E-commerce websites and useability
Getting the best from your retail website
Things you need to consider when purchasing an e-commerce website
So you've decided to trade online as it's by far the fastest growing selling channel in these late days of the present decade... Here's some valuable information on browsing trends and useability which you need to know before commisioning your new website!
Design for maximum browser compatibility
There was a time when you would go to a website and you would see a message like 'Designed for Internet Explorer 4.0' or 'Best Viewed Using Netscape Navigator 2.0'. Thankfully, most web designers have woken up to the fact that if a website is not viewable in ALL browsers then the website they have created is of little use.
Nowadays, web designers have to cater not only to all of the desktop and laptop browsers on the market, but have to cater for a host of mobile and netbook devices which run on different operating systems, mobile phones and even integrated browsers in embeded devices such as some of the latest kitchen appliances!
A good e-commerce website should be viewable in the maximum number of web browsers on multiple devices, maximising the number of people who can access your products and actually buy from you. You'll be pleased to know that Intelligent Retail e-commerce software is built with this in mind and a continual development process is in place to cope with changes in browser technologies and also any emerging technologies like the adoption of 3G phones.
Design for the human eye
If you've ever delved into the area of HCI (Human Computer Interaction) - a pseudo Pshycological area of computer science research, then you'll know that the human eye hasn't quite caught up with the rapid pace of progress in computer screen development in the past decades... infact the human eye will need another several million years to adapt to the increases in technology we are currently enjoying! The moral of all this? Well you have to think of the limitations of the human eye and design for those limitations.
One thing you can do to make sure that your visitors have the best chance of actually being able to take in the information that you display on your shiny new e-commerce website is to make sure that you use black on white for text (or indeed white on black, although this is not quite as good). This is good practise for three reasons:
- It's a well known convention... and convention is everything where web design is concerned. If users know what to expect then it becomes easier to get to the information they are looking for (and of course gives you a better chance of getting those visitors to your product pages!
- Those with even mild colour blindness (and there are a lot of us, especially males) can't read pale or coloured text on coloured backgrounds.
- Even people with mildly un-perfect vision find coloured text on a coloured background hard to read. It may look to, say, use light grey text on a white background, but you are sure to alienate a very large percentage of your visitors before they have had a chance to get to your products!
Technology and Screen Width
When I was taught web design (oh so many years ago now!) the University lecturers would of course push us towards accessible design with multi-browser support, but at the time the average screen width was 640X480 pixels. Things have moved on somwhat now, with the average display resolution now being 1024X768 (Source W3C.org) or even larger. This presents a problem when you are designing a website as there are two methods for web design:
- Fixed Width
- Floating Width
Now, fixed width websites were always shunned in web design in the past as it was assumed it was better to fill the entire screen. Now that screen resolutions are so large, it has become a real problem to use anything BUT fixed width because not only does this have consequences for page layout (floating width websites are much harder to lay out in a pleasing manner) but also the use of floating width on high resolution screens has some serious drawbacks for the users who will be viewing your website!
Because the human eye has a finite lateral viewing capability, we are now reaching the point where a floating width website viewed on a large, high resolution screen is more than the eye can scan without moving the head side to side... not good for the overall user experience and I'm told it can contribute strongly to RSI (repetitive Strain Injury) in susceptible people.
So what to do? Well... design for the market now, so go for a layout of 1024 pixels wide for your e-commerce website. This will give you a website which will fit onto most screens without using the bottom scroll bar in the web browser (around 4% of users still use 800 pixel wide browsers still and this is dropping all the time Source: W3C.org) yet will be comfortable for your users to use.
Mobile devices and useability
There was a time when your mobile device was capable of viewing only plain text and links in a website. Whilst this kind of basic internet access on a mobile phone is still a reality for some, the mobile devices from the past couple of years are capable of displaying full screen websites with all the functionality to use as if you were viewing on your large screen PC at home. These new types of devices which include the Apple iPhone, Nokia N series and a host of others all give you access to true mobile access to the Internet wherever you are. The latest usage trends (e-consultancy.com) suggest that mobile browser usage is set to rocket from 42.9 Million users in the USA at present to nearly 70 million in just a couple of years. And that's just in the USA, a country which is traditionally behind the UK in adoption of new technology! It seems clear that if you are getting a website, it has to be not only viewable on the latest set of mobile devices, but has the ability to allow users to shop online.
The benefits of an Intelligent Retail website
A new e-commerce website from Intelligent Retail has all the accessibility features you need to trade online and more. The IR Connect software has been writen to allow true multichannel selling via website, Ebay, Google Products and more, but also features the ability to fully function on a web enabled mobile device, so your customers can browse and buy whilst on the move.
Our web team are very well versed in the latest trends in web design and can pinpoint the 'best practise' methods so that both you and your potential visitors get the best out of the website.