Commercial (mis)use of ergonomics18.05.09
A couple of months ago insurance company AXA was building its new website.
During the transition period, a screen was shown, explaining the different changes planned to be integrated in the new site.
One of the five key points was: “Innovating ergonomics and a simplified navigation”.
Since I am passionate about my work, I couldn’t wait for the new site to go online and discover these ‘innovating ergonomics’.
So, on February 17, when the new site was live, I visited it in detail.
Having worked previously for the insurance sector, I simply tried to realise 5 priority scenarios, as they had been defined for other missions: “A manager wants to contract an insurance against loss by fire for his new property. He wants to consult the tariffs online and decides to visit three different websites.”
The homepage profusely worked on the ‘wow effect’ so it took me some time to understand the content and to simply find what I was looking for.
Coming onto another page, I used the navigation menu on the left to go the products ‘Living, family and hobbies’. There, I stumbled upon a navigation menu that was really difficult to use.
All the choices that have been made go against the basic scientific principles used in behavioural sciences:
- The menu is composed of 38 items, presented in 14 different labels. It therefore requires a great cognitive and perceptive effort.
- The formats used for the title products (Habitation, Famille, Loisirs) are the same as those used for the “Dossiers / Guides” and the “Devis / Simulations”. This gives the brain the impression these elements are comparable, which in reality is not the case.
- The words used to denominate the different topics are interchangeable which makes it hard to choose the right link.
- The matrix structure creates vertical and horizontal reading behaviour which prevents focused reading and leads to a chaotic ocular behaviour.
User behaviour is one of the essential weapons to differentiate oneself from the competition. However, more and more, companies and / or agencies use the terms used by our profession in an attempt to legitimise work that is far from the quality work one may expect from an expert in behavioural sciences.
The future has always belonged to those who passionately and fastidiously assimilated and/or developed state-of-the-art technology, which goes far beyond mere words. This allows companies to recognize their talents as experts.
