The main element to great usability for an online shop is familiarity. People have already been buying goods online for decades now, they expect you'll see a certain process unfold when shopping on the net, and when a designer makes radical departures from the status quo, tears may ensue (regardless of how good the designer's intentions may be). Does this mean a designer is locked into reproducing the same old shopping interface again and again? Definitely not, but conforming to certain standards will help the user.
This short article analyzes the usability of components commonly found within most shopping website (e.g. the cart, the checkout process, etc). The concept isn't so much to be prescriptive and set down hard and fast rules, but rather to spell it out what will be most familiar to shoppers. Creativity and deviation from standard is a good thing on the net, otherwise things would get pretty boring. But being aware of the de facto standards on shopping websites allows you to make informed decisions when taking a novel direction https://www.complasinternational.ie/.
The Login box - there is some variation in how shopping websites cope with user log ins. Some sites require that the person log in before making a purchase, whereas others allow for guest accounts. Well-known basics would have been a username and password field. The only pitfall here could be labeling the username field 'Email' ;.'Username' is the more ubiquitous label, it helps cut-down on possible confusion that could arise if there have been say a newsletter subscription box near by.
The majority of the choices to be manufactured through this interface element relate to naming; do you call it 'Register' or 'Sign-Up'?, in case you label your commit button 'Go' or 'Login'?, is your password recovery link called 'Password recovery' or 'Forgot your password?" ;.Whatever labels you decide on, you ought to favor brevity, generally nothing longer then three short words https://earsense.ie/.
Following a person logs in, there is an opportunity to reclaim some precious screen property by detatching UI elements which aren't needed anymore. Showing the shopper's name helps to personalized the service and thus make it a bit more friendly (nb. you might choose 'Welcome John Smith' in place of 'Logged in as: ...'). This really is also an excellent place to show the 'My Account' and 'Logout' links since both these functions are logically related to the shopper's account.
By the way, a 'Logout' link is somewhat redundant since closing the browser window serves the same purpose (assuming the session has expired), but a logout feature could help alleviate any security-related concerns a shopper may have.
The item search mechanism - the textbox for product searching is pretty straight-forward, but product browsing can go in several directions.
This works great if the category hierarchy is flat, it saves space plus you realize the UI wont behave unexpectedly if the item list gets long. But what when you have sub-categories (e.g. Fishing->Hooks, Fishing->Knives, Fishing->Bait, etc)? Sure you could utilize a rush to point a sub-category, however the drop-list option would start to get rid of some of its eloquence.
Categories and sub-categories could be treated the same as site navigation, that is essentially what it is (i.e. product navigation). Common approaches are to make use of CSS fly-outs or in-place expanding panels (much like Windows Explorer) https://heelboy.com/.
Being an added touch, I like to put a reset icon nearby the search button. This lets the consumer return the searching mechanism to its initial state and never having to go all the way to the browser refresh button or press the F5 key.
The shopping basket - the structure of a shopping cart is now fairly standardized these days. You have the item name with a hyperlink back to the full product description, the buying price of the patient product, and the number the shopper really wants to buy.
I like to add a tiny bin icon so shoppers can quickly remove items from their basket they no further want. You might also put in a sub-total at the bottom of the shopping cart, but I don't think this is necessary since the consumer will undoubtedly be shown a sub-total during the checkout stage.
Another feature which improves usability is feedback messages. It's crucial that you let the consumer know when something happens as a result of the interaction with the machine, for instance; showing a quick message when something is added or removed from their cart https://www.pro-demo.ca/.
The item details page - among the biggest decisions here's whether to really have a product listing page in addition to an in depth product description page. If you were just utilizing a listing page for products, you would show short descriptions alongside each product. The choice would show that a shopper must click a product's summary in order to see its full details.
Generally I decide this based on how much information will be shown with a product. If it's only expected that the few lines will be for each product's description, then the product details page wont be needed. However, this might have significant SEO consequences since each product doesn't have it's own name can be found in the browser page title-bar. It could be argued that the summary-on-listing page interface is more effective in terms of usability since a shopper gets all the information they need with fewer clicks.
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