E-commerce User Interface Design Lawrence Najjar Information Architect Viant lnajjar@viant.com

Outline Why worry about e-commerce usability? Why improve e-commerce usability? Page format Navigation Catalog Registration Checkout

Why Worry about E-commerce Usability? Up to 50% of potential sales lost because shoppers cannot find what they want1, 2 83% of shoppers left e-commerce sites due to poor navigation and slow downloads3 78% of shoppers abandoned their online shopping carts4

Why Improve Usability? After improving e-commerce usability: IBM got 400% increase in sales5 DEC got 80% increase in revenue6 Improving usability estimated to: Increase number of buyers by 40%7 Increase order size by 10% 7

Page Format Design page size for AOL users8, 9, 10 Design page to download in less than 10 seconds (40K)11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 Put user interface elements in familiar locations17, 18 Put shopping cart summary on every page18, 19 Put sign-in entry fields on home page Include links for contact us, privacy policy, security info, and referral20, 21

Example Home Page

Example Interior Page

Navigation Make nav simple, intuitive, and consistent Tell user where user is, how user got there, how to get back, where else to go22 Provide global and local nav controls Use breadcrumbs Allow user to get to any product in 5 clicks or less23 Provide specialized browse functions

Navigation (continued) Put search entry field on every page Design search to put user’s searched-for hit on first page of search results Allow user to search by product name, product category, brand, model/item number, and price On search results page, allow user to perform another search, refine results, and sort results

Catalog Let user directly enter the catalog Organize catalog into familiar sections Allow user to sort products in a section24 Provide link to put product in wish list and to e-mail page Show shipping cost Include product comparison tool25 Include expert product reviews and allow users to enter reviews

Registration The more streamlined registration process is, the more likely users will register and buy26, 15 Require only e-mail address, password, permission to e-mail promotions, and permission to leave cookie27 Get other user info during checkout and via periodic, optional, one-question, multiple-choice popup surveys28 Allow user to edit and delete registration Don’t show full credit card number

Checkout Checkout is biggest reason people cannot buy from site29 On shopping cart page, show: Hyperlinked product names Entry fields for quantities Prices Dropdown list of shipping choices and costs Order subtotal, including shipping + taxes if user is registered Check boxes for removing products Check boxes for moving products into wish list Button to refresh the page Links to return to shopping and to checkout

Checkout (continued) Don’t require user to register to check out29 Put checkout fields on single, vertically scrollable page Provide obvious links to privacy policy, security policies, delivery guarantees, and customer service guarantees26 For signed-in member, fill in checkout fields For errors, put notice at top of page, explain at each field what was wrong and how to fix it Provide complete, editable order summary

Checkout (continued) Provide order confirmation that includes19: Order number Instructions for canceling order Directions for tracking order and shipment Customer support info Promotion (optional) Require password when changing shipping address

Conclusion E-commerce usability is important User interface design best practices improve usability of e-commerce sites

References 1 Cohen, J., & Thompson, M. J. (1999, February). Mass appeal. The Standard [On-line]. Available: http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,4927,00.html 2 Seminerio, M. (1998, September 10). Study: One in three experienced surfers find online shopping difficult. In Inter@ctive Week [On-line]. Available: http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/quickpoll/981007/981007b.html 3 Thompson, M. J. (1999, August 9). How to frustrate Web surfers. Industry Standard [On-line]. Available: http://www.thestandard.com/metrics/display/0,1283,956,00.html 4 BizRate (2000, October 23). 78% of online shoppers abandon shopping carts according to BizRate survey. BizRate press release [On-line]. Available: http://www.bizrate.com/content/press/release.xpml?rel=88 5 Tedeschi, B. (1999, August 30). Good Web site design can lead to healthy sales. New York Times e-commerce report [On-line]. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/08/cyber/commerce/30commerce.html

References 6 Wixon, D., & Jones, S. (1992). Usability for fun and profit: A case study of the design of DEC RALLY version 2. Internal report, Digital Equipment Corporation. Cited in Karat, C., A business case approach to usability cost justification. In Bias, R. G., & Mayhew, D. J. (1994). Cost-justifying usability. San Diego: Academic Press. 7 Creative Good (2000, June 12). The dotcom survival guide. Creative Good [On-line]. Available: http://www.creativegood.com/survival/ 8 America Online (2001, March 8). AOL membership surpasses 28 million milestone. America Online press release [On-line]. Available: http://media.aoltimewarner.com/media/cb_press_view.cfm?release_num=50252317 9 Kadison, M. L., Weisman, D. E., Modahl, M., Lieu, K. C., & Levin, K. (1998, April). On-line research strategies: The look to buy imperative. Forrester Report [On-line], 1(1) [On-line]. Available: http://www.forrester.com/ 10 America Online (2001, January 2). AOL holiday season shopping reaches $4.6 billion. America Online press release [On-line]. Available: http://media.aoltimewarner.com/media/cb_press_view.cfm?release_num=50252085

References 11 Miller, R. B. (1968). Response time in man-computer conversational transactions. In Proceedings of American Federation of Information Processing Societies Fall Joint Computer Conference, 33, 267-277. 12 Nielsen, J. (1994). Response times: The three important limits. In J. Nielsen, Usability Engineering (pp. 115-163). San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. Available: http://www.useit.com/papers/responsetime.html 13 Nielsen, J. (1997). The need for speed [On-line]. Available: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703a.html 14 Lamers (1996, February 27). Personal communication. 15 Sacharow, A., & Mooradian, M. (1999, March). Navigation: Toward intuitive movement and improved usability. Jupiter Communications. 16 Sullivan, T. (1998). The need for speed. Site optimization strategies. All Things Web [On-line]. Available: http://www.pantos.org/atw/35305.html 17 Bernard, M. (2001, Winter). Developing schemas for the location of common Web objects. Usability News. Software Usability Research Laboratory, Wichita State University [On-line]. Available: http://wsupsy.psy.wsu.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3W/web_object.htm

References 18 CyberAtlas (1999, February 25). Online stores lacking. E-tailers should follow lead of offline shops [On-line]. Available: http://cyberatlas.internet.com/market/retailing/taylor.html 19 Ragus, D. (2000). Best practices for designing shopping cart and checkout interfaces [On-line]. Available: http://www.dack.com/web/shopping_cart.html 20 Reichheld, F. F., & Schefter, P. (2000, July-August). E-loyalty: Your secret weapon on the Web. Harvard Business Review, 105-113. 21 Stanley, J., McCarthy, J. C., & Sharrard, J. (2000, May). The Internet’s privacy migraine [On-line]. Available: http://www.forrester.com/ 22 Fleming, J. (1998). Web navigation: Designing the user experience. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly. 23 Tracy, B. (2000, August 16). Easy net navigation is mandatory – Viewpoint: Online users happy to skip frills for meat and potatoes. Advertising Age, p. 38. 24 Nielsen, J., & Tahir, M. (2001, February). Building sites with depth. In webtechniques [On-line] 2001(2). Available: http://www.webtechniques.com/

References 25 eMarketer (2001, March 12). Turning shoppers on(line). eMarketer [On-line]. Available: http://www.emarketer.com/estatnews/estats/ecommerce_b2c/20010312_pwc_search_shop.html 26 Agrawal, V., Arjona, L. D., & Lemmens, R. (2001). E-performance: The path to rational exuberance. The McKinsey Quarterly [On-line], 1. Available: http://www.mckinsey.com/ 27 Charron, C., Bass, B., O’Connor, C., & Aldort, J. (1998, July). Making users pay. Forrester Report [On-line]. Available: http://www.forrester.com/ 28 Nielsen, J. (1999). Web research: Believe the data [On-line]. Available: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/99 0711.html 29 Rehman, A. (2000, October 16). Effective e-checkout design. ZDNet/Creative Good [On-line]. Available: http://www.zdnet.com/ecommerce/stories/evaluations/0,10524,2638874-1,00.html