I’ve recently been searching for a new place to live (Contrary to
popular belief, Econsultancy staff are occasionally allowed to leave
their desks), which means I’ve been spending even more time than usual
online, browsing the ‘to let’ ads on property websites.
And getting closer to a brain haemorrhage on an hourly basis.
Estate agents and larger aggregate property sites are ideally placed to
exploit the massive uptake in web usage we’ve seen in the last decade,
yet their sites are usually among the very worst examples of
design and usability you’ll ever encounter, while the offline experience
is also disjointed and frustrating.
While it’s clear that the agent can’t always be to blame, larger
companies in particular need to get their act together fast as some
providers are surging ahead, leaving their less useful competitors in
the dust.
As an excuse to go house-hunting during working hours and have a bit of
a rant in general, I wanted to run through some of the common mistakes
I’ve seen recently.
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by Matt Owen
19 April 2011 10:17am
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