Travelport has talked about its Universal Desktop project for an eternity, but just a few months remain until agents around the world can start playing with it.

Officials behind the scenes are inevitably touting it as the most advanced agency search and booking portal ever created, as you would expect.

So what does it look like?

Well, until now nobody outside of the inner sanctum at Travelport had any idea at all as the project is still in its final stages of development and briefings do not start until at least late-summer 2010.

But step forward Ohio, US-based Clutch Interactive.

The “digital communications agency” posted a series of screenshots on its Facebook page illustrating plenty of the Universal Desktop’s design and functionality.

Full credit to Graham Robertson of ProjectWander for discovering the photos and re-posting them on his site a few hours ago.

Oops.

The shots have since disappeared from the Facebook page. Normally on these types of occasions, all parties involved say the shots were of old designs and functionality and should be ignored.

And certainly the second and third shots above look incomplete. Nevertheless, photograph number one looks pretty darn good though.

Such a saga demonstrates the terrifying transparency of social media and what happens when curious bloggers such as Robertson dig this kind of stuff out.

It may well be out-of-date and irrelevant, but Travelport would probably not have wanted even these types of shots appearing ahead of time.

Travelport portfolio director Jason Nash who oversees the Universal Desktop project says drily:

“We are delighted that people seem to be as enthusiastic about the forthcoming Travelport Universal Desktop as we are and we’ll keep you posted on further developments!”

This isn’t the first time a contractor has accidently posted screenshots of a high-profile travel project long ahead of launch date. In 2009 a web designer published grabs of work of the much-anticipated VTravelled project by Virgin Atlantic.

NB: International dial-in number for Clutch did not connect and emails bounced back.

British Airways has quietly started testing a new map-based trip planning system this week giving users the ability to search for destinations based on holiday types.

The World Explorer product sits on a beta URL within BA.com, uses Google Maps for the interface and is the result of work carried out between BA and Adobe for their Flex web system.

Similar to the Amadeus Affinity Shopper project created in late-2009 and since adopted by Lufthansa, World Explorer allows users to discover routes on the BA network based on whether the destination is recommended for different holidays, including romantic, beach, culture, nightlife, food and family.

Users can select a single or combination of types and results are shown on the map. Routes can also be toggled by length of flying time and number of stopovers.

As well as showing where flight connections are required, BA’s codeshare and OneWorld routes are also included in the system.

Once a destination is selected, a pop-up content box appears with more information including a brief overview of things to do, events and suggested other cities.

Live fare prices are also included in the information with a link back to the BA booking engine to secure flights.

The system is still in its early stages and more content will be added to the destination pages over time. Photography used in the project was gathered from BA staff through a competition running on the company’s intranet.

After 12 months in the making VisitBritain has finally unleashed a new website for domestic and overseas tourists today.

A radical redesign, headed by digital agency SapientNitro, is at the centre of the overhaul with huge amount of space given over to maps and images.

VisitBritain says 95% of the photography will come from images taken from photo-sharing website Flickr. It is also encouraging visitors to upload their own pictures to Flickr.

The photography sections are linked to the maps so users can switch between the two channels when searching for destination and activity ideas.

The site supports 23 different languages around the world and is segmented around a number of key channels for the user: destination content and maps; things to do; events; accommodation; transport; and tips.

The accommodation element of the site features a new search system for hotels and other accommodation providers in the UK, with links to online aggregators such as LateRooms, Active Hotels and Superbreak.

This element of the site is, however, one of the most controversial parts of the overall VisitBritain digital strategy, with many in the industry split of over how close a state-backed organisation should be to commercial product suppliers.

VisitBritain says the new site will spearhead its efforts to draw visitors to the UK ahead of and during the 2012 Olympic Games, taking place in London.

The site has also used maps from both Bing and Google.

A survey which may surprise many at the sharp end of usability and web design has found travel sites ranking behind only news and media sites for overall usability by consumers.

The poll by usability agency Webcredible of 1,000 consumers (around 40% US, 40% UK, 20% RotW) revealed just 9% found travel sites difficult to use, 2% behind news and media sites.

Languishing in last place were government and local authority websites with 34% of respondents slamming the sector’s range of websites for ease-of-use.

The results will be a pleasant and perhaps unexpected fillip for travel sites although many experts agree that usability and user experience on online travel brands has improved massively in recent years.

Webcredible director Trenton Moss says:

“Website user experience has become a big deal in most sectors and users are increasingly frustrated if they find a website difficult to use and will tend to drop off commercial sites for this reason.

“Some sectors are clearly performing better than others when it comes to website usability, but as competition and demand for online functionality increases, it’s crucial that websites in all sectors invest in providing their users with the best user experience possible.”

The sectors in the survey included:

• News/media – 7%
• Travel – 9%
• Utilities – 12%
• Retail/ecommerce – 13%
• Financial services – 16%
• Government – 34%

Experts say the travel and news-media sites are winning the usability battle because consumers are able to quickly move to another provider if they dislike the experience on a website, unlike government services where typically there is only one source of information or service.

The poll was conducted between September and December 2009.

Recently I have been looking at the user experience with a lot of online travel booking engines and other search tools.

Frankly they mostly suck. This is in the main because this is not simple or easy.

There are too many dimensions to the process. But that doesn’t mean that we have to put up with poor user experience in the main today.

Indeed it is high time the powers that be (and you know who you are) started to revisit the concept of the user experience.

So let’s consider what could be an ideal solution. I am by no means a user experience expert but I do believe that there is not enough effort put into this area.

Given the stagnating market share for online booking services and search – I think we need to consider a number of issues.

Explicit vs Implicit

There is surely by now enough experience to show us that we can store information that is repetitive.

I am frankly sick of typing my name (perhaps I should shorten it to Smith or something). I should not have to do that.

I am also willing to give my personal details to anyone who will improve my experience. So why not just tell me that.

I am not surrendering my freedom but there are basic pieces of information that I can have stored which can uniquely identify me and add to the process.

What we have to get away from is the comprehensive and explicit nature of the interface and start to use essential information that will reduce the burden of explicit interaction.

Intelligence vs Brute Force

There are just some illogical itineraries that should be eliminated. Experience by now should show us that we should be able to reduce the total plethora of choices.

This information can be mined anonymously from the user behavior on a website. If an airline isn’t doing this today – they should be. Its harder admittedly from a neutral perspective.

However looking at the total number of possible flights to ones that are viable and preferable should start to eliminate the need to apply Brute Force searching to every single query.

Reduce, Recycle and Reuse

C’mon people – time to take advantage of what we already know. There is way to much “JIC” (just in case) activity.

We have a lot of data let’s start using it and turning it into information. I like Skyscanner and Yapta for this. Frankly I just don’t like Kayak. I hate its UI.

Timothy’s Theory of Relativity and Context

Everything has its place. Sometimes you need a lot more input – in other cases you need very little input to define the right question to get the explicit best answer.

A case in point. If I am going to book a multi-stop sales trip (do they still exist?) or a long haul area fare type trip – then I am hardly going to use an iPhone for that. However if I am going LAX-SFO for the day – I should be able to do that easily. And there should be an App for that!!!.

Clutter Generates Disloyalty

For a long time OTA sites and search firms have questioned why there is so little disloyalty amongst their users. DUH!

This is hardly rocket science. Just looking at the amount of amount of useless crap and clutter on the screen should be good enough.

I really am not caring at this point about the revenue model – I am trying to be a purist. As it is so easy to click away – don’t give the user a reason to do that.

The vast majority of sites distract the user with too much “stuff”. I am a fan of the BBCs new website policy of removing clutter from the UI.

Clarity Uber Alles

Stop obfuscating the information and embellishing it. If I wanted opinion I would ask for it. Give me the goods unfiltered and fully comprehensive when I want it. BUT BE CLEAR in what is what.

Travel Fast and Travel Light

Too often the pages – particularly the home pages are bloated pigs. While there is now more than 75% broadband usage – consider the light users and the awful load times.

Lightening fast light pages are a must. And don’t forget how important mobile is to the process. Consider the users screen. If you don’t have a /mobile version of your site then you are doing your users a disservice (again).

OK so now here is your challenge. Show me a new user interface which improves my user experience. I am personally hungry for it. I am sure that the squillion other online users are too.

Failure to do so will result in the whole category going down in flames when some smart chappie in a garage figures it out.

You have been warned…

A website is for life, not just Christmas:

Work on the website doesn’t end once the site is built and homepage optimised.

Much like you wouldn’t drive a car without a yearly service, maintaining your website and updating the homepage on a regular basis is vital.

Travel company websites need to ensure they refresh and review the look and feel of the landing page to keep it in-line with current off-line promotions and ensure the personality of the company shines through.

There are CMS systems out there, including our Marmalade Suite tool, which give the user complete control over web output, making it easy to add or remove signposts to other pages for example.

NB: This How To series is authored by Marcus Brennand of Digital Marmalade

Spread the word:

So you’ve built a lean, mean impactful website with great landing pages – now you need the customers.

Spread the word through social media websites. Ensure you post relevant news, offers and updates to these sites.

Set-up competitions with good prizes and link back to your website.

If you do this correctly then before you know it the messages will propagate through to thousands of potential customers.

Try producing interesting interactive viral games, again with prizes to be won and post these onto the social media sites.

Actively participate in the world of blogging within the travel industry and ensure to link back to your website.

Optimisation:

Make sure people can find your site by ensuring your homepage is optimised for search engines.

Use keywords in your title tag (the text that appears right at the top of the browser window) and in your h1 tag (the main heading of your page).

Ensure your site is semantically arranged – in other words if all the styling and graphics are removed, it should still flow properly and make sense.

Any images should have descriptive alt tags and file names, and if using Flash, then provide it’s content in an alternative way for search engines which can’t always read text in Flash.

Finally, use microformats where possible; these are standardised ways of presenting common information, such as contacts and events, which are easy for search engines to read and index.

NB: This How To series is authored by Marcus Brennand of Digital Marmalade

Mobile:

As more and more users access web content via mobile devices, the need to develop user friendly versions for this medium will become all the more important.

Browser testing should be complimented with ensuring content not only fits but makes sense on the growing number of mobile platforms on the market.

Unfortunately there isn’t a one size fits all approach to this and mobile versions need to be stripped of all unnecessary content and graphics in order for them to be easily navigated and viewed.

If companies are already rationalising content on their main website, they will be well placed to more easily produce a mobile specific version and stay one step ahead of the competition.

NB: This How To series is authored by Marcus Brennand of Digital Marmalade

Search tools:

Complex universal search panels and predictive text used by many travel websites will have a detrimental effect on the speed at which the homepage loads.

If they are not implemented correctly most will probably bring up a list of results which don’t mean much to the user.

Although this approach is tidy from a website programmer’s perspective and gives the user instant responses, it means more data needs to be served up during the initial homepage download.

Having a stripped-down default search will help to lessen the burden, with the more advanced features loading in when the user requests them.

NB: This How To series is authored by Marcus Brennand of Digital Marmalade