BBC News — M&S tops High Street web ranking

Marks & Spencer’s website has topped a new ranking of user-friendly websites, with its fashion retailing rivals Next and Top Shop struggling at the bottom.

Web usability consultants Webcredible assessed the websites of 20 of the UK’s most popular High Street retailers. It cited confusing search results, poor navigation and complicated checkout procedures as the worst mistakes.

You can download the report here. Webcredible’s assessment criteria are, it seems to me, well thought-out.

There are a few more things I would look for if I were doing such an exercise:

1. Does the site tell you immediately whether the price includes value added tax (VAT) or is this a surprise saved up for the checkout page?

2. Does it ask you to confirm whether you really mean significant instructions? A few days ago, I ordered a gift for someone and, not really paying attention, entered my address instead of his as the delivery address. (To be precise, Roboform entered it and I forgot to check.) I don’t imagine it would be too hard to put in a little routine that, for example, picks up that your address and the delivery address are the same and then asks if that’s your real intention. Other simple errors should be preventable in a similar way.

3. Does it tell you where to look if you’ve made a mistake when completing a form? Just saying, as one site did to me the other day, “You have completed this incorrectly (error 850)”, is of no help and does users’ blood pressure no good. The site software should highlight the relevant field or fields for you to go straight to and correct.

4. Does it blank out the form if you return to it to correct an error. This one gets me shouting at the computer. (Yes, I know it makes no practical difference but I feel better for it.) You’ve just painstakingly filled out a lengthy form and the system tells you (helpfully or not, see 3 above) that you need to try again. It then sends you to a blank version of the form, not the one you had just filled in. With or without a form filler like Roboform, this is apoplexy-inducing. Designers who permit this should be locked in a room with a group of frustrated users until they get the message.

5. How easy are these sites to use for people with some form of handicap? It not only makes moral and commercial sense to make this possible, it has been a legal requirement for some time. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 is the relevant legislation in England and Wales.