Creating Usable E-Commerce Sites

Creating UsableE-Commerce SitesJanice Anne RohnSIEBEL SYSTEMS, INC.

■ Are you a busy person, with little timeto go to stores? If you need a present foryour brother-in-law, want to go to a spa,want the best deal on travel, want tocomparison shop for a car, it’s all thereon the Internet.

lectronic commerce, or e-commerce, ischanging the way the world shops. Elec-tronic commerce is defined here as brows-er-based sites created for the purpose ofselling goods and services over the Inter-net, regardless of whether the actual saletakes place on the Internet or via fax,phone, or another means provided by thewebsite. The electronic commerce marketis exploding at a remarkable rate. In May1997, global e-commerce generated $750million in sales; in May 1998 that figurehad grown to $2.3 billion, a 205% increase[IDC 1998]. IDC, ActiveMedia, and For-rester Research all estimate that globalcommerce revenues will exceed one tril-

lion dollars by 2003. A key to achieving these num-bers is usability. In order to leverage this new mar-keting strategy, companies must understand how tocreate usable e-commerce sites based on their targetmarkets. In a recent survey, 8% of those surveyed saidthey don’t shop online simply because the sites aretoo hard to use [Herschlag 1998].

Electronic shopping has some key differences fromphysical shopping. First, it is easy to go from one siteto another for purposes of price comparison, productselection, and ease of finding the product. There isminimal overhead for changing sites, unlike gettingback in the car and driving a distance to a similarstore, so sites that offer a range of products that areeasy to find on the site and priced competitively willdo well.

Companies spend substantial amounts of money onphysical store design and on creating a positive envi-ronment and experience for the shopper. Since e-commerce sites are more limited (the shopper’s gen-eral environment doesn’t change), companies musttry harder to create a pleasant experience. The factorsthat are known to affect customer behavior—productperception, shopping experience, and customer ser-vice—must be given consideration when designingthe site. (For more information on this see Jarvenpaaand Todd [1997].) E-commerce sites are not just websites—they should reflect the same value-to-pricetrade-offs that the company has built its business on.

A company also has to give serious thought to howmuch they will support international sales. Will suchsales be in US dollars only, or in multiple currencies?

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SUPPORTING ARTICLE

How will shipping be handled? Will the site be inEnglish only, or in multiple languages? Most e-com-merce comes from US-based companies that are tar-geting US and Canadian customers. Many sites do notsell outside the US, even though Internet usage isgrowing faster outside the US [Herschlag 1998].

Larger companies spend millions of dollars everyyear on branding, with the goal of associating a prod-uct or logo with a positive emotional experience,creating customer demand and loyalty. Unlike passiveforms of communication such as print and televisionadvertising, positive branding experiences with websites are dependent on the web site being usable.When someone has a negative experience with a website—being unable to find a product or navigatethrough the site—they associate that negative experi-ence with the brand [Spool 98]. First-hand experienceis much more powerful in determining whether acustomer will purchase or remain loyal to a brand,and no amount of marketing can overcome a negativeexperience such as being unable to use or find infor-mation on a web site.

What defines a successful e-commerce site? A suc-cessful site does at least one of the following:

● attracts additional customers;● reduces the workload of the sales force by provid-

ing much or all of the information that they wouldhave had to provide.

Usability is once again key to achieving these goals.Most of the processes, recommendations, heuristics,and standards that have been created and docu-mented for the usability of products also apply toe-commerce. In order to produce a highly usable andsuccessful e-commerce site, the same principles apply:

(1) utilize usability engineering methods, preparedby experienced usability engineers, throughoutthe design and development of the site;

(2) understand what the goals are;

(3) decide who the target customer population is;

(4) research and profile the target customer popula-tion and update your assessment, including at-tributes, context of use, goals, tasks, and priori-ties;

(5) create a specification based on functionality and

FIGURE ONE

(With permission of Amazon.com.)

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design requirements derived from customer re-search; and

(6) perform iterative design and usability evaluationsto drive functionality and design decisions

Usability StandardsSeveral standards already exist for usability, and theseare directly applicable to e-commerce usability. Themost pertinent standards include two ISO standards,and work that is currently under way to create anindustry standard report format for sharing usabilityresults between a vendor company and a purchasingcompany under non-disclosure agreement.

ISO Standard 9241-11—Ergonomic requirementsfor office work with visual display terminals (VDTs)—Guidance on usability

Despite its title, this standard is an excellent descrip-tion of the principles for performing usability studiesfor any product, not just VDTs. It discusses the frame-work for specifying usability (in other words, whatneeds to be considered). This includes context of use(user, task, equipment, environment) and usabilitymeasures (effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction).This standard includes very helpful tables for both ofthese: context of use in Annex A, and examples ofusability measures in Annex B. ISO standards can beordered from the ANSI web site: www.ansi.org.

ISO Standard 13407—Human-centered designprocesses for interactive systems

This standard reviews the principles of human-cen-tered design, including the active involvement of us-ers and a clear understanding of user and task re-quirements; an appropriate allocation of functionbetween users and technology; the iteration of designsolutions; and multi-disciplinary design.

ISO 13407 refers to other ISO standards, and pro-vides a good, high-level approach to recommendingthe usability activities that should be incorporatedinto the development cycle.

NIST USABILITY TESTING RESULTS WORKINGGROUPCurrently there are over 25 usability representativesfrom most of the major technology companies, alongwith usability consultants, working to produce a stan-dard usability report format that can be used to pro-vide summary usability testing results to companiesunder a non-disclosure agreement [Blanchard 1998].This work stems from the desire of some companiesto utilize usability results from vendor companies aspart of the decision-making process for procurement.The idea is to define a minimal standard testing pro-cess and a standard report format, and to define andcreate a pilot study to assess the cost-benefit of suchan activity. The workshops are being held at NIST.This work is currently in progress, and an update willappear in the SIGCHI Bulletin.

E-Commerce UsabilityE-commerce does have its own set of considerationsin addition to these general principles. Importantquestions to e-commerce that should influence designdecisions include:

What is the purpose of the site? Is it to provideinformation on products and services? Is it to gainnew customers? Alleviate the work of the sales force?Create a direct sales channel ?

Who is the audience? Current customers? New cus-tomers? Local or global customers? If global, howglobal (predominantly English-speaking, focussingon several countries or geographies, or potentiallyanywhere)? Who is the target market? What back-grounds and job roles do they have? How Internet-savvy are they ?

If the audience is global, does the product linesupport this, both with respect to the products soldand the amount charged for shipping? (You can’tcharge expensive shipping for inexpensive, com-monly found products.)

● Is the site meant to be self-sufficient, or is it meantto reduce demands on the staff?

● Is the site only an e-commerce site, or is it part of alarger company site that conveys more information?

E-Commerce Usability HeuristicsWhat follows is a list of heuristics to help producebetter e-commerce sites. These heuristics are a com-bination of the results of many usability evaluations ofe-commerce sites, and include advice from other pub-lications (when noted).

INTRODUCTION TO THE SITEDo not require a login and password unless neces-sary. Customers are in the difficult situation of notwanting to use the same password everywhere, yethaving too many passwords for different purposes toremember them all.

If a login is required, make the process simple. Thereason for the required login should be made clear.

If a password is required, provide a way for thecustomer to recover quickly and easily if he has for-gotten his password. Don’t ask for social securitynumber, mother’s maiden name, or other passwordsthat should be reserved for personal financial securetransactions.

Any type of login or registration must be almostinstantaneous.

Only require registration if you’ll actually need thedata. Allow customers to register later in the process ifregistration isn’t necessary when entering the site.Don’t lose customers by unnecessarily making regis-tration a barrier.

Provide benefits for registering so that customersknow the advantages of taking the time to enter ac-curate information. If customers don’t know this,they’ll sometimes enter arbitrary data each time theyenter the site, creating a database of useless informa-tion for the company.


If personal information is required, have a writtenprivacy policy. More users are expecting an explicitpolicy statement of uses and limitations on sharing oftheir personal information. For example, state that theinformation will not be sold or used for mailing lists.Only ask for what is absolutely required—if the datadoesn’t serve a purpose, don’t ask for it. If customersdon’t see the need for the requested information, theyoften enter false data if a field is required. Moreinformation on this can be found at [TRUSTe 1998]and [Privacy Alliance 1998].

If the site is not solely an e-commerce site (which istrue of most large companies), do not have the e-com-merce site deeply buried—have it obvious and acces-sible from the company main page.

Make it obvious that the customer is entering astore. Some sites do not look like stores, and users areconfused. Increasing the number of “store entrances”has been shown to increase visits and sales [Lohseand Spiller 1998a]

CONTENTOne of the biggest mistakes that companies make is inallowing organizational divisions to bleed through tothe web site. The site should not consist of an amal-gamation of each department’s output. It should becoordinated, designed, and implemented by a singlegroup that obtains input from the various depart-ments.

Do not include marketing hype. Customers areturned off by this; they want to see straightforwardinformation and specs. Instead, entice customers withstraightforward information, give-aways, and dis-counts.

Have zero or minimal animation. Animation typi-cally does not help, and often hinders informationprocessing [Nielsen 1996].

Writing should be concise, easy to scan, and objec-tive [Morkes and Nielsen 1998].

NAVIGATIONPage names should match the link name. Try to createobvious names so that pages can be found easily.

If providing a search engine, make sure that it hasa similar behavior to commonly used search engines.Include not only Boolean keyword searches, but alsocategory pick lists, and radio buttons that help tofocus searches [Lohse and Spiller 1998b]. Too manysite-specific search mechanisms don’t work.

Make navigation clear. Design with the three“where’s” in mind: Where am I? Where can I go?Where have I been?

Make sure all links are active.Make navigation among sections of the site obvi-

ous—there should be clear ways to move to and fromall the areas, including the product catalog, the shop-ping cart, more detailed descriptions of the products,the shipping information, and the purchasing area.

Limit the entire site to the minimum number oflevels possible, ideally, three. Humans think in fairlyflat hierarchies.

PRODUCT SELECTIONMake products easy to find. Use hierarchical naviga-tion bars and include sufficient descriptions to differ-entiate products.

Arrange product lists by frequency or importance,not alphabetically. Alphabetical order can be usedwithin certain types of categories, but often is not thebest way to order categories. For example, although acomputer company sells computers, books, consult-ing, and other products and services, the customer isprobably looking for computers. If books are moreprominently featured because they turn up alphabet-ically before computers, this may not be the bestdesign. Improving product lists has been shown tohave a tremendous effect on sales [Lohse and Spiller1998a].

Link the highest-level description of the product(including picture, name, brief description of usage,and price) to a spec sheet if available.

Don’t assume people know the exact name of aproduct. Make it easy to find by feature or category.

Don’t list part numbers first. Part numbers mayneed to be searchable for certain types of products,but shouldn’t be the sole index.

If you have a well-known product line (from phys-ical stores), make it available from the online store, sopeople aren’t disappointed by the selection. Makethese products easy to find (provide good searchingand navigation) [Lohse and Spiller 1998b].

Since people cannot interact with the products,provide more sources of information (links to moredetailed descriptions and reviews).

Provide a table comparing product features andprice to help customers choose among productswithin or across product families.

Provide usage scenarios to assist with product se-lection, including the context of use, who would usethe product, and for what purposes.

If system packages are provided, allow customiza-tions from a base configuration of these packages,providing a list of compatible choices or a compati-bility checker.

If you offer system components, offer a compatibil-ity checker to help the customer determine whichcomponents go together and what companion com-ponents might be needed for any given selection.

Provide links to related or necessary accessories(cables, batteries, etc.).

If you have product families, first provide guidancefor which product family a customer should look at(this product family is good for this type of use,whereas this other product family is good for thisother range of uses). This prevents people from goingdown the wrong branch in the product family tree.For example, products could be divided by segments,such as Home, Business, Education, Government; or asports store could have Basketball, Tennis, Baseball,Cycling, Hiking, etc.

● Show all the choices.● Have prices next to everything.


● Have pictures for as many items as possible.

If you have more than one model/choice, help thecustomer choose by providing a relative rating (Good,Better, Best).

If your products are priced competitively, provideprice/feature comparisons, which encourages cus-tomers to stay at your site.

SHOPPING CARTProvide a shopping cart so that customers can seeeverything they have selected to purchase, and allowthem to access the contents of the cart at any time.

Indicate when items are in the shopping cart (by,for example, changing the icon) so customers don’tforget about them before changing sites.

Allow customers to add and remove individualitems from the shopping cart at any time. Youshouldn’t force a customer to go back to a particularplace to add an item to the cart. For example, if youare reading the spec sheet for a product, you shouldbe able to add the product to your cart at that point.

Provide an easy way to indicate quantity for eachitem selected.

Keep a running total of all the items in the shoppingcart. Consider keeping this total viewable at all timesso that as choices are made, the total can be viewed.(The customer shouldn’t have to select and then scrollto see the changing total.) If the site can’t updateautomatically, provide an obvious “Update Total” but-ton.

Provide a way to print out shopping cart contents,and prices, with the total.

INTERNATIONAL ISSUESIf your site is global, figure out if and how you willpresent various currencies and languages. One optionis to ask the customer to specify the country of choicewhen entering the site, and to localize for that country(at least the currency, and preferably the language aswell).

Determine how currency will be handled: will onlyone currency be accepted, such as US dollars, or willmultiple currencies be accepted? If the latter, at whatpoint is the customer asked which currency will beused?

Ensure that address fields accommodate interna-tional codes and phone numbers. Also label the fieldswith the variety of terms used, such as “State/Prov-ince” rather than just “State.”

ORDERINGProvide navigation to Open a New Account that isaccessible at any time.

Provide navigation to Review Order.Enable the customer to complete the purchase on-

line, by fax, or by phone. Most purchases still are notfinalized online, mainly due to security concerns.

Don’t use the word “Buy” on a button or link unlessthat action commits the customer to a final on-the-web purchase. People are afraid to select something

that says “Buy.” Instead, use words such as “Store” or“Window Shop” or “Browse” or “Research” or “Shop.”

Re-use information; never make people type thesame information more than once. A site can be veryirritating if people have to type in name, address, andother information multiple times. Many people justgive up.

Communicate if items are available or back-or-dered, and communicate when items will be availableif back-ordered.

Let customers know shipping times and when theyshould expect to receive the order.

Clearly display the order, the prices for each item,shipping and handling, and the total.

Allow and clearly indicate how to print the order.Follow up the order with an online web or e-mail

confirmation to reassure the customer that the orderwas received. Include: items ordered; totals for order,shipping and handling, and taxes; and shipping ad-dress(es). Do not include the password.

Include a phone number (ideally a toll-free num-ber) in the order confirmation for questions.

Be specific about the level of security you have forcredit card orders over the Internet, and explain howcustomers can check their side of the security. If youwant people to order directly, you need to demon-strate security. There is existing strong recognition ofthe gold key symbol in the lower left corner of thebrowser, in conjunction with the solid blue line at thetop of the browser window, to indicate security.

Make service staff easily contacted and available,and post availability times.

Calculate tax based on shipping address.Provide a way to add or select multiple shipping

addresses.If possible, include such things as shipping tracking

numbers and a link to the shipping company’s site.Do not allow the loss of data. Save data when a

person moves among pages. Let the customer knowwhich data will be saved and which won’t. For exam-ple, credit card information sometimes isn’t saved dueto security reasons. Let the customer know that if theyleave the page they will need to re-enter credit cardinformation.

If the site only contains downloadable products, beaware of the terminology used.

Clearly identify which fields are mandatory to fillout and which are optional (such as explicitly labelingthe optional fields).

DOWNLOADSProvide platform-specific instructions for download-ing.

FEEDBACK AND ERRORSInclude status indicators to indicate activity and waittimes.

Change the cursor control to indicate what can beselected.

Whenever data is entered, if a customer selectssomething that would lose the data (for example, they


think of something related and select the “Back” but-ton to another site), provide a warning dialog so thatdata isn’t accidentally lost. Make the ramificationsclear, such as: “If you leave this site before submittingyour order, all the data entered for this order will belost.”

Make error warnings and important status easilyvisible.

Write error messages in a clear manner, with spe-cific information and instructions on how to correctthis situation.

HELPCreate informative online help that changes accordingto the current page and context.

Provide a Frequently Asked Questions area.Provide a phone number for additional help and

customer service.

CUSTOMER LOYALTYReward people for returning to the site. Offer cus-tomizations, discounts, or other benefits for being aregular online customer. Ask customers if they’d liketo receive e-mail, and provide a list from which theycan select what they’d like to be notified of (sales,particular products, etc.).

By utilizing good usability engineering methods (ascovered above) with the guidance of usability engi-neers, many design mistakes that lead to the loss ofcustomers can be avoided. E-commerce is a cost-effective means to greatly increasing customer base

and revenues in a highly scalable manner, and usabil-ity is the key to creating a satisfied and loyal customer.E-commerce is the commodity or standard at thispoint, and usability is a key differentiator. SV

AcknowledgmentsI would like to thank the following people for theirobservations and input: Michael Arent, Eric Bergman,Jim Berney, Robin Jeffries, Erika Kindlund, and Rich-ard Mander.

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LOHSE, G.L. AND SPILLER, P. 1998a. Quantifying the effect ofuser interface design features on cyberstore traffic and sales. CHI’98 Conference Proceedings (April 18–23, 1998), 211–218.

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Creating Usable E-Commerce Sites