Research Methods and Usability Guidelines for Ecommerce Web Sites

Mary CzerwinskiMicrosoft Research

Note: Many of these slides came from a Keynote address by Kirsten Risden at Web99

Key ecommerce ingredients

Most sources agreed that navigation clear content organization product information availability trust

Extras: personalized services and/or providing updated content or activities.

Building trust Building Trust: What It Takes A clearly stated return policy A clearly stated security/encryption policy and

seals of approval from authoritative organizations

The ability to back out of a transaction Fast and easy navigation Source: eCommerce Trust Study, Cheskin

Research and Studio Archetype/Sapient, January 1999

From browsers to buyers…. Seth Gordon recommends:

Make Buyers Feel Comfortable: good content and a personality

Get Users to the Goods: make the products easy to find and educate along the way

Make It Easy to Complete a Purchase: no roadblocks in your checkout tunnel

Build Buyer Loyalty: deliver on your promise and give reasons to return

From Builder.com Design section, January 25, 2000.

Serco ecommerce guidelines Make it easy for users to enter the store Use a meaningful store layout and

product categories Ensure descriptive terms or pictures

are used Allow users to find and use search

facilities

Serco ecommerce guidelines Provide meaningful and relevant search

results Make it clear whether items are available in

the on-line store Allow users to see what's in their shopping

basket Provide sufficient product information and

explain technical terms Clearly flag the financial security features of

the site

How do we get there? Information Structure

Site organization should reflect user’s conceptual categorization of content

Can be very different from designer’s categorization of content

Derived empirically Card Sort

Need < ~200 distinct information types Find Task (a.k.a. reverse card sort)

If > ~200 distinct information types

Card Sort Study

Cluster Analysis

Find Study (a.k.a. Reverse Cart

Sort)

If more than 200 items, make initial design prototype….(s)

Record user paths through browse hierarchy of ecommerce site

Map out “confusability” Determine where problems are

and why

Find Study

“Reckless redundancy” reduces learnability

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Information structure take-aways

For ease in finding information, ecommerce site organization must fit user’s conceptual categorization be easy to learn

Presentation

Support and guide “scan and focus” visual processing through design Layout and graphical design Labels Text

Layout and Graphical Design

Use mostly text and avoid pictures Provide landmarks Use simple configurations Use “blocking” appropriately Don’t break configurations up Make high contrast choices Avoid animations

Use Text and Avoid Pictures

At least . . .keep navigation elements away

from graphics

Use clean, simple configurations

Use “blocking” appropriately

Use High Contrast ColorsClick Here

Avoid animations….

Labels

Use distinctive, differentiating terms Concrete terms are more “attractive”

than abstract terms Put supporting detail in tool tips or

“look ahead” text Asking users to generate labels is

highly instructive

Use tool tips or “look ahead” text

User generated labels For groupings in card sort For content For subordinate categories

Delivery Performance

First page download should be < 10 seconds on 28.8.

Secondary pages can be somewhat slower to download.

Resolution 60% of Media Metrix sample using 6X4 Number is changing slowly.

Key Take-aways Match user’s conception of how

ecommerce domain is organized. Remember that you are supporting a

scan and focus approach to visual information processing.

Words can be worth thousands of pictures.

There is a high bar with little room to error when it comes to performance.