to read.

Lastly, dodgy stock photography abound under ‘Why choose Adrian Flux’ header. Seriously, this looks cheap and pointless.

Journey & usability:
Today, I’m gonna focus solely on the journey & usability, and it’s at the quote stage that things also get a bit weird and confusing. If you’re going to get weird or confusing, don’t do it at a stage as critical as this, as this is likely one of your key success metrics. Let me explain:

• I visit the homepage
• I click on ‘Get a quote‘
• I’m sent to page that talks about requesting a callback.

Now, they do clearly state that their best prices are via the phone – so this is understandable. However, you should always manage the customer’s expectations. If I click a button expecting a quote, that’s what I should be given. If that’s not what they’re gonna get, change the icon & wording.

So – on that callback page, there’re two other buttons: one that says ‘Callback’ (eh? Aren’t I already on the callback page?) and another that says ‘Get a quote’. But now I’m confused – last time I clicked ‘Get a quote’, it took me to a callback page. So what do I do? Just to top it all off, clicking the ‘Callback’ button takes to you to an identical page with a slightly different URL!

This kind of confusion is really bad for my brain.

So what if I click ‘Get a quote’? A quote engine popup opens. Ok. So this is somewhat more expected…except that this form isn’t an online quote form: you can’t actually get a quote online. It gets emailed to you, with the caveat that this is actually an estimate – and that to get a proper price…they can CALL YOU BACK.

Fine. Fine. I’m calm. But does it stop there? Oooooh no. No no no.

• I visit the homepage
• I click on the ‘Car’ link in the top nav
• I want a quote – but there’re TWO quote buttons: one of them goes to that bloody callback page…
• …and the other…
• …opens a completely different quote engine: one that does actually quote online.

I’m sorry but this is bonkers. And does it stop there? No.

• The quote process didn’t recognise any of the 3 number plates I entered, and forced me to enter the details manually
• When manually selecting the vehicle, I was given a tiny, letterbox-sized window in which to choose my actual model. Because there’re so many of my vehicle type, the scroll bar was the size of an atom
• The list wasn’t in any discernable order, so I had no idea how or where my model would be
• When I pressed ‘V’ to try and skip to my model, it jumped to another (much older) model and selected that
• It now won’t let me select mine!

So basically, I shadow boxed with this form for about 10 minutes until I stumbled upon my model. I managed to finally complete the online quote, and was given the price. Except it seems Adrian Flux are a broker, and are giving me prices from other insurers. Right. Overlooking that for a mo, “Great”, I think. “This is actually really competitive.” But I scroll down, and I’m treated to a rather large bunch of assumptions. It assumes, amongst SEVENTEEN other things, that:

• I am single
• Have had no claims/losses within the last 5 years
• Have 9 years No Claims Discount
• The vehicle is fitted with a Unspecified CAT 1 security device

Now, the first one is perhaps ok to assume (especially seeing how often I update this blog, I suppose it’s ok to think I’m probably single and lonely). However, saying that I’ve not had any claims in the last 5 years…AND that I have 9 years No Claims Discount…aren’t they the same? Which one is it?!

And quite frankly at this stage whether I have a CAT 1 device installed or not is completely irrelevant because my brain-meat has leaked out of my ears since using their website, and I can no longer walk, let alone drive.

Adrian Flux, wherever you are, please review your online user experience asap. Your conversion rates would go through the roof.

Final thoughts:
I have none. My brain-meats are gone.

Tags: adrian flux, insurance, journey, review, usability