Insurance web sites could use some freshening up, according to marketing and consulting firm Vox.

Their study compared 12 insurance industry providers: State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, Geico, American Family, Liberty, 21st Century, and Country Financial, AIG and Nationwide, and, as a control group, two companies from related segments, AAA Chicago and USAA. It analyzed the positioning of key customer and user elements, such as insurance quote and find-an-agent functions. Each company was given a rating based on a set of usability and benchmark criteria.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the outcome of the study revealed that most industry leaders place the most importance on the quote function. The study also revealed that there is a variance of other elements on the home pages, which means consumers do not have a standard way to find agents or access claim information. In comparison to other industries such as banking, the report said that insurance seems to be lagging in terms of online standards. One exception to the overall findings is 21st Century, which recently redesigned its homepage to improve the positioning and clarity of the various user elements.