overfiftycarinsurance.co.uk

I need to get some insurance for my car - a somewhat unreliable Mini Cooper! Upon loading cheap car insurance site overfiftycarinsurance.co.uk given the URL I had expected a company offering insurance for drivers over the age of 50. It is only by scrolling down the screen that it is apparent what the website in fact offers: firstly, a price comparison portal for companies who do provide this insurance; secondly, a selection of information articles and guides for safer driving, car maintenance, etc.; and thirdly, advice and warnings against rip-offs, common 'scams' and so on. The site's design needs to organise information in this priority order for the user's clarity of use.

The large button directing the user towards price comparison for over 50s deals is helpful, as this makes it clearer that this is the site's prime purpose. However the rest of the screen (requiring scrolling down five to six times) is a very long explanation of the site's premise: that many over 50s pay too much for insurance because of wrongly assuming they are automatically being offered a good deal. The site's purpose is laudable, and a unique selling point for overfiftycarinsurance.co.uk - I have not seen any comparison sites focus specifically on older drivers on the issue of price alone (save for arguably Saga).

However, the current layout is confusing. The launch display is a virtually full-screen image of a winding road, and neither the image nor the text imposed over it clearly relate to 50+ drivers. The site's logo, displayed in the top-left corner, is small and easily missed.

The website's main purpose is only clear to the visitor when they have scrolled down the page, and read a great deal of accompanying text (and navigated past an extremely large chart). Many visitors may not persevere.

Furthermore, the website and its tab description are hampered with inconsistent capitalisation ("Compare 50+ car insurance Quotes Now!") and poor grammar ("Buy over 50 car insurance at the very cheapest price"), which is distracting and may reduce the user's faith in the quality of product on offer.

overfiftycarinsurance.co.uk could be markedly improved by a clearer design: a series of small drop-down boxes at the top with clear headings, a brief explanation of what the website does (with more detail on one of the sub-pages), and some examples of the savings which users can make, with case studies or testimonials to persuade users to obtain quote comparisons. Images of people identifiable as the target audience would aid clarity, too.

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