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Product Navigation

Provide fast, easy paths from the store front to detailed product information

Enable users to navigate from the store front to product description pages as efficiently as possible. Users are sometimes disappointed by how long it takes them to accomplish this task (IBM Ease of Use, 1998; Jarvenpaa & Todd, 1996, 1997). If users are frustrated in their attempts to navigate to the product, they may give up and go elsewhere. To meet users' needs, eliminate any unnecessary steps or pages on the path between the store front and product description pages.

Determine users' satisfaction with each step in the navigation/shopping process. Specifically, during iterative design and development, ask representative users what they want and expect before they follow each link. Then ask them to rate how well each resulting page meets their wishes and expectations. Also obtain ratings for their overall satisfaction with the site's navigation structure and mechanisms. By learning users' expectations, you will learn how to organize your site to meet their needs.

Provide different site paths to facilitate different shopping strategies

Enable your users to accomplish their goals using strategies they prefer. Different users employ different shopping strategies. For example, to determine which product they want to buy, some users will want to use search; others will want to browse product categories, and still others would like you to recommend products for them. Sites that accommodate their users' strategies are more likely to succeed than those that force users to learn new strategies.

You will need to learn from your users the strategies that your site should support. Analyze representative users' strategies as they shop, both in physical stores and online. Web sites should support strategies that customers use in physical stores, such as seeking assistance from a sales clerk or product expert. Sites should also try to improve upon the resources available in real stores, so that users can apply their strategies more easily. For instance, to facilitate price comparisons and offer the best price, sites can immediately update prices to compete with the competition.

Provide links to shopping pages from a variety of other pages and sites

To increase traffic and sales, provide links to your shopping pages from other pages and other sites (Lohse & Spiller, 1998). Make arrangements with other sites, such as Web site portals, to link to your shopping pages. Incentives, such as finders' fees or percentages of resulting sales, can encourage other organizations to link to your shopping pages.

Links to shopping pages should take users to pages they want and expect to see. In other words, if a feature article discusses Widget X, a useful link would take users to the product description page that discusses Widget X rather than to a registration page for widget shoppers.

Provide shortcuts to the most popular products

Provide a list of shortcut links to your best-selling items and/or those that users most frequently navigate to. Shortcuts minimize the time and effort users spend navigating, allowing users to bypass the site's hierarchy. Shortcuts can also show users the products that other people are buying.

The list of shortcut links can appear on the store front or on product category navigation pages. Alternatively, you can provide a single link to a separate page that lists shortcuts. You can call these links "Shortcuts" or, where appropriate, "Best Sellers."

Display products simultaneously to facilitate comparison

Enable users to view products simultaneously to compare specifications and features. Shoppers commonly compare products to help them identify the product that best meets their needs. Sites that simplify comparing products, therefore, also simplify and encourage purchasing products.

There are many ways to support comparisons. To help shoppers compare products with numerous features or specifications, such as computers, home theater equipment, or automobiles, a table of features and specifications may be appropriate. Products such as clothing or home decorating items, for which appearance is important, may be compared meaningfully using pictures with text descriptions. Support comparison of the most important differentiators for the specific product type.

Give users control over which products they compare

Let users control which products they view simultaneously, since you cannot easily predict their choices. Allow them to select products for comparison whether they are navigating through product categories or visiting any area of your site designated specifically for comparison.

Provide users enough information to decide which products they want to compare before adding them to the comparison. Minimally, users will want the name of the product, the price, and at least two or three important specifications or identifying features. Product numbers and brand/model names typically do not provide enough information for users to decide if they want to view the product in a comparison. Learn from your users what information they need for making this decision.

Provide easily navigable and enticing product lists

Make it easy for users to scan and select products in lists, and entice them to examine products more closely. Lohse and Spiller (1998) found a positive correlation between effective product lists and increased sales.

To create navigable and enticing product lists,

• Include helpful information, such as prices, thumbnail images, product descriptions, and promotions, to encourage users to explore products in more detail

• Enable users to view at least three or four items simultaneously

• Strike a balance between the number of items users can view simultaneously and the amount of information you provide for each item

• Present items in a logical order (e.g., alphabetically, by common features, by release date, etc.)

• Present related products in logical groups within the list

• Require only one click to view more detail about a product

• If your customers sometimes know which product they want without viewing the product description page, provide a mechanism on the product list for adding items to the order list

• Ensure that the product list loads quickly and conforms to your performance requirements

Since product lists are very important, base their design on customer input. Specifically, ask representative users to rank product features in order of their importance in the buying decision process. Include the most important characteristics in your product lists, and reserve the additional information for product description pages. To determine the appropriate level of detail, create prototypes featuring varying amounts of information and test them with representative users.

Tip: If space permits, list all products in the body of the list rather than in dropdown lists. Dropdown lists hide items and require at least two clicks for viewing an item. In an IBM study of two clothing sites, participants preferred a product list in which all items were visible to one that used dropdown lists (IBM Ease of Use, 1998).

Enable users to browse sequentially through product descriptions within categories

On all product description pages, provide links such as forward and back arrows that enable users to see another product in the same category with only one click. These links enable users to view multiple products quickly and easily, without having to navigate repeatedly up and down a catalog hierarchy.

Support easy navigation between the order list and other shopping pages

Include on each of the shopping pages in your site a link to the order list page, often referred to as the shopping cart. Similarly, include links on the order list page that enable users to "continue shopping." "Continue shopping" links communicate that items will be saved in the order list while users shop for additional items, and many users want this reassurance.