The fact that bloggers who dare criticize Ryanair web site have been called “idiots” by that company prompted me to take a look at the site, which should supposedly be perfect to justify that attitude. Well, the first thing I tried to do, that was simply checking the timetable, produced tragic/comic results, shown in this screenshot:

Three big usability mistakes in just one shot:
1) When choosing the date of departure and arrival for the month of April, the site prompted me with a list of possible days where 31 was the last day of the month. I was interested in the timetable for the full month so I chose the last day proposed, assuming that it is those who build a web site who must take into account the saying "Thirty days hath September, April, June and November;…" (besides, programming a calendar into a web site is a simple programmer’s task which does not require a computer science genius).
2) The error message is false and misleads the user: it is the return date to be invalid, not the departure one. The site directs the user to correct the right date!
3) "undefined has only 30 days." Undefined?!? I have no words. Perhaps the production of another type of calendars to which Ryanair is much committed drains attention away from those calendars who are really useful for the passengers.

Now let us look forward to the hopeful correction of the 3 errors. Maybe "idiots" can sometimes be "useful"?

© 2009 Luca Chittaro, Nova100 – Il Sole 24 Ore.