1. Belgium’s most user-friendly website (overall winner – public vote)

Chosen by the general public based on a short-list of 10 websites selected by a professional jury.

• 1st place: Karel de Grote-Hogeschool
  Web agency: Internet Architects
• 2nd place: KrisKras
  Web agency: Marlon
• 3rd place: UiT in Vlaams-Brabant
  Web agency: Statik

The jury’s comments on Karel de Grote-Hogeschool:

• Good information selection
• Clear overview pages
• Concise copywriting

2. Most user-friendly corporate or commercial website

Chosen by the professional jury

• 1st place: KrisKras
  Web agency: Marlon
• 2nd place: Newpharma
  Web agency: SmartValue
• 3rd place: Connections
  Web agency: Digipoint

The jury’s comments on KrisKras:

• Playful but clear graphic design
• Nice filter options to find the trip that suits you best
• The pages about a trip are very complete and well-presented

3. Most user-friendly government or non-profit website

Chosen by the professional jury

• 1st place: UiT in Vlaams-Brabant
  Web agency: Statik
• 2nd place: Sibelga
  Web agency: Marlon
• 3rd place: Karel de Grote-Hogeschool
  Web agency: Internet Architects

The jury’s comments on UiT in Vlaams-Brabant:

• Clear, intuitive graphic design
• Lots of relevant click-through options
• Fantastic search feature with excellent filters

Congratulations to all winners!

For more info on why these websites made it to the top, come back soon.

Usability Awards 2011

If you would like us to keep you informed of the start of the submission period for next year’s Usability Awards, please leave us your email address.
Inform me about the 2011 Awards

Case study presented at 2009’s SIGCHI.be conference. SIGCHI.be is the Belgian chapter of SIGCHI, the premier international society for professionals, academics and students who are interested in human-computer interaction.

What’s the presentation about?

• 3x more visitors
• What makes UiTinVlaanderen.be so much better than Cultuurweb?
• Do the community features play an important part in the site’s success? 
• How did user tests improve the search feature and results?

Usability Awards 2009: 2 times silver for UiTinVlaanderen.be

At the Usability Awards 2009 the new and improved UiTinVlaanderen.be came 2nd in the category ‘Most user-friendly government or non-profit website’. But UiTinVlaanderen.be wasn’t only a jury favourite. The site also came 2nd in the public vote.

Strong points of UiTinVlaanderen.be according to the jury

• Phenomenal amount of events
• Task-oriented homepage and main navigation
• Handy search filters
• Good integration of social media and web 2.0 features

Weak points of UiTinVlaanderen.be according to the jury

• Content and copywriting isn’t always the greatest
• Doubles of events
• The search filters could be more streamlined
• Too many events without images, making you dislike the omnipresent ’Uit’-logo

What’s so good about the Plan België website?

1. Creative and user-friendly

Because most websites of usability gurus can’t exactly be accused of looking sexy (Useit.com anyone?), a lot of people seem to think user-friendly is synonymous with dull.  

Plan België proves these people wrong.

Jury comments:

• Graphically creative without losing sight of user-friendliness
• Infectious design
• Good looking website that does what it’s supposed to do

2. Good categorization and navigation

The main navigation (’What Plan does’, ‘Support Plan’, ‘About Plan’) is short and clear. The second level of navigation is also pretty good.

The overview pages make the most of the clear categorization.

3. Focus on top tasks

The website’s top tasks (’Become a Plan parent’ and ‘Donate’) are in the picture the whole time. The website is built around these tasks.  

4. Well-written, layered content

Fortunately, the website is more than one big cry of ’show me the money’. It has loads of interesting content. 

Two things stand out:

• The content is ’layered’. It’s presented to the visitor one tantalizing bit at a time instead of in one big gulp.  
• The writing is adapted to the web.

Is planbelgie.be perfect?

Do pigs fly?

A few critical notes from the jury:

• The website’s look & feel is pretty busy-looking. Not overly so but because of the excess of cross-links on the right side of some pages it can get too busy. Focus: the basis of every good website
• The breadcrumb isn’t exactly ideal. Read our 7 tips for a good breadcrumb
• Search results could be a lot better, especially the way they’re presented. Read our layout tips for search results
• The site doesn’t look too great in Internet Explorer 6, still good for at least 10% of visitors. Recent browser statistics

Would you like to know how we can help you improve your website?

• Register for our web usability and writing for the web training in Dutch
• Get a usability expert to have a look at your website
• Have a user test on your website

What’s so good about the Ancienne Belgique website?

1. Form follows function

The site’s design is functional. It’s clean and doesn’t detract from the reason why people visit the website: the concerts Ancienne Belgique is putting on.

In the words of one jury member: “Refreshingly straight-forward”.

2. Clear primary navigation

Home, Concerts, Projects, Artists, ABtv and AB Radio. That’s all. And that’s enough. That’s what most people visit the site for. (To be fair, ‘Projects’ is a bit vague.)

3. Good concert pages

Clear and consistent concert pages with handy in-page tabs.

All the essential information is at the top of the first tab.

4. Interesting community features

The jury was very impressed by the useful community features like ticket exchange and carpooling.

“The web 2.0 features are present, but not in an obtrusive way.” “The community aspect doesn’t overshadow the site’s primary content: the concert information.”

5. ABtv and AB Radio

The integration of video and audio is of course a huge added bonus on the website of a concert hall.  The way these features are integrated deserves a mention as well: it’s simple, clean and clear.

Is abconcerts.be perfect?

Is anything?

There’s no such thing as the perfect website. Ancienne Belgique has a great website, but there’s still room for improvement.

• Submenu of ‘Concerts’
  Finding all the concerts in a certain genre of music isn’t exactly easy. The right column and ‘tag cloud’-like presentation leave a lot to be desired. (Some jury members didn’t even notice the tag cloud.)
  The genres should be a lot easier to find.
• Terminology
  Things like ‘Download calendar file’ don’t sound very attractive. ‘Add to calendar’ would be a lot more inviting.
• Ticket sales
  A big break with the informative part of the website. Far from ideal…
• Registration here, registration there
  Is it really wise to make registration compulsory for just about everything?
• Copywriting
  The copywriting in the concert pages is often quite massive and brochure-like. Not really adapted to the web. Copywriting example

Would you like to know how we can help you improve your website?

• Register for our web usability and writing for the web training in Dutch
• Get a usability expert to have a look at your website
• Have a user test on your website

What’s so good about the Brussels Airlines website?

1. Task-oriented homepage

If you’ve been here before, or read Gerry McGovern’s column, you know it’s important to identify and manage the users’ top tasks, the main reasons why they visit your website.

Brussels Airlines knows that. And both the professional jury and the public appreciate it.

Jury comments:

• “Task-oriented homepage. The majority of visitors come to look for a flight, book a flight or look up details of a flight they’ve booked earlier.”
• “Good sectioning off of the different reasons people visit the website for.”
• “You can start booking on the homepage.”
• “Clear homepage.”

More good things about the homepage

• The navigation is aimed at the important stuff. Things 99% of the visitors are looking for. The odd user wanting to know more about the history of Brussels Airlines is going to have to try a bit harder to find that information.
• ‘Book now’ is very prominent on the homepage. And that’s good. It’s what most people visit the website for.
• ‘Manage my flight’ is important for 2 reasons:
  • Direct access to these top tasks. Especially ‘Check in online’.
  • Inspire confidence. It’s good to see things like ‘Change my flight’ and ‘Cancel my flight’ are easy to find when you’re about to book a flight.

2. Inspire me!

The big disadvantage of most booking systems or travel search engines is their database-approach. The result of that is a block like ‘Book now’ on the homepage. Great if you want to book a flight to Melbourne from November 15 till December 16. Not so great if you’re tired of the winter and looking for any destination where it’s sunny and warm.

On the ‘Destinations’ page Brussels Airlines tries to go beyond the classical database-approach. Pick a theme and a time period and they give you a list of destinations that fulfill your wish. Nice. 

3. Practical overview of the practical information

Okay then, I’ll say it one more time: it’s practical.

4. Book a flight

The ‘Book now!’ block on the homepage scored the site points with all jury members. The type-in fields and the date-picker are well-executed.

The division into logical steps was appreciated as well: “the wizard-like approach helps present a complex procedure in a simple way”.

Does Brussels Airlines have the perfect website?

Can pigs fly? Is it raining men? 

There’s no such thing as the perfect website. The Brussels Airlines website is good, but of course there are points of improvement as well.

Jury comments:

• “The copywriting is often very good, especially on destination pages. But the pages with practical information can be long-winded and not very visually appealling.”
• “Booking online works well, but it could be better still. It’s often unclear why there are price differences in the same class (economy or business). The error messages can be improved as well.”
• “The map showing all destinations isn’t ideal.” Read our article ’Google Maps: cases from travel websites’ for more information.

Would you like to know what your website’s strengths and weaknesses are?

• Register for our web usability and writing for the web training in Dutch
• Get a usability expert to have a look at your website
• Have a user test on your website

The shortlist in alphabetical order:

• Ancienne Belgique
• Belgium.be
• Brussels Airlines
• Bubblestick
• Kudzu
• Leuven
• Plan België
• Pukkelpop
• UiT in Vlaanderen
• Vlaamse Maatschappij voor Watervoorziening

It’s up to you now to decide which of these websites deserves to win the title of Belgium’s Most User-friendly Website.

Vote now!

What you need to know

• Submissions need to be in by 15 September 2009, 12 AM
• Only a website’s maker or owner can submit a website
• Only websites that have been launched or thoroughly redesigned after 1 January 2008 can be submitted

3 awards

• Belgium’s most user-friendly website, chosen by the public
• Jury prize for the most user-friendly commercial or corporate website
• Jury prize for the most user-friendly non-profit or government website

Jury

3 usability experts

• Els Aerts from AGConsult
• Sigrid Vandenweghe from Human Interface Group
• Sim D’Hertefelt from Kwintessens

3 internet professionals who’ve proven they know it’s all about the user

• Davy Van Den Bremt from Calibrate
• Bart Van Herreweghe from a.o. Belgium.be
• Bart Urlings from the province of Flemish Brabant

More info? Want to submit your site? www.usability-awards.be.

Spread the word.