It’s all about ClearTrip.com, the best Online Travel Agent (OTA) in India. But, they’re much more than that. Coded by a bunch of great Indian developers, ClearTrip is a gem among the innumerable services on web and is an excellent example on How things are to be done and maintained.
They started off offering Flight bookings, added Hotel reservations and a few weeks back, added Train Reservations too. The whole portal is a fine example of usability and efficiency, that leaves a scintillating memory in the minds of users, thereby making the important marketing principle work for them: “Get your product right into the customers’ mind”.
The homepage contains just 8 images (including a logo, two meaningful “new” labels, two tiny calendar buttons and an arrow, a temporary announcement background, and A BUTTON). How brilliantly, they’ve stated “It’s not all about images!”. They’re an example for professionalism in usability. All the details that are required to plan a trip have been provided right at the front page. No “get-it-done-easy-with-our-wizard”s, no “Step X of Y”. Straight to the point. All this and a “Current Offers” section, and there is still a lot of free-space left on the page; lets you breathe smoothly.
The best fares calendar is a seriously handy tool, not to mention the Air Fare graphs. Here again, usability thrives.
What feels to me as the best is, the Train reservation system. It’s a power-packed bundle of handy and needed services and tools. The interface is similar to the flights section. But, to understand the awesomeness of ClearTrip’s system, you need to have used Indian Railway’s official reservation system atleast once !
The most usable feature is the “Check availability”. It’s all coded inline, there by eliminating the need for multiple page loads. It appears right there on the same page. And you can even, view availability for next SIX days. The goodness doesn’t stop there. When you click on a train name, a box loads and shows you the schematic route diagram, and train-running details, where you have the option to view the route highlighted on Google Maps also.
Know about your travel and route inside out with the informative graphics, maps and details.
They’ve got a neatly updated blog, whose contents challenge even, acclaimed writers. And an active Twitter profile too. Upon my question, they replied,
Every single one of our coders is proudly Indian
Thus we conclude the review of ClearTrip, the best online travel agent/service in India, which is a great example of a web app, that offers maximum usability at the same time, providing a rich and vivid experience. You know it’s a success, when these two (usability & design) coincide.
Update: Within minutes after publishing the post, they send me a tweet, in which, they pointed me to a post on their blog, which talks about the sensible use of images (which we’ve read at the start of this post.)
Arvind
Thanks for this great post! (and a lot of free publicity of CT 🙂 )
UI is totally ignored in most indian sites including our railways portal!
I think thats the cause of my aversion to any indian site including the much advertised in.com 🙂 But your post is proving my prejudice wrong. 🙂
Wow! TheAnand have just written Google Chrome
Great Aravind!
I have always preferred the traditional way of calling up the agent and booking/planning my trip, but I guess this has encouraged me to go ahead and make my next bookings with Cleartrip 🙂
Congrats.
So glad to hear that, I could help you in some way to make your life easier. 🙂
With the many payment options available at ClearTrip, it won’t be any difficult to get your travel planned and confirmed.
Yes. Unfortunately, our railway portal is one among the worst designed portals on web !
I wonder why they aren’t designing it properly, even though they’ve got the funds to do it.
Yes. Many are a bucket of colours. But, there are many more like ClearTrip, which are the gems among design and usability.
You wrote this post after BCK..? Did you win the prize..?
And btw, what did you do with the 25$ cash you won recently..?
cheers
Arun
Wow! Arun Basil Lal have just written Site Goals for 2009
What I meant was, did Clear Trip sponsor our blog Camp..? Had you written this review earlier..?
Thanks for asking.
This has got nothing to do with sponsorships. Morover, ClearTrip wasn’t a sponsor of BCK, either.
Also, this is not a paid review, or anything of that sort.
I wrote about ClearTrip, because, they’ve done a superb work and I stand for spreading good works and goodness !
I see you are going great with MillionClues. Go ahead. All the best wishes and support assured.
Hey, Thanks for the assurance, That really helps man.
Did you see the friends page..?
http://www.millionclues.com/friends
Suggest if you want any changes. Cheers
Wow! Arun Basil Lal have just written Site Goals for 2009
What a way to make your friends feel special.
Lovable page there, Arun. Wonderful.
Hmm, I am glad that you enjoyed my page, Why dont you make one such page..? Mani’s idea is great. You will be there for BCK 4.. right..?
Cheers
Wow! Arun Basil Lal have just written Site Goals for 2009
Clear trip is definitely a great service when coming to train tickets, but regarding flight tickets I’m not sure if its the best one.
I searched for flights from Mangalore to Kochi and it showed 5100 for 2 people, but at the same time KF was showing 4700 for the same ticket same day.
Think twice before you book tickets thru cleartrip. The site is very user friendly but that alone does not help. The after sales service, viz for cancellation, rescheduling..is very disappoiting. Have a look at their complains link. if you are someone to take a risk of loosing some money, go ahead. By the way, there are other service providers who offers better price and service.
@Augustine
I value your opinion. I personally haven’t used them to book tickets.
I was focussing solely on the Interface and design.
I second Augustine and have personlly experienced it. Website is good but if you happen to fall in hands of customer services for cleartrip.. they will make sure to take you for a trip. REAL BAD.
Oh, that’s sad. Haven’t used them yet.
Wow. Congrats ClearTrip.com! You have done so good in business and establish a good name to make it to the top of all indian online travel agent.
Welcome to cultural state Orissa – the east state of India.Orissa, the land of Historical, is one of the most sought after tourist destinations in India. Completely soaked into royal grand.
The site is very user friendly but that alone does not help. The after sales service, viz for cancellation, rescheduling is very disappointing. Thank you.
The site is very user friendly but that alone does not help. Clear trip is definitely a great service when coming to train tickets, but regarding flight tickets I’m not sure if its the best one. Thank you.