Purchasing online insurance. Download white paper

Please note this white paper was produced in 2002

The purpose of this research was to gauge the usability of some of the top travel insurance web sites and gain an understanding of some of the users issues when trying to apply for this sort of insurance online.
A standard and methodical approach to the usability research was used. Six participants were each asked to accomplish the same task on six different sites offering travel insurance. The users were taken from demographics that represent the typical users of these sites. The users were encouraged to “think aloud” so that the specialist could understand what was going through the users mind.

Although the one on one interview sessions were recorded on video, showing user interaction with the sites and users facial expressions, hand written notes were taken to record the problem areas. The users were also asked their opinion of each site to elicit some qualitative preference data.

This is always treated with caution as what users recall as problems are not necessarily the areas which caused them most difficultly in achieving certain goals. This is why web sites owners should always consider user experience and usability as separate but closely related issues.