First I visited the main Westjet site and checked out some flight options:
Then, because I had some Westjet dollars in the bank, I went to the Westjet Rewards booking site:
Do you see my error? It took me at least two
minutes to figure out the problem. I now realize I was relying on visual cues
to guide me.
* The email provided a visual cue (short code first, long code
second).
* The main website follows the email format of short code first,
long code second. (It also has sample codes to help guide people.)
* The Westjet Rewards booking page uses a short and long box.
That’s why I assumed the Westjet Rewards page
followed the same format as the email and the main website. But if you look
carefully, you can see that they’ve reversed the code order. Which was very
confusing to me, especially given the visual cues of the short and long boxes.
In the end I got my flight. But the lesson
is: if you’re going to train your customers to use your site, make your UX consistent.
Otherwise they’ll think your site was designed by Moriarty himself.
