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Charcol, the leading UK independent mortgage and financial advisor has launched its revamped website www.charcolonline.co.uk. Charcolonline has processed over £1 billion worth of online mortgage applications since its launch in 1999.
Charcol commissioned The Usability Company at the start of the project to simplify the process of both finding a mortgage and applying for a mortgage online. This was achieved through a series of one to one Usability Evaluations, using participants recruited from Charcol's target demographic, at the beginning and end of the redevelopment process with over 80% of The Usability Company's recommendations being implemented.
Charcol monitor the performance of the website using sophisticated tools and these provided The Usability Company with valuable information about where in the site and the various key processes users were failing and/or leaving. The Usability Evaluations identified why the users were having problems and the Usability Specialist, Marty Carroll, who has specialist qualifications in Psychology, Cognitive Science and Human Factors, made recommendations about how the site should be improved.
Issues ranged from major - those that actually caused a barrier to users completing their goals, to minor - those that were simply frustrating. Implementation of the recommendations has made the site even easier to use.
Marty Carroll, Head of the Usability Practice at TUC explained:
"The site meets the many various needs of its' audience in a timely and easy to use manner. Finding a mortgage is not one of the easiest things in life but this site's design manages to take away much of the stress".
Russell Gould, online development director, Charcol comments:
"The challenge for Charcolonline was how to improve an already hugely successful site. The usability testing enabled us to better understand how customers actually navigated the site and pinpointed any areas that could be improved upon. The result following the site redesign, we believe, is a much more individualised, slicker and user-friendly online experience."
Stop press - Charcol has just won The New Media Age Effectiveness Award for Online Banking and Personal Finance. 'The company has succeeded in making a complex product easily accessible to an online audience.' (NMA 4th July)
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