Access Testing

Usability Testing and Eye Tracking

The brief

AAMI, a leading Australian insurance provider, approached Access Testing to test My Policy Manager, a new online application that allows their customers to view and modify their policies.

Our approach

Access Testing decided to conduct Usability Testing and Eye Tracking sessions.

In June 2005, Access Testing conducted twelve 90-minute individual test sessions with representatives of the target market. At Access Testing's usability labs in Sydney, test subjects completed questionnaires and interviews, and were observed completing a range of online tasks.

Eye Tracking analysis was conducted on the AAMI website to review the AAMI homepage and the My Policy Manager pages.

The findings

Access Testing's report identified a range of usability problems with the existing design.

The My Policy Manager login area had a number of clickable links as well as the 'Log-in' button at the bottom of the page. Many users selected the 'Take Tour' link, which was positioned close to the text 'View, Manage and Renew your own policies online.' Users then had difficulty navigating their way back from the tour to the transactional area.

Eyetracking on this area confirmed that the issue was not the terminology of the button 'Log-in' but that users actually did not see 'Log-in' before selecting one of the other links.

Our analysis identified that the existing design was not optimal and that the average user might 'just give up and make a phone call'.

This graph is an output of the Eye Tracking session which shows the specific areas of the page examined by the user when looking for the login prompt.

Eye Tracking provided quantitative data to support and validate the usability findings.

Recommendations

Following the study, recommendations were made and design changes were implemented. The revised design had a simplified page layout, with fewer calls to action.

Access Testing also provided structured recommendations on a range of issues including positioning and labelling of buttons, and navigation design. User feedback from website users about completing tasks online was also collated and presented.

Business benefits

For AAMI, Access Testing's usability consulting assisted My Policy Manager in increasing the number of online sign-up completions beyond planned projections.

AAMI recently won 'Best Australian Insurance Website'. The award recognised the transparency the website gave to AAMI processes and the ease of use experienced by their online customers.