One Little Thing: Avis.com's Auto-Scrolling Homepage

The web works the way the web works and we're all used to it. When something doesn't work the way we expect, it's disconcerting and it throws us off, even if only a little. If we get thrown off right at the start, the consequences could be disastrous for a website's conversion rate and revenue. Customers using the Avis.com homepage are in for one such unexpected experience. Here's the page when you first load it up:

It's a good looking homepage even though the tag line "Spring Promo Sale at Avis!" is not clickable and there is no clear way to find more information. It's kind of floating there and is probably too small to fill the intended role of headline. The real issue with the homepage experience, though, is evident when the customer starts interacting with the reservation form. As soon as the pick-up location field becomes active, the following happens to the page:

The form opens up to show all of the fields and the screen automatically scrolls down to place the pick-up field just below the header in a very sudden, jarring motion. Not only is the motion unexpected, the new field placement feels uncomfortably high. Even though we're looking at a website and not a photograph, the average person is still subconsciously accustomed to the rule of thirds. This suggests that the key visual should be somewhere near a third of the way down to feel the most natural and not right at the top or on the edges.

Avis, your One Little Thing is to correct the field placement on the initial homepage load so that it does feel natural and does not automatically jump to the top of the screen when it's clicked. You're adding unnecessary cognitive load and stress before the customer has even committed to your process.

Additionally, Avis, I'm going to throw in a few extra observations surrounding the pick-up location field and the impact of the page jump.

1. Do not give the customer an error if s/he did nothing wrong. If the customer switches tabs and then comes back to Avis.com, the pick-up location field has an error on it.
2. If the cursor is in the pick-up location field and any non-character key is pressed on the keyboard (Tab, Caps Lock, Print Screen, etc.), even if the field is left blank, the field submits a search in the background. If blank, it returns another error saying that there are no locations found which will no doubt be confusing. Again, the customer did nothing wrong but is being given an error. If a location was already chosen, the form resubmits that location as a search and the customer must reselect it. The intention here is a good one but you're better off just adding a search trigger when new characters are typed into the field.
3. Rethink the final value that is placed in the pick-up location field after one is selected by the customer (shown below the list). In certain cases the value is too long and the resulting text displayed can look like an error on its own. The text trying to be displayed below is "-(EWR)" which represents the airport code. The lack of added spaces suggests that someone knew that the character limit was close and was trying to cut a corner. It would be much better to use an abbreviation for the country.
4. As shown in the screenshot above, when you automatically shift the form up to the top of the screen you create a new dilemma in that there are now two potential submit buttons for the form. One says, "Select My Car" and the other says, "Let's Get Started." The latter is not the correct button (it actually starts the reservation all over again in a modal window but still shows the original form and inputs underneath). However, the design treatment of a bright red button on a white background makes it a far more prominent button visually than a gray button on a red background. This one will likely require some A/B testing to figure out the correct way to offer the 2 reservation methods.

It is amazing the number of usability issues that can arise when looking at even a single field. The real key here, the One little Thing that effects all of your customers, Avis, is the unnecessarily automatic scrolling of the homepage. It causes them to lose their place on the page and requires them to spatially reset their interaction point on the screen. Redesign a smooth experience and more customers will flow through the remainder of the form and on to see the rates and vehicles.