Four Seasons

Issue 1

Duplicate Links

Navigational areas are scattered throughout the Home Page, with several items duplicated (shown here in red). Company information is relegated to fine print at the bottom of the page.

Home Page real estate is precious; every pixel must be used wisely. Duplicate links waste space. They also confuse visitors, who expect navigation to be clustered logically and based on function.

If the duplicate links were removed, there would be plenty of room for all company information to be placed at top right.

Issue 2

Badly Placed Link Home

All web pages should include a prominent link Home. The best locations are at the top of the main navigation and in the company logo. (On this page, the logo is not a link Home.)

The placement shown here – at the lower right –is the exact opposite to where visitors would expect to find a link home.

Issue 3

Dead End Form

Once this form is opened, all navigation disappears. There is no way back to the main site other than clicking the “Submit” button at bottom of the form. (Once again, the logo is not a link Home on this page.)

Though visitors should always be allowed to use their browsers’ back buttons, they should never be forced to do so.

Issue 4

False Link

“REGISTER HERE” looks like a link, but it is not.

Web users will often assume that underlined text is a link. It’s a bad idea to surprise or disappoint them.

Issue 5

Salutation is Required Field

Marketing and sales staff find salutations useful. But asking for it presents two usability problems:

First, it’s an additional step. The longer the form, the fewer responses you’ll get. Only ask what’s absolutely necessary.

Second, unless you include all possible titles, you risk alienating users. This is especially true of companies like Four Seasons, whose international and affluent customer base includes titled patrons (Rev, Sir, Lord, Hon, etc.)

At the very least, this field should be optional.

Issue 6

Splash Screens

There are numerous animated splash screens, none of which provide any information.

Web users are becoming impatient with unnecessary steps and empty pages. Splash screens are among the most notorious examples of “all sizzle and no steak”.

Issue 7

Excessive Shipping Charges

Buy a $5,000 gift card, and Four Seasons will actually charge you $21.50 for shipping. (Note: that’s for standard service, 5-7 business days.)

Increasingly, web users expect free shipping. Amazon.com will ship a $25 book for free; why can’t Four Seasons ship a gift card for free?

With two links to gift cards on the Home page, Four Seasons clearly wants to make their sales a priority. So why do they risk turning off customers with ridiculous shipping charges?

Issue 8

Inconsistent Instructions

The instructions indicate you may only order 3 cards per shipping address.* Yet the form allows any number to be entered, and recalculates the shipping charges based on that number.

This would be very frustrating for, say, a corporate client who wished to order 100 certificates as employee bonuses. Also, note the shipping charge is $566.00!

*Nowhere is it explained why you may only order three.

Issue 9

Illegible Text

This page was The Perfect Storm of illegibility:

• Reversed text
• In italics
• Over a photograph

Kudos to Four Seasons, though. The page has since been replaced.

Issue 10

Undersized Form Field

The “City” field at right is only seven characters long, making it difficult to spot and correct errors before submitting the form. In this example, we’ve attempted to enter “Bellingham”.

Again, Kudos to Four Seasons for correcting this blooper. The page has been replaced since our initial visit.