review
AXA Sun Life – usability issues
Recently, I had cause to help someone manage their life insurance account online. This isn’t hugely exciting in itself, and actually points to my somewhat misguided tendency to try and ‘help’ people with the Internet…but what it did uncover was a frankly terrible online journey for AXA.
Given their wide-ranging portfolio of insurance products, and indeed the propensity for customer churn in that market sector with the rise & rise of price comparison sites etc…well, you’d expect their online presence to be pretty good in order to give customers one less reason to defect to another brand.
Are they redefining standards? No.
AXA, you failed. And I reckon you failed because you’ve become complacent with your website (or haven’t ever done any usability studies on it). Read on and find out why!
The scenario
Existing life insurance customer wants to login to change some details.
The journey
Armed with a paper copy of the account details, I’m already a bit mystified as to where to go. Nowhere on any of the documentation does it mention a web address to visit. However, plastered all over the docs are the AXA logo – proud and blue with a lovely red stripe on it (not the Jamaican beer, unfortunately), so I bash that into Google and the .co.uk site appears top. Off we go…
Click to enlarge
That massive white letterbox there is the crap Flash banner that’s been adblocked by Chrome. Tip #1: if you’re going to use shitty banners, make sure they are hosted on your site so that adblockers don’t block ‘em.
So, on this homepage I’m looking for a way to login. Here’re the problems:
- There is no obvious login area: there’s nothing in the top right (the usual place for login functionality), and nothing in the footer
- There’s no clear hierarchy: loads of similar-looking links, and nothing stand-out to draw the eye
- Ooh look – an ‘Existing customers’ box on the right: except…I’m looking for a login for a Life Insurance policy, but there’s nothing like that in the drop-downs
- Ah, ok – there’s a drop-down in the Insurance top-nav for ‘Manage my policy’ – this could be it!
So, according to this it’s only Travel & Home. Dammit. Ok ok, so there’s another link in the top-nav to ‘Life & Protection’…let’s try there. I’m then treated to this message:
On 15 September 2010, Resolution Limited acquired the majority of AXA’s UK life assurance businesses. Both AXA and Resolution would like to reassure customers that your policy terms and conditions are in no way affected by this acquisition
We’re then given a link to the Sun Life Direct website. Is this where I’m meant to go? I don’t have a Sun Life policy. ARGH!
Conclusion
AXA, if the user can’t login to manage their life policy, you need to tell them. If they can, make it obvious. This infuriated me and the person I was trying to help (not least because I’m supposed to know what I’m doing On The Internet – and now you’ve made me look silly).
Oh yeah, and your footer still says ©2010. That’s soo last year.
1Site review: Legal & General
The Legal & General site (www.legalandgeneral.com) has undergone a rebrand, as has their offline material. As one of the largest life insurance brands, their new brand guidelines should be pretty good. I thought I’d review the site in terms functionality, design and usability.
Smith & Milton were appointed to do the work. How did they get on? Is it an Apple-esque poem of usability and customer-focussed design? Or have they missed the mark? Read on and find out!
0Site review – bestbuy.co.uk
I spotted a retweet today from a friend that announced Best Buy had iPads in stock. This in iteself isn’t of particular interest to me, but I thought the site could do with the once-over…so I duly headed over there for a look.
How did the site shape up? Are they ‘Best Buy’, or ‘Best Bye-bye’? (AHA DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE? It’s like I’m Anne Robinson or something). This is actually quite a short review, but take a look anyway. Read it over your coffee or something. 
Read on!
4Site review: easyjet.com
Firstly, apologies for the silence: Real Life seems to be happening, and Twitter has taken a backseat – as have reviews. Anyway: I’m back! 
I was recently looking at flights to Greece, and as part of my research phase I visited the ubiquitously-orange EasyJet site…and I bet you can guess what’s coming up next! Yup – Review Time! God, my life’s incredible.
How did it fare? Do the bargain-basement brand values carry through to their site? Read on and find out!
Disclaimer: I’ve used false dates for the purposes of this review – so don’t bother coming to my house to steal my pants on the dates shown in the screenshots. I will be in, and will summarily execute underwear thieves. Unless you come bearing fig rolls, in which case you’ll be robbed of them first – and then executed. Understood? Good.
Another disclaimer: If you don’t like the colour orange, don’t read this article.
1Route One review – redux
Back in 2008, I reviewed the Route One website (here). Aside from that being ages ago (time flies), I recently stumbled across the site again – they’ve undergone a redesign! That’s cause for a) celebration, and b) another review.
To recap, the main issues with the old site were:
- Crazy homepage with bonkers messages
- No hierarchy in terms of buttons, messages, actions or otherwise
- Badly-built (all in tables)
- Strange combination of design templates
So has the redesign gone well? Did they sort out those issues? Or have they become Route Bum? Read on and find out!
0Site review: Virgin Holidays ‘Weddings’ section
Hello! I’ve not written a scathing review of a website for a while, so I thought I’d drop this little gem on you.
For one reason and another, I was recently forced inclined to look for more information regarding weddings abroad – specifically in the Caribbean. Drop ‘caribbean wedding‘ into Google, and the Virgin Holidays (www.virginholidays.co.uk) brand appeared top of the results. Having worked for Mr Branson in the past (and generally thinking his products are pretty good), I went and had a look.
How did I get on? Was the site virginal, or did it more resemble a loose woman of the night? Read on…
2Review of National Rail (www.nationalrail.co.uk)
Travelling a fair distance (120+ miles) each day getting to and from work means the train is really the only method of transport that works for me. As such, I am a regular visitor to the National Rail site (www.nationalrail.co.uk), and have been for a number of years.
Predictably (why else would I be mentioning it?), they’ve recently relaunched it – so I thought I’d share my views of it with you. Does it do the job it sets out to do? Have they taken a step back? Read on!
(Ok so I accept I’m late to the party with this one because eConsultancy have already written an excellent review of the new site – but I’m going to try hard to differentiate, just so you don’t get bored…)
2Review of Associated Press (www.ap.org) site
Whilst looking for some news story providers, I decided to check out the AP (Associated Press) site, www.ap.org. I was after some quick info about news story feeds/aggregation, and possibly some stock imagery.
What happened on my thrilling journey? What was their site like? I know you can’t wait to find out, really. It’s the only thing that’s keeping you going, isn’t it? Admit it. It’s fine.
Read my (admittedly brief) review here!
0Direct.gov.uk – site review
My car tax is due, and I received a letter to remind me. How nice. In doing so, it led me to the www.direct.gov.uk site, where I can renew it online.
This shitty task got me thinking: “Why don’t I review this site?”…so here you go! Read on to find out what I thought of the site as a whole. Or is that ‘hole’? I dunno.
0www.apple.com – more usability annoyances.
Merry Christmas! Hope you had a good one.
As a result of a faulty laptop purchase, I’ve been looking at the rather splendid, but horrifically-priced, Mac Book Air. It’s perfect for my commuting requirements (i.e it’s lightweight and has a good battery life), but I wanted to find out how much it’d be on finance. How did I get on? Read on and find out!
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