The important thing to great usability for an online store is familiarity. People have now been buying goods online for decades now, they expect you'll see a certain process unfold when shopping on the internet, and when a custom makes radical departures from the status quo, tears may ensue (regardless of how good the designer's intentions may be). Does this mean a custom is locked into reproducing the same old shopping interface again and again? Definitely not, but conforming to certain standards will help the user.
This informative 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 lay down hard and fast rules, but alternatively to spell it out what will be most familiar to shoppers. Creativity and deviation from typical is a great thing on line, otherwise things would get pretty boring. But being aware of the de facto standards on shopping websites lets you make informed decisions when going for a novel direction https://www.complasinternational.ie/.
The Login box - there is some variation in how shopping websites deal with user log ins. Some sites require a person join 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 would be labeling the username field 'Email' ;.'Username' could be the more ubiquitous label, it will help cut-down on possible confusion which 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 genuinely to naming; do you call it 'Register' or 'Sign-Up'?, in case you label your commit button 'Go' or 'Login'?, can be your password recovery link called 'Password recovery' or 'Forgot your password?" ;.Whatever labels you select, you ought to favor brevity, generally nothing longer then three short words https://earsense.ie/.
After a person logs in, there is a way to reclaim some precious screen real estate by removing UI elements which aren't needed anymore. Showing the shopper's name really helps to personalized the service and thus ensure it is a bit more friendly (nb. you can choose 'Welcome John Smith' in place of 'Logged in as: ...'). That is also a great place to show the 'My Account' and 'Logout' links since both these functions are logically related to the shopper's account.
Incidentally, a 'Logout' link is somewhat redundant since closing the browser window serves an identical purpose (assuming the session has expired), but a logout feature can 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 a number of directions.
This works great if the category hierarchy is flat, it saves space plus you know the UI wont behave unexpectedly if the product list gets long. But what when you yourself have sub-categories (e.g. Fishing->Hooks, Fishing->Knives, Fishing->Bait, etc)? Sure make use of a dash to indicate a sub-category, however the drop-list option would start to get rid of a few of its eloquence.
Categories and sub-categories can be treated just like site navigation, which will be essentially what it's (i.e. product navigation). Common approaches are to use CSS fly-outs or in-place expanding panels (much like Windows Explorer) https://heelboy.com/.
As an added touch, I prefer to place a reset icon nearby the search button. Allowing an individual return the searching mechanism to its initial state without having to go all how you can 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've the product name with a hyperlink back to the full product description, the buying price of the in-patient product, and the amount the shopper desires to buy.
I prefer to add a small bin icon so shoppers can quickly remove items from their basket which they no longer want. You might like to put in a sub-total in the bottom of the shopping cart, but I don't think this is necessary since an individual will be shown a sub-total through the checkout stage.
Another feature which improves usability is feedback messages. It's important to let an individual know when something happens consequently of their interaction with the device, for example; showing a quick message when an item is added or taken off their cart https://www.pro-demo.ca/.
The item details page - among the biggest decisions listed here is whether to truly have a product listing page in addition to a detailed product description page. If you're just utilizing a listing page for products, you'd show short descriptions alongside each product. The alternative would imply that a shopper has to click a product's summary to be able to see its full details.
Generally I decide this based on what much information will be shown with a product. If it's only expected a few lines can look for every 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 come in the browser page title-bar. Maybe it's argued that the summary-on-listing page interface is far better with regards to usability since a shopper gets all the info they want with fewer clicks.
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