E-commerce Website Usability
'Usability' is the term used in the web industry to refer to the ease and success with which people can use your website. This can mean how well users can find what they're looking for, how quickly and easily they can operate certain features - and how straightforward it is for them to complete a purchase. Usability is a key concern for any modern website - but especially so for e-commerce sites, where a confused and lost user means loss of revenue.
The E-commerce difference
On an e-commerce website, every element of the site needs to be geared towards encouraging your site users to progress through the process of choosing and buying your products. We work to a strict set of usability guidelines, which have been developed using extensive research and testing - including scientific tests such as eye-tracking studies and qualitative user-group testing.
The result of this is that each e-commerce site we provide benefits from the best-practice guidelines that are scientifically proven to encourage users to navigate, browse, search and buy from your site.
Everything from how users conduct searches for products, how they interact with the shopping cart - and ensuring they proceed through to checkout completion as quickly and faultlessly as possible is covered. And any request that you as a client might make that would cause the site to deviate from known usability conventions is flagged up and explained so that we might provide a more effective alternative.
Usability studies and testing
We are also able to run usability testing programmes on your behalf. This involves recruiting a small group of representative users to carry out set tasks on your website - and observing and reporting on their behaviours. Usability studies often uncover traits and problems with your website that can act as a barrier to the ultimate goal of a successful purchase. Based on a usability study, we would then work through your website implementing the recommendations that arise.
