I think your CMS is posting articles with the incorrect date.

Classic Web 2.0 subjective analysis of what a front page should be. Why does every guy who uses big fonts and works on the web consider themselves a user experience engineer?

Personally, I never need to use any of that stuff from the site since I book from travel aggregates, and re-use the links in the confirmation email to get to the information I need. I wouldn't be surprised if that's a lot of people, but I wouldn't count on it either.

Regardless, usage data AND business needs should drive design, not font-size goals by some kid who's hopped up on his obvious 37 signals influence and thinks he's a Rock Star of UX Engineering, no doubt orgasming from simply being a member of the DHH school of "disruptive" thought.

Clearly he belongs in San Fran or some other startup environment so he can hop from biz to biz selling short term UX solutions that never have to meet the needs of real businesses.

Other than that, nice colors.

Posted By Ivan on June 3, 2009, 3:27 PM

Hi Ivan,
Thanks for your comment. Not sure I understand about the CMS comment. We post on Eastern time. The date seems correct to me.
Thanks,
Sean
Blog editor

Posted By Blog Editor on June 3, 2009, 3:49 PM

Much better website. I'm obliged to fly AA when I travel and find its interface frustrating.

Posted By Zach on June 3, 2009, 5:33 PM

Certainly looks more user friendly to me. I am always more inclined to use a travel site that I can understand otherwise when there is too much information, I feel like I'm not getting the best possible deal.

Posted By Helen on June 3, 2009, 8:20 PM

The headline leads us to believe that this guy "fixed" the whole thing in a few hours. Did you read the response from AA? It's not that easy and seriously??...a new alternative was "built"?? That's like saying someone wrote a novel, just because they designed the cover. I'm not saying AA.com isn't messed up, and I don't doubt that this guy has some talent, but a 22-yr old in a bubble has a little learning to do about the real world!

Posted By emmechelle on June 4, 2009, 10:56 AM

Hi there,
Good point. I’ll change the headline from “builds” to “mocks up”.
Thanks for posting a comment,
Sean
Blog editor

Posted By Blog editor on June 4, 2009, 11:08 AM

I have never found AA.com to be that non-user-friendly. Sure, it has its quirks, but compared with many airline sites, it is OK.

In fact, I have to admit, I like it better than some of the "simpler" ones. Why? Because I have to think as I use it, and be rational in the process. So many of the other sites which attempt to be user friendly remind me of US mountain roads in which guardrails on both sides take out one's ultimate responsibility to be in charge of the journey.

So, yes, there are fewer guardrails on AA.com, which means if you mindlessly try to do something you will end up not going where you want to go.

The other problem I have with the "simpler" sites is that often only the BIG categories are listed, and one has to hunt (and I do mean hunt, often off the travel website into the corporate site) in order to find anything other than what a first-time traveler mentality might want to know.

Take a look at the "mock up" and you will see that for many functions one would have to access a second page to get started. At least at AA.com most of the functions can be directly addressed on the opening page.

But, count me in the minority, probably, on this as on many things. The "in" thing in religion right now are mega-churches which offer "worship-lite" with no need for thought, consideration, or even deep engagement. As long the worshipper is in the doors and having a great time, that is all that counts. I still like a time of contemplation and even thoughtful challenge in my religion as well as in my travel planning . . . to know I have options.

Posted By Rev Randy on June 4, 2009, 12:22 PM

The sight needs work and his mockup looks ok, but it really is only for the first page of their site. There is much more to the site than say just the basic I want to fly to X for any amount of money.

For example the second page of the real aa site that he shows in his screenshot is extremely useful, that is where you get to pick your flight based on flight time and cost. Or say where do I get reminded that I need to sigh up for the MasterCard again to get 20 or 40,000 miles closer to an Austria trip (yes they make a lot of money on those cards - they wouldn't want to hide that).

The area of their site that bothers me the most is the new (a few year old) flight sale pages. Back in the day you used to be able to scroll through all the routes that were on sale - the new version is a generic landing page, that says something like "South America on sale - fairs from $495" and then there is a search box. i.e. you can not find out what the sale means to you with out having a route in mind. The old version at times was poor since you had to look through 8 pages to get to routes starting in Washington - but you could see sample routes and prices. It was much more helpful to see where you could go for what price. Now whenever I click over to a sale from say Travelzoo I don't see routes and prices and I end up navigating off the page - its much to much work to have to think up 10 different routes to figure out if there is a deal worth investigating.

Posted By Iolaire McFadden on June 4, 2009, 2:05 PM

Nice critique Ivan. This re-design looks like a lot of other web 2.0 sites out there. In my opinion, this webpage re-design is very idealistic. What happened to the sponsored advertisers on the existing left column of AA.com homepage? Yes, it organizes the information better, but what happened to AA.com's brand? Its a nice conceptual design that a typical "cool" interactive agency can crank out. In 5 years, this look and feel will be out of date. Design should be about the client and their needs and less about the designer.

Posted By sarah on June 4, 2009, 2:12 PM

This is the "USA Today" Generation coming up with a website look. It is too much "look how cool the website designer is".

AA.com is generally OK. AA.com is not just "AA.com"! Try logging in from somewhere else in the world like Italy, Switzerland, etc. There are multiple AA.com websites. They know from your current IP address where you are connecting from. AA would have to tailor each of their websites to that market or country.

Combine AA.com's best features with Continental.com's best features and you would have a really good setup.

Posted By Rich on June 4, 2009, 2:56 PM

I agree, AA's Web site is horrible. I e-mailed them a couple months ago, since I found it so frustrating to find out airfare that we totally crossed them off the list when planning a family vacation this past March. Most people who are working to try to afford a vacation can't squirrel away precious planning minutes on rinky-dink time-wasters like AA's site.

The proposed alternative looks pretty but it's hard to say how well it would work.

Check out AirTran's site, though. Very simple to see everything you need to know, although it would also be nice to incorporate something like Southwest's "shortcut" feature, that shows the lowest fare for each day during an entire month between two airports.

Posted By eliewriter on June 4, 2009, 6:28 PM

Who cares - all web sites work differently and sometimes even the best ones frustrate the hell out of you - it's just part of the game. On the other hand, anyone who likes good travel deals, which is my top priority, should wake up to the fact that American Airlines has been running some of the best prices on air inclusive vacation packages of the last year or so. I have ended up on their web site repeatedly over the last 6 months and on their flights too, because of the best prices I can find ANYWHERE and I use a lot of travel sites - not just airlines. So I could care less about yet another goofy site design - just keep those deals coming. If you read this - be sure to check American Arilines site next time you want to book an exotic vacation package - they have been very competitive on price for quite some time now.

As far as site design I have also found their site to be very useful for checking and changing seats and adding in my American Airlines advantage plan number - if a travel agent leaves it off. In other words I feel their site goes a little above and beyond what some of the other airlines allow online.

Just my two cents worth. Big deal - all sites are different. I guess the originator wants them to follow his design standards - yah wouldn't that be a perfect world if every site did things in some logical order - but it's not gonna happen. Maybe he's just pushing his own favorite way, or philosophy, of doing things.

Posted By R Miles on June 4, 2009, 7:30 PM

THANK YOU DUSTIN! I'm a marketing guy. What I have learned from working with Com-Sci engineers and GD/UI folks, is that they follow the 99/1 rule. In Marketing, we follow the 80/20 rule. Most of the engineers and web design folks are very talented, detailed, and logical. As such, many websites try to cater to everyone. But as a result, the websites become cluttered, additive, and 'me too'. By focusing on 80% of your core customers and reflecting what your brand truly is, websites can become less 'template-ish' and more unique to the brand and customers. Conversion will improve and so will your eye sight.

Posted By Dean Wright on June 5, 2009, 12:05 PM

Perhaps he could take a look at Delta's website? I have never had any success booking a flight with them even after wasting quite a bit of my time and requesting tech help. Their tech help was a joke and further waste of time.

Posted By Susie on June 11, 2009, 2:17 PM

Interesting - especially when you consider the responses as a whole and the implications of "Mr. X" at AA.com. Here we have hundreds of people inefficiently putting together an obviously flawed website that is a clear example of design by multiple conflicting committees - and all of us at a company that is loosing money and getting a reputation for poor customer interaction (which is much more than just customer service). What the CEO at AA most needs to do is to make sure that someone ("ONE" being critical here) is in charge of the web site. A single point of visibility to the world like a single website needs a single person in charge, like a CEO; someone with taste, someone who can get rid of the useless stovepiped people, who has the authority and ability to get the groups working as one team. This is not new. That's not to say it's not hard - but it is necessary. That CEO needs a chief technical officer, and Mr. X just might be right person. One person to be the boss, where the buck stops, responsible to someone high in AA. One person to be responsible for the details of the site. One team behind them. Secondary teams are fine -- but only so long as they contribute to the one team.

Posted By John on June 12, 2009, 11:44 PM

I became so frustrated trying to book a flight on AA.com that I gave up and booked on southwest.com. The entire process (booking 2 round-trips w/stopovers, paying and printing the confirmation emails) took less than 6 minutes.

The negative, nasty, superior-toned, judgmental comments here about Mr. Curtis' work and suggestions are disheartening, yet not at all surprising.

Change, even for good, is often viewed as a scary proposition. The insults, however, are unfortunate as this type of behavior often results in discouraging a person who is attempting to provide A SOLUTION rather than just sitting back complaining.

Personally, I don't want a "thoughtful challenge" as I make travel arrangements. I want it quick, thorough, secure and professional.

And I also don't want ads on a travel site. That's like saying, "forget HBO, show me a movie with an hours worth of commercials tucked in. I have nothing better to do."

And, how many times has history been altered by a "kid from a school of disruptive thought"? Most patents, scientific inventions, battles for social change, religious reformations, music revolutions (like the 4 kids from Liverpool whom many thought would be a flash-in-the-pan), etc... resulted from actions by kids with a vision. So glad they were willing to ignore the bitter naysayers.

Keep up the good work Mr. Curtis.

Posted By peanutraveler on July 26, 2009, 10:36 AM