3 questions for Heathrow’s website. Any answers?

How does website design reflect customer priorities?

On Saturday I drove from Zürich to a small village in the Swiss countryside, about 50 minutes away. The temperature was about –10 degrees, and it was snowing steadily with a thin covering of white stuff on the motorway. After a pleasant dinner I dusted about 2cm of snow off the car and drove home again, with many other motorists and without drama or incident.

The next morning the temperature was –15 degrees and I drove the same car (not a 4×4) up and down a mountain. Apart from the view there was little to write home about.At the same time the trains have been punctual and planes have been taking off as normal.

Tomorrow I will fly to London Heathrow and, it seems, that despite slightly milder weather the planes, trains and automobiles are having difficulty in keeping things together. This is an oft commented phenomena, but it leads my to an example of web design that hints at a common corporate problem which does no favours to companies, or their consumers, and particularly to travellers in this case.

Three questions for consideration

Have a look at the this screenshot from Heathrow Airport’s website this morning

1. Does the website answer the exam question “Can I get home or away?”  What does “some disruption” mean? Delays, cancelations, inconvenience? What exactly?

2. What is the communication priority of this website considering the placement and design of the different messages? Shopping, or information for customers?

3. Does this website reflect a company that is focused on getting people from A to B as effectively as possible, or a company that wants to screw as many £ as possible out of a captive audience?

Am I being too harsh and reading too much in to things? Or is this a fair reflection of that fact that many corporations focus on priorities that suit them instead of the customer, don’t understand customer service, and don’t understand how to deliver it via the web?

Update

Following my journey, here is my latest Twitter post:

Time required to fly from Zürich to UK: 1hr10min. Time for luggage to be delivered to baggage hall: 1hr45mins. Heathrow is a national disgrace.

Seriously. And excuses about Christmas peaks and weather don’t wash since they have shown so many times previously that they can also screw it up on a good day..