The new Which? website

I first subscribed to the Which? website a few years ago, when purchasing many appliances – fridge, cooker, oven, dish-washer, washer and dryer – for our new place. I remained subscribed through the baby years – selecting a car seat, a buggy, a high chair and countless other paraphernalia – and have remained subscribed, because there is always something you want a trusted opinion on: a new TV, or kettle, or a vacuum cleaner! Having just received an e-mail inviting me to “Check out the new Which.co.uk”, I thought it would be a good time to go look up slow cookers.

I clicked on the link, and landed on a page that looked like something out of a technology magazine – a bright, visually strong band across the top displaying phones…quite different from the earlier look-and-feel. On looking at the caption however I realised that this was the “latest news” feature and was about the recent Apple redesigns. Then I noticed the little white triangle indent – indicating you could go to grass trimmer advice or Samsung table or Find a great trader by clicking on the text – these are in fact featured items, but it may not be obvious to first time users. Regardless, the photos pop out and really stand out from the white background and the very dark grey menu band. I’d be tempted to investigate grass trimmers just because of the photo. 

The top menu lists the new six areas of product expertise – Technology, Home & Garden, Money, Baby & Child, Environment & Saving Energy. This makes a lot of sense to me as a consumer. In any case, the search box is there also, so if you’re not sure in which category to find a specific product you can search for it straight away. The bright graphics further down are also very clear and easy to identify. Assuming slow cookers will be in Home & Garden, and not being averse to a bit of browsing, I click on that link.

Landing on the Home & Garden homepage, the menu choices are again clearly displayed and make sense to me. There is a big, slightly too in-your-face call to action to sign up near the top of the page – displacing more useful information further down below the fold and “More from Which” that I would have expected further down the page.

Conversely, the “Best kitchen appliances”, “News” and “Essentials & Tips” would benefit from being further up the page – as more relevant to me as a user interested in Kitchen stuff. Plus as a current subscriber (which, since I clicked on the link in their email, they should have identified!) the sign up ad is irrelevant.

There is really a large amount of information on that page, which is generally quite busy, and a bit difficult to navigate. Skipping over, I click on “Kitchen” in the top menu. I am here presented with a long list for Cooking – which incidentally does not seem to be in any particular order. Scanning down the list, I find “Slow cookers” and click on the link (interestingly, further down the page, “Food & Drink preparation” is in alphabetical order…) and I’m there.

For comparison purposes, if I search from the home page for “slow cookers”, the first line of results shows “Slow cooker reviews” – and clicking on it would have taken me there much more quickly…