TravelZoo

[|travelzoo.com]


 * Low-Level Items**

Color-wise fonts stand out well and are easy to read. Some areas of text could use a little more spacing from other elements to make it easier to read. The wording of some phrases could be thought out a little bit better; for example "sign up to travelzoo" might read more easily as "sign up for travelzoo". The colors on the website work well together. The light blues, whites, and greyish blues have a kind of relaxing feel to them which goes well with the vacation theme. The layout of the site is done well. The site uses a three column layout just below a main navigation bar. The three columns are laid out well and the spacing make it easy to use. One of the first things you see in the middle of the screen in the middle column in the "Find Deals" section which allows you to search by destination, keyword, or starting location for great travel deals. Since most people are probably coming to this site for travel deals, I think this is located well and makes the website more usable.


 * Mid-Level Items**

The website is pretty consistent. On the home page all the submit buttons are the exact same size and style. Links are consistently shown in light blue. Headers are consistently displayed in black. The more important the header, the larger the font size it is displayed in; as a user this is what I expect and helps me to decide what's important on the page. Across various pages, the website maintains a very consistent feel with the exact same navigation bar, logo, font styling, and spacing. Error handling is a bit inconsistent across pages. On the homepage if you subscribe without an email address, first it takes you to another page to sign up again with more info. On that page if you sign up incorrectly it highlights your errors under the input fields. However, if you use the find deals search on the homepage and leave the input field empty, the browser pops up a notification box. This could be confusing to a less experienced user. Text is used pretty minimally on the website. The writing style is straight to the point and clear.


 * High-Level Items**

There is a lot of information displayed on this website. Thus the information architecture is extremely important. Too much information can be extremely overwhelming and too little can be frustrating. TravelZoo is closer to the "too much" information side. If you click on "Local Deals" in the navigation, by default, about a hundred results are shown. The credibility of the site is suspect. The website is constantly trying to get you to sign up for their newsletter and has subscribe sections on almost every page. If you click "SuperSearch" in the navigation, the website is split in two columns. The first column is an area for search and the second it a big box aimed to entice you to enter your email; as a user this makes me very suspicious. The website promises to respect your privacy and not spam you, but I still wouldn't give them my email address. The website in general does a good job of appealing to the audience because it makes good use of space by packing as many "deals" in to each page as possible which is probably what most users want.