1. CIS 451: "Shopping Cart" Design Research Exercises Dr. Ralph D. Westfall January, 2009

2. "Shopping Cart" Design Market Research identify design options, in categories on following pages, for 2-3 shopping carts based on actual examples and/or "realistic" possibilities or good, bad and ugly in relation to these categories? post results in Blackboard

3. Popular Web Sites lists of sites in various categories can use shopping and services (e.g., travel) sites for these research exercises Web100 Business/Commerce category Top 101 Web Sites (PC Magazine) Top 101 Web Sites Top Sites United States (Alexa) Top Sites United States ranking methodology Google Trends (most popular searches) Google Trends

4. Entry Page Characteristics Is the entry page a: "splash screen," with minimal text, that redirects to the "real" entry page? home page, but no products to buy? home page with products to buy? something else?

5. Pages in Site estimated # of pages in whole web site count, or > 10 appearance colors: text, background font: face(s), size(s) # of images: on average page, high, low

6. Technical page layout (View>Source) width/hidden table(s) height (how many PgDns to bottom?) frames: yes/no cascading style sheets: yes/no image size(s) in kB file extensions: html, asp(x) or php or ?? File>Save As>Web Page, complete [view code and image files in folders]

7. Catalog Pages item descriptions/images thumbnail images: yes/no how many words per item: estimate avg. product or customer focus (them or you?) how the user selects an item? checkbox enters quantity(s) other (tell how it works)

8. Navigation navigation bars/links: where, count? top, bottom, left, right # of "groupings?" total # of links? buttons, links: # of each per page? evaluate whether high, low, or average ease of use, natural/intuitive? user doesn't have to struggle to figure it out

9. Check Out shipping cost options calculations required data: # of textboxes, etc? error checking: which items, what errors? in-stock vs. backorder verification ability to go back and change order? navigation/how?

10. Check Out - 2 ways of transmitting the order to the business web page order form and/or phone email verification message probably can't check directly, but may be in FAQs number of steps to complete a buy (clicks to check-out; esp. see table)clicks to check-out

11. Marketing Issues text & content ("pitch") try to find we sites with a "unique selling position" (Fiore, 2001) unique advantage over competition reason for customers to buy creates a compelling image "lowest prices" "highest quality" not a USP "lowest prices" "highest quality" customer focus

12. Search Engine Rankings keywords that you would use to search for these E-businesses? search engine rankings based on those keywords? tags keywords are in? (View>Source) sites linking to specific organizations? e.g., link:www.csupomona.edu in Googlelink:www.csupomona.edu or "csupomona.edu" -site:csupomona.edu"csupomona.edu" -site:csupomona.edu

13. Categories to Report On Entry page characteristics Pages in site/appearance Technical Catalog pages Navigation Check out Marketing issues Search engine rankings