What do I mean by this? Let’s go on the customer journey:

1) The first time visitor
The customer visits your site. He wants information about your products, prices, service and so on. He needs all this at his finger tips. Try to imagine all the potential questions a customer might have and make sure to answer them – and that those answers are easily accessible.

2) You are lucky
Your potential client has done all his online research and you are the lucky winner – that is why he is back. This usually happens not within the same day. So make sure that the returning customer is able to find the product again fast. In some instances it makes sense to offer a wish list or basket functionality.

3) The unlucky one
The product unfortunately did not get delivered properly. Or in the case of an insurance company – your client had an accident. So this is still the same website user but he again has totally different needs. He is rather likely upset right now and needs help and support fast. Make sure he can access it directly. And yes – in case the answer is a phone call – offering a real voice, without long waiting lines can increase the customer satisfaction and therefore the perception of your brand in many ways.

A good exampe offers Norwich Union. It is very easy to receive a free quote. In addition they offer the button “Existing Customers” on the upper right hand side where clients can “Make a claim”, “Manage their policy online” and much more.

Read the entire series:

Part 1: How to structure content
Part 2: How many navigation points
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global Navigation

A static navigation is always visible and when you click on the first level navigation the items of the second level navigation appear and stay visible.

A dynamic navigation only appears when you hover over it with the mouse and then disappears again.

There are also combinations of the two on the market.

Static navigation:
The advantage is that after the user has clicked on the first level entry all the second level entries stay visible and the user has always the overview of all the other navigation points in that category. So if you assume that your users wish to browse within that category it is advisable that you give the user the overview.

Dynamic navigation:
The dynamic navigation has the benefit that you have not to give up any screen real estate for placing the navigation so you can full the entire website with content. As long as only one drop down opens it is usually easy to navigate. The user can also “preview” the content of all subnavigation items without clicking on them which can be very convenient. However, as soon as you have several sublevel menus it becomes more difficult to control the navigation with the mouse.

Combination of dynamic and static navigation:
An excellent example for a combination of the two is the website of John Lewis. The drop down navigation is even grouped in categories and after the user has chosen an item a static left hand navigation menu appears with further details.

Read the entire series:
Part 1: How to structure content?
Part 2: How many navigation points?
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global navigation

However, real life is not always that easy. Let’s look at some issues:

The seven point rule:
It is true and has been psychologically proven that the human brain best can recall 7 items and that the brain capacity after that becomes lower. This is certainly true for example shopping lists. However, from this also the rule: No more than 7 navigation items has been deducted.

Is it applicable? Yes and no.

It certainly makes sense to try to reduce navigational points and keep the navigational structure precise and clear.

However, what are some exceptions?

# Familiarity with a different structure in the “real world”:

For example news sites: Users are familiar with the categories of their daily newspaper such as news, entertainment, sports, weather etc. There it is advisable to retain the structure readers are familiar with.

# Simply too much content

Sometimes it also can help to add an additional top level item to avoid that the site will have too many navigational hierarchies.

# Linking to sub-sites

For example yahoo links to many sub-sites from its main portal and offers a link to view all other categories. This is another way to structure a huge amount many companies are following: Showing the main entries to everybody and adding an additional link to view all navigation items.

Read the entire series:
Part 1: How to structure content?
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global navigation

Part 1: How to structure content
Part 2: How many navigation points
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global navigation

First of all you need to define all the content:

1. your target group wants to know
2. is important for your business to be communicated

Then the crucial question is what will your target group be looking for? What are their expectations? Are there structures they are familiar with because all of the competitors are following a similar pattern?

There are several ways to structure content – By:

1. topic, genre, product groups
2. target group
3. activity
4. search patterns

1) Topic, genre, product group navigation
As the title implies – this makes mainly sense when you are selling products or services which can be grouped logically.

2) Target group navigation
This one is very helpful when you offer information that is of interest to particular target groups and the all need to find information fast and directly. You often see this on websites of major banks with navigation points such as:
Private Banking | Business Banking | Press | Investors | Jobs
Sometimes it is very helpful to offer this kind of entry on the homepage in case your main navigation is structured by topic. You see this rather often on university sites. See the two examples below:

3) Activity based navigation
This one is more prominent in software where often activities are more prominent than categories since users want to fulfil certain tasks.

4) Navigation based on search patterns
In case people might look in different ways for a product this navigational structure is suitable. It basically means that for example products in a gift store are searchable by price, by category and by gender.

Sometimes combinations of the above are the best approach. However, always make sure to label the categories precisely with a short verb and noun and avoid jargon and long labels.

1. It is recommended, that the product overview pages follow all a consistent structure. This gives the user the chance to learn your site and with continuing navigation he can orient himself faster.
2. The amount of products presented should allow the user to gain a quick overview.
3. The most relevant questions the user has at this stage should be answered. This allows faster scanning of the products and saves the user possible disappointment on the individual product page itself. This includes the listing of the price and availability.
4. Especially with rather technical or complex products, an online product comparison option is essential to avoid lots of work for the call centre.
5. In addition, sorting functionalities support the user to “customise” the results to his personal needs, such as price, distance, weight, colour etc.

Let’s have a look at two examples buying a Sony Laptop and a new Esprit Jacket:

On the Sony Laptop overview page, the user receives all the essential data he needs.
They even consider the two target groups returning and new customer. The returning one can add the product directly to the shopping cart the new one can add the product to a wish list.
There is the option for product comparison and a sort option.

And the product comparison site: The user can delete rows or columns, start over, get the product advisor and create a PDF for print out and later use.

On the Esprit page as well, the product overview page answers the main questions such as: material, prize, availability, colour selection and new arrivals.

Check out the entire series:

Part 2) Product overview

Part 3) Product presentation

Part 4) Search

Part 5) Check out process

Part 6) The shopping basket

Imagine you are in a convenience store such as Sainbury’s and you are looking for batteries. Where do you start to look for them? Kitchen supplies, the area where the stationary is, where could they be? Where the garbage bags are? You might walk around for a while and then ask a sales person for assistance.

Now online

Image the same scenario online. You click here, you click there. However, there is no sales person that can help and the competitor’s site is just one click away. That is why especially for e-commerce sites good usability is so crucial.

The above study shows, that a bad online shopping experience does not only mean that you have lost this one sale. The customer is also rather likely not to buy from you at all.

You suffer from:

1. Lost sales,
2. a weakend reputation and
   
3. it harms the perception of your overall brand.

Some common issues on e-commerce sites are:

Navigation and start page

You need to consider that you have to types of people visiting your online shop:

1. The ones who already exactly know what they want. They need to be guided directly to the product they are looking for. Structuring and clustering of the shop items in a clearly visible navigation bar is essential for them.
2. The others are the users who just want to browse your site or inform themselves. They might be looking for the special offer, new products or seasional trends. Visual teasers and images usually guide those the best.

Give the visitors also a chance to concentrate on your main items. Cluttered sites are likely to overwhelm the user. In an online shop users prefer structure and visual guidance and do not want to feel like being on a flea market.

Creating the right structure

1. Competitors’ analysis: Do you know what they are doing?
   Your users are very likely to also use other e-commerce sites. Over the last years, patterns of structuring, organising and labelling content have evolved. Your users have learned those patterns. Therefore we recommend not to re-event the wheel and to stick to conventions. The best way to find those patterns and conventions is a competitors’ analysis. In addition, a regular competitors’ analysis gives insight in new trends and strategies. You can only become the benchmark by knowing what your are up against.A competitors’ analysis can be done at any stage of the project. We recommend to perform it in regular intervals. Depending on the market every 1-3 months to at least once a year.
2. Card sorting: How would your clients structure the content?
   One basic method is card sorting. Card sorting is used to develop the structure of Web sites. How does it work?
   Product categories or product names are written down on individual cards. Then (potential) users of the site are asked to structure the cards into groups or to sort them into predefined metacategories.
   • Structure: This gives valuable insight into how your customers would structure the content and therefore where they would be looking for the information when navigating through your site. This aids to define the ideal placement of individual products and how to create useful product categories. Recall the example with the matches from the beginning? Where would customers look for them the most likely?
   • Wording: Though it is not always the wrong structure that misleads customers. Equally important is to find the right wording for the individual categories and navigation items.

In the next entries the following topics will be covered:

Part 2) Product overview

Part 3) Product presentation

Part 4) Search

Part 5) Check out process

Part 6) The shopping basket

Fulfilment of expectations
It happens rather frequently that websites are a direct reflection of internal company structures, since the website creators are themselves very familiar with the topics. As a result, internal needs and expectations are prevalent. Good usability assures that the site focuses mainly on the expectations and needs of your target groups and functions in accord with their habits regarding online behaviour.

High quality
Every website must achieve its intended purpose – providing information, entertaining, selling products, building a user community, etc. In each of those cases the user does not want to think about the interaction itself. The more intuitively a user can use the site, the better. If the site meets user expectations, a feeling of trust and quality is established. This is a great opportunity to distinguish the site from the competitor’s.

Increased retention time
The better the site’s concept caters to the target group and the more intuitively it can be used, the longer the user will stay. The focus is, for example, on how the user can be stimulated to look at further content on the site and on how fast central questions of the users are answered.

Higher interaction rate
Intensive use of a site is the result of a targeted structure as well as information and good interaction design. The site’s benefit is obvious to the user, and he can easily find valuable information. How quickly and how intense does the user get involved with your site? What are the incentives to visit the site again? How are interactive elements used?

Reaching a broader audience
By complying with certain design and publishing guidelines the website can reach a broader target group. The site will be accessible for the elderly as well as for the physically or visually impaired.

Joy of use
Over the last few years, the notion of “joy of use” has received increasing attention. It describes the degree of experienced joy of use of a site or software and indicates the personal satisfaction and motivation to interact.