Thursday, October 4, 2007

Amtrak

One site that I use very often is the Amtrak site, and it is one of the most annoying sites that I know. This site not only breaks the cardinal rule of breaking the back button, but if you are able to get back to the main page, it loses all the information that you have stored. The train stations that are offered open up in a new browser, and you have to scroll to find the station you want. It is a mess and it breaks multiple "Three Skull" rules, yet I keep coming back for more. I need to buy my train tickets ahead of time, and this is the only place I know. Even if I knew somewhere else I would probably still go to the Amtrak site. I don' t know why this is, maybe the brand name, but despite the defects of the site, I have learned to live with the poor usability issues. It seems crazy that such a big name like Amtrak would have these issues, but it just goes to show you that money doesn't equal usability and efficiency.

Thanks,
Tim


www.amtrak.com

2 comments:

RDMillner said...

Is Amtrak listed on any of the travel meta-sites like Expedia or Orbitz? That could be a convenient way around their websites poor design.

Unknown said...

Or even their design should have less pages to be able to reserve a seat. It should just be all on one page and have the schedule be a pull down.