Tuesday, October 16, 2007

United.com [United Airline (UA) website for US customers]

Intended audience
Tourists use or plan to use UA international / domestic flights.
Mileage Plus (UA frequent flyer program) members.

Usefulness of content
Some are very useful, e.g., “Service & Information.” Go to “Prepare your trip” then “baggage.” Viewers can get all the information regarding baggage, such as carry-on, restrictions. In general, however, except for the basic information everyone needs using (e.g., reservation, flight status check, mileage check for the members), viewers may not find any “unique” or “new” information they want to use in the website. No other language choice in the website.

Consistency of design
Consistent, the corporate image color (skyblue) is well coordinated among the web pages. Nevertheless, the pages are “pointless” “no-eye catch” “flat” “non-positive” looking; nothing appeals to viewers. For example, the font size of “special deals,” although two parts can be found at the top page, are the same or even smaller than other fonts. The link to “Mileage Plus” is no exception. They are as if no intent “selling.”

Ease of navigation
Not so easy. The information is not well-categorized. It seems to “hide” a lot of information, but not easy to find. Maybe site map / link is not organized systematically. For example, the U.S. customer service telephone numbers for foreign language speakers cannot be found, although actually the services are offered (there are 4-5 language services at least for Asians in the US. I assume UA also offer Spanish, Portuguese, and so on). Customer Service question browsing function (looking for examples of FAQs and answers) is too complicated. UA tries to cover every expected question, but ironically it makes viewers difficult looking for the right answers.

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