Case-study: Is Amazon too confusing?
Well Angelina Jolie seems to think so. “Brad and I were on Amazon.com for the first time a week ago. But we got lost. After an hour, we just shut it off. My brain is too scattered and the wires go in different directions. I’ll stick to catalogues”. This was said by Angelina Jolie after being asked by USA Today on whether she did her Christmas shopping online.
Make of this what you will but it got me thinking nonetheless about eCommerce websites in general. While it certainly is true that millions of people globally shop online, it does not necessarily mean that websites like Amazon are intuitive and easy to use because of this fact. I think that there is a large percentage of people that simply find sites like Amazon confusing which I think is mainly to do with a lack of spacing between elements that forces things to feel cramped and disorderly.
In the example above I simply made some minor adjustments to the spacing of elements including the navigation, removed a few unnecessary wording and breadcrumbs from the column and positioned the important prices of information beside the item instead of below. As a result you feel less bombarded with lots of information as the page is properly structured and cleaner to look at.
In previous years eCommerce sites would have had to cram in loads of data above the fold because users were using smaller monitors, but now with much higher resolutions and screen sizes being commonplace there is no excuse.
Here are some tips which I feel need to be considered when designing for eCommerce.
- Don’t overload your pages with unnecessary breadcrumbs. One below the navigation should be enough of an indicator.
- Consider using an adequate XHTML/CSS grid system when planning the site structure in order to space out your elements as best as possible. For a list of grid systems to use see my Links page.
- Avoid using lengthy or unnecessary verbiage, instead use words that are easy to understand and direct. i.e: Find instead of Go
- Consider the information hierarchy, data which has a higher level of importance such as ratings, price, offers must be presented first followed by secondary information like the description etc.
A great eCommerce site is one that cuts down the numbers of processes required in order to make a transaction in a way that is fluid and orderly that will make for a better experience.
Inspiroidu: Why user experiences are important
inspiroidu:
Building good user interfaces is important tasks to let customers interact with a system effectively. Creating positive user experience is a next step that leads to making customers happy after interacting with a system.
Interface is a means by which users interact with a digital system effectively. It includes controls, tabs, navigation and other elements. The task of a designer is to organise interface elements on the screen in such a way that user can interact with them the most effective way. In ideal case user interface design would be based on goals of users, usability principles and will go through several iterations.
User experience is a means by which you include the whole context of users’ life in the design process. It means that you create only those interfaces that make user’s life more pleasant and his experience working with a product more indulging. What is important is that user experience could be created or improved without changes in the user interface.
As usual, products of Apple provide great examples to illustrate the difference. To download an application from the Apple application store user has to input his password. Apple provides good form for this purpose. User inputs his password that is semi-hidden and makes input on a mobile device more effective. Creating good form for inputting password is a task of a user interface designer. Now, what happens if user wants to download several applications in a row. Normally, she would has to input password all the time before another download starts. Company, however, took this tasks in a context of a real user. If she wants to download several applications in a row and has already input right password once, then why bother with asking the same question several times? Instead, iPhone or iPad memorizes the password for 15 minutes, so users get more pleasant experience of interacting with the application store.
Lessons learned:
- User interface is a part of a user experience
- User interface should help users to complete asks the most effective way, user experience should aim at indulging users while interacting with a product
- User interface design focuses on a particular screen while user experience designer focuses on a context where and how interaction happens.
Why In-Page Navigation Links Matter More Than Menus
Menus are handy and your site should have one, but they can’t engage users on a level that in-page navigation links can. This is because menus don’t come with content. They’re ambiguous labels that have little meaning to users who visit your site for the first time. First-time visitors aren’t looking at your menus to navigate. They’re looking at your content to navigate, which is why you should focus more of your energy on designing your landing pages than your menus. The landing page is where the user’s journey begins. It’s the starting page for an area of your site that includes attractive headlines, images and text to entice users to click-through to learn more.
