The important thing to great usability for an web store is familiarity. People have already been buying goods online for years now, they expect you'll view a certain process unfold when shopping on the net, 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 kind of shopping interface again and again? Not necessarily, but conforming to certain standards will probably help the user.
This information analyzes the usability of components commonly found within most shopping website (e.g. the cart, the checkout process, etc). The idea isn't so much to be prescriptive and set down hard and fast rules, but alternatively to describe what will probably be most familiar to shoppers. Creativity and deviation from standard is an excellent thing on the internet, otherwise things would get pretty boring. But being conscious of the de facto standards on shopping websites allows you to make informed decisions when taking a novel direction https://www.complasinternational.ie/.
The Login box - there is some variation in how shopping websites handle user log ins. Some sites require a person sign in before making a purchase, whereas others allow for guest accounts. The most obvious basics will be a username and password field. The only real pitfall here would be labeling the username field 'Email' ;.'Username' is the more ubiquitous label, it can help cut-down on possible confusion which may arise if there were say a newsletter subscription box near by.
A lot of the choices to be produced within this interface element connect with naming; would 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 decide on, you ought to favor brevity, generally nothing longer then three short words https://earsense.ie/.
After having a person logs in, there is a way to reclaim some precious screen property by eliminating UI elements which aren't needed anymore. Showing the shopper's name really helps to personalized the service and thus make it a little more friendly (nb. you can choose 'Welcome John Smith' in place of 'Logged in as: ...'). This really is also an excellent place to exhibit 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 the same purpose (assuming the session has expired), but a logout feature might help alleviate any security-related concerns a shopper may have.
The merchandise search mechanism - the textbox for product searching is pretty straight-forward, but product browsing can go in several directions.
This works great if the category hierarchy is flat, it saves space plus you understand the UI wont behave unexpectedly if the merchandise list gets long. But what when you yourself have sub-categories (e.g. Fishing->Hooks, Fishing->Knives, Fishing->Bait, etc)? Sure you could use a sprint to indicate a sub-category, however the drop-list option would start to reduce a few of its eloquence.
Categories and sub-categories could be treated just like site navigation, that is essentially what it is (i.e. product navigation). Common approaches are to use CSS fly-outs or in-place expanding panels (much like Windows Explorer) https://heelboy.com/.
Being an added touch, I like to put a reset icon nearby the search button. This lets the user return the searching mechanism to its initial state without having to go all the way to the browser refresh button or press the F5 key.
The shopping basket - the structure of a shopping cart software is now fairly standardized these days. You've the merchandise name with a hyperlink back fully product description, the price tag on the in-patient product, and the number the shopper wants to buy.
I like to incorporate a tiny bin icon so shoppers can very quickly remove items from their basket they no longer want. You could also put in a sub-total at the bottom of the shopping cart software, but I don't think this is necessary since the user will be shown a sub-total through the checkout stage.
Another feature which improves usability is feedback messages. It's very important to let the user know when something happens as a result of their interaction with the system, for instance; showing a quick message when something is added or taken off their cart https://www.pro-demo.ca/.
The merchandise details page - among the biggest decisions here's whether to really have a product listing page as well as a detailed product description page. If you're just utilizing a listing page for products, you'd show short descriptions along side each product. The alternative would imply that a shopper has to click a product's summary in order to see its full details.
Generally I decide this based on what much information will probably be shown with a product. If it's only expected a few lines will be for each product's description, a product details page wont be needed. However, this may 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 more effective with regards to usability since a shopper gets all the info they want with fewer clicks.
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