The home page of EAA's site, EAA.org, does not validate.
Another page on the site, EAA.org/Shop, does not validate either.
There are 31 validation errors for EAA.org and 53 validation errors on EAA.org/Shop.
I would give EAA's site design a 7 because it is overall pleasing to look at, but the navigation could certainly be better. Much of EAA's main navigation features are on the top header of the page. If a user scrolls down the page right away, they could miss most of the links to very helpful information.
I would rate EAA's site usability a 4. As the Ecommerce Manager at EAA, I pay closer attention to the shopping experience. On the EAA.org/Shop pages, the page load time is very slow. Thankfully EAA's IT department is working to fix the problem, but in the meantime, it doesn't make for the most user-friendly experience. When you get to the guest checkout page there is a form for the shopper to fill out all their shipping information. This form is laid out pretty well, but not all of the validation works properly. The email address, first name, and last name validation all work, but when you get to the billing address information, a user could get away with not entering their full address. There's nothing to verify the city or the full "Address Line 1" box. A person can type one letter into the Address Line box and the website will think it has a full address.
Overall, I do believe the EAA website does meet it's purpose. It's a useful website that has many purposes and there are still many successful transactions through the EAA.org/Shop pages.