Realestate.com.au have updated their website and included a new menu strip across the top and left hand side menus. Speaking with REA it seems that the main reason was to simplify the process for users as well as give some more prominence to some of the other resources that have been added in recent times (and purchased).
I hope this is something that leads to a full website design but it seems that REA are going to implement changes incrementally. Being such a large site I can understand this, but it really does need an overhaul. The site performs ok (for such a large resource) day in and day out but there are some things that I think REA should be looking at.
The Property pages and search results pages are getting a little heavy with advertising (and promotion of listings) and it is getting harder to see what is part of a property listing and what is not. That may be the plan but Internet users are getting so used to ignoring advertising that whenever they get caught out it just annoys them more.
I was provided some facts and figures on the new menu strip and every button showed an increase in click-thrus so it must be working. However it is just too hard to work out how they measure these things and against what history for it to be of any value to anyone else but REA.
Have a look for yourself and let me know what you think.
www.realestate.com.au