Top travel websites ‘too cluttered’ for users
Some of the UK’s top travel websites have been urged to improve their user experience and accessibility.
A report by digital agency Sigma found that 10 top sites had some shortcomings, particularly when it came to accommodating disabled users.
It looked at Skyscanner, AirBnb, LateRooms, Booking.com, LastMinute, OnTheBeach, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Co-operative Travel and Expedia.
While it noted that some sites – notably Expedia and LateRooms – scored well for screen reader-friendly, it said on average sites scored only 23 out of 35 across a variety of categories.
The report looked at how easy the sites were to use across different devices; accessibility for all users, including those with physical, cognitive and visual disabilities and overall usability.
It found that six out of 10 were too cluttered which meant important information could be missed by partially sighted users, while nearly half had inconsistent interfaces, making going through the booking process difficult.
A third of the sites blocked the ability to zoom in and out successfully on an iPad; while four out of 10 sites didn’t contain alt text on their images, meaning visually impaired users would struggle to know what was contained in the images; and only two were screen reader friendly.
Hilary Stephenson, managing director at Sigma, said: "The findings of our research demonstrate that travel companies are indeed adopting good web usability practices in the main. They also clearly recognise the importance of being easy to use across different devices – including mobile and tablet PC – with many having responsive and adaptive websites, and invested in mobile apps.
"However, accessibility testing with independent consultant, Molly Watt – who was born deaf and now has partial sight – revealed a number of potentially concerning findings when it comes to how accommodating the sites were for disabled users.
"While six out of 10 of the sites had good colour contrast, scores against the remaining accessibility factors were low. The fact that many of the sites didn’t contain alt text, and most of them weren’t screen reader friendly means that partially sighted people would really struggle to use some of them."
She said more than 10 million people in the UK have a disability.
"Total digital inclusion must now be a priority to these businesses, so everyone is able to access the same services online, regardless of whether they have a disability or not," she added.
"While it might seem like a minefield, there are a number of small changes travel companies could consider making which would really improve accessibility of sites – using a simple and un-cluttered layout, enabling the zoom function, and amending colour-contrasts to avoid all white pages would be good places to start."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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