Ecommerce UX

UX Audit Focus

• Homepage & Category Navigation:

  The design and user experience of your homepage, main navigation, drop-down menus, category pages, custom pages, subcategory pages, overall site taxonomy, site-wide navigation, etc.
  • Homepage — The homepage structure, design, carousels, personalization, and promotions.
  • Category Taxonomy — The overall e-commerce category structure and taxonomy, includes the common issue of “over-categorization”, information architecture, catalog breadth, category redundancy, overly deep or shallow categories, industry-specific naming, etc.
  • Main Navigation — The main e-commerce navigation design, mega drop-down menus, product navigation and its visual hierarchy, courtesy non-product navigation, etc.
  • Intermediary Category Pages — How deep in the site hierarchy “Intermediary Category” pages are used (vs. using a product listing page), how the category pages are structured and what content they contain, incl. inspirational paths, featured products, and curated content, etc.
  • Site-Wide Layout — Site-wide layouts, footers, newsletter dialogs, ad positioning, and return policy links, etc.

• On-site Search Experience

  How the onsite engine searches your data, how the autocomplete function works, how partial matches work, "No Results" pages, layout and features of the results page, faceted results, etc. 
  • Search Query Types – This refers to the level of adherence to 12 different overarching types of search queries made by users on e-commerce sites. These query types, such as Exact, Product Type, Feature, Thematic, Relational, Compatibility, Symbol, Subjective, Symptom, Implicit, Non-Product, and Natural Language, are all crucial for supporting the search engine. It also covers how and what product data is searched.
  • Search Field Design and Functionality – This pertains to the design and behavior of the search field itself. It includes aspects like query persistence, manual and automatic selection of search scope, handling of special characters, and more.
  • Autocomplete Feature – This focuses on the design of the autocomplete feature, also known as “predictive search.” It includes determining the types of suggestions it should provide, support for keyboard behavior, suggestions for scopes and products, and other related considerations.
  • Guidance for Search Results – This outlines techniques for guiding users towards better options on the results page. This includes suggesting alternative queries, scopes, handling “No results” pages, addressing misspellings, and more.
  • Layout of Search Results – This refers to the arrangement and features of the search results page. This encompasses dynamic list layouts, the information displayed in search results, search snippets, pagination, and other relevant elements.
  • Filtering and Sorting of Search Results – This encompasses the process of filtering and sorting search results. It covers essential types of filtering, faceted search, designing and organizing long lists of filters, naming filters, dynamic sorting, and more.

• Product Lists and Filtering

  The appearance and user-friendliness of your category and search product listing pages, the layout and rationale behind all filtering and sorting tools, the design and details of the list items, and so on.

  List Layout – This includes the design and characteristics of the product list’s overall layout, such as differences between “list” and “grid” layouts, consistency of product data, post-processing vendor-provided data, responsive upscaling of product lists, etc.

  Product Loading – Refers to the loading system for including new items in the product list, and the default number of products displayed, etc.

  Information in List Items – The type and quantity of product attributes to be incorporated in each list item. This also includes product variations, average user ratings within list items, etc.

  User Interface of List Items – This involves the presentation and style of the displayed information such as price, product specifications, variations, units, etc.

  Product Thumbnails in List Items – Covers the types of product thumbnails in each list item, what they represent, their size, hover-enabled thumbnails and displaying packaging, etc.

  Hover & Click Areas in List Items – Talks about the click behavior of the list item, synchronization of hover effects, ‘quick view’ features, dynamic content on hover, etc.

  Personalization of List Items – Includes aspects like context-aware thumbnails, personalized list item and product attributes, and highlighting of items, etc.

  Available Filters – Covers the type, number and precision of filters needed by users. This includes thematic, product-specific, compatibility, symptom, product status, gifting, user-defined, price filters, etc.

  Scope & Logic of Filters – Encompasses filter logic, scope and naming schemes such as over-categorization, mutually exclusive and non-exclusive values, tooltips for filters, filter names, consistency of filter values, dynamic renaming of filters, etc.

  Interface & Layout of Filters – Covers the style and placement of filter types and values, handling of filter truncation, styling of filter value checkboxes and links, display sequence of filter values, slider interface design, etc.

  Applying Filters – Includes elements like the ‘Apply’ button functionality, live updating as filters are selected, position and style of selected filter values, maintaining filter and sorting preferences, browser history, etc.

  Sorting – Discusses the default sort type, variety in sorting logic, sorting interface and scope, alphabetical sorting, category-specific sort types, sorting directions, labelling of the sorting tool, sorting naming conventions, customer rating sorting logic, and dead-end sorting options, etc.

  Comparison Tool – Suggests when a comparison feature should be included, the design and placement of the “compare” links, the view and features of the comparison page, consistency of product data, inline help options, among others.

• Product Details Pages

  The layout and user-friendliness of your complete product page, taking into account aspects like product images and videos, the user interface of the image gallery, page features, "Add to Cart" functionality, user feedback, and more.

• Checkout Process

  The overall user interaction with your checkout process, including aspects such as shopping cart interface, account selection, guest checkout option, form field usability details, field labels, security considerations, available shipping and payment methods, wording of error prompts, and more.

• Customer Account

  The design and usability of the ‘My Account’ section, such as ‘My Account’ navigation and dashboard, sign-in and password reset flows, updating stored credit card and address info, newsletter frequency and unsubscribe, etc.

• Mobile Specific

  We will not only review the aforementioned site elements on your mobile platform but also pinpoint mobile-specific issues. These include handling the typical lack of page overview on mobile interfaces, touch interactions, hit areas for the principal menu, mobile image magnification, mobile search features, mobile touch keyboards, design inconsistencies between mobile and desktop interfaces, etc.