I produced a quick video on youtube showing my aimless meandering around un-usable websites trying to find a car rental in Auckland. It was a somewhat amusing process. Watch the video clip to get a sense of how challenging lack of usability really is.

So, my first step was to fire up google.co.nz and enter the search words “car rental Auckland” The first natural result – that is, not a “paid” advertisement – was Apex Car Rentals. So, I read their description on google. It contained a lot of keywords stuffed in the webpage title. So, I could not assess whether the website would be easy to use, but I did think that the web developers knew how to spam google. Looking further down the google results page, it appeared most of the top websites for the search phrase were “keyword stuffed” of titles and descriptions. By golly, have all the car rental companies hired search engine optimizers? I thought so!

A scan of immediate search results did not help me to guess which website would be easy to use. The descriptions were not easy to read, so the sites would probably not be any better. I then decided to take the unconventional step of going to page 2 of my google search results! I know, I must be crazy. And I am.

Page 2 made me happy. I scanned the results and settled on Avis NZ. Why? Because I knew the brand, it is trustworthy, recognizable and I have rented their cars before. Their title and description text were also simple: “Avis car rental – Avis NZ” : “Auckland car rental made easy with Avis New Zealand – make your reservation online today.” That sold me on the click. Now the website visit…

Nice. I found the functions I needed to perform directly from the top navigation menu. But, the price had me worried. I visited the google results again and found that I had already been to a rental website by the name of drivenz.co.nz and liked it: nice colours, easy to navigate and scan; and the prices were better than Avis. Sold!

God, I love ease-of-use.

My disclaimer is that I do New Zealand website usability evaluations. So, I may be overly critical of a website because of its ease-of-use flaws. But, hey, websites should be very easy to use so the customer is happy! Don’t you agree?

Hopefully I have provided you an idea of what Auckland car rental sites are best to visit; and which ones to avoid. Happy rental hunting!
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S Evangelou 21/10/2008