‘Mass Merchant & Department Store’ UX Audit

Homepage — The homepage structure, design, carousels, personalization, and promotions.

Category Taxonomy — The overall e-commerce category structure and taxonomy, includes the common issue of “over-categorization”, information architecture, catalog breadth, category redundancy, overly deep or shallow categories, industry-specific naming, etc.

Main Navigation — The main e-commerce navigation design, mega drop-down menus, product navigation and its visual hierarchy, courtesy non-product navigation, etc.

Intermediary Category Pages — How deep in the site hierarchy “Intermediary Category” pages are used (vs. using a product listing page), how the category pages are structured and what content they contain, incl. inspirational paths, featured products, and curated content, etc.

Site-Wide Layout — Site-wide layouts, footers, newsletter dialogs, ad positioning, and return policy links, etc.

Query Types — The level of compliance with 12 different overarching types of search queries that users make on e-commerce sites, all vital for your search engine to support (Exact, Product Type, Feature, Thematic, Relational, Compatibility, Symbol, Subjective, Symptom, Implicit, Non-Product, and Natural Language). How and what product data is actually searched.

Search Form & Logic — The design and behavior of the search field itself, query persistence, manual and automatic search scope selection, special characters, etc.

Autocomplete — How the autocomplete feature (“predictive search”) should be designed, the types of suggestions it should make, keyboard behavior support, suggesting scopes and products, etc.

Results Logic & Guidance — How to guide users toward better paths on the results page, including suggesting alternate queries, scopes, “No results” pages, misspellings, etc.

Results Layout — The layout and features of the search results page, such as dynamic list layouts, the search results information, search snippets, pagination, etc.

Results Filtering & Sorting — Filtering and sorting of search results, including essential filtering types, faceted search, the design and logic for long lists of filters, filter naming, dynamic sorting, etc.

List Layout — The design and features of the overall layout of the product list, includes “list” vs. “grid” layouts, product data consistency, post-processing vendor-supplied data, “responsive upscaling” of product lists, etc.

Loading Products — The loading schema for new items loaded into the product list, number of products displayed by default, etc.

List Items: What Information to Include — The type and amount of product attributes to include in each list item, product variations in list items, user ratings averages in list items, etc.

List Items: User Interface — The styling and display of the included information such a price, product specifications, variations, units, etc.

List Items: Product Thumbnails — The type of product thumbnails in each list item, what they depict, their size, hover-enabled thumbnails, showing packaging, etc.

List Items: Hover & Hit Areas — The list item’s click behavior, hover effect synchronization, “quick view” features, dynamic amount of content on hover, etc.

List Items: Personalization — Context-aware thumbnails, personalized list item and product attributes, highlighting of items, etc.

Filtering: Available Filters — The type, amount, and specificity of filters users need, incl. thematic filters, product-specific filters, compatibility filters, symptom filters, product status filters, gifting filters, user-defined filters, price filters, etc.

Filtering: Scope & Logic — Filtering logic, scope, and naming schemas, such as over-categorization, mutually exclusive filtering values and non-exclusive values (“AND” “OR” logics), filtering tooltips, filter names, filter value consistency, dynamically renaming filters, etc.

Filtering Interface & Layout — Filtering type’s and filtering value’s styling, placement, filter truncation, incl. handling filtering values with 0 matches, filter value checkbox and link styling, the display sequence for filtering values, slider interfaces, etc.

Filtering: Applying & Applied Filters — “Apply” buttons and live updating as filters are applied, the position and styling for applied filtering values, browser history, filter and sorting persistence, etc.

Sorting — The default sort type, diversity in sorting logic, the sorting interface and scope, alphabetical sorting, category-specific sort types, sorting directions, sorting naming, the scope of the sorting tool, labeling of the sorting interface, dead-end sorting options, logic for customer rating sorting, etc.

Product Page Layouts — “Horizontal Tabs”, “Sticky TOCs”, “Collapsed Sections”, “One Long Page”, etc.

Product Images — How users inspect product images, the 7 different image types e-commerce sites need, number of images, etc.

Image Gallery User Interface — Image gallery design, image navigation, methods of zoom, carousels, overlays, default image and size, etc.

The “Buy” Section — Design and position of elements such as “Add to Cart” button, prices and discounts, quantity field, etc.

Shipping, Returns, & Gifting — Shipping and returns information at the product page, “Free Shipping” tiers, and “Find in Store” features.

Product Variations — Selecting color and size variations, content across variations, product customizations and personalizations.

Product Description — Product information and descriptions, the type of content needed, text styling, sub-titles, product headlines, etc.

Product Specifications Sheet — Spec sheet layout, specs in tables vs. product descriptions, help features, post-processing of vendor data, etc.

User Reviews — User reviews, the review submission form, review filtering, sorting and navigation, rating distribution summaries, etc.

Auxiliary Content — Q&A/FAQs, social media tools, and expert-generated content.

Cross-Sells & Cross-Navigation — Cross-sells design, placement, and logic, cross-navigation elements, “Recently Viewed Products”, etc.

Shopping Cart & “Added to Cart” Behavior — Shopping cart design, quantity, and save features, as well as the page-response when users add products to the cart (drop-down cart, etc.)

Account Selection & Creation — Account selection designs and communication, guest checkout, “Delayed Account Creation”, social media accounts, password rules, etc.

Customer & Address Information — Privacy concerns, shipping addresses, billing addresses, international addresses, phone fields, address auto-detection techniques, etc.

Shipping & Store Pickup — Shipping interface design and information hierarchy, shipping descriptions, order cut-off times, and “Free Shipping” tiers, along with omni-channel features such as Store Pickup, Store Availability, and Ship to Store.

Payment Flow & Methods (includes Third-Party) — The payment methods interface, how to integrate and display third-party payment options, gift card redemption flows, international currencies, coupon codes, etc.

Credit Card Form — The credit card field design and its validation logic and formatting, along with the expiration date, security code, and cardholder name inputs, field sequence, card icons, and card type selection.

Order Review — Review step design, “Place Order” button placement, and necessary review data, along with its editing flow.

Order Confirmation & E-Mail (to the extent it’s possible to access this) — The information and actions needed on the order confirmation page, along with the order confirmation e-mail.

Checkout Page Design — Checkout process steps, “Enclosed Checkout” designs, order summary sidebars, and how to design and position the cart link in the site-wide header.

User Attention & Interactions — Load indicators, feedback on user actions, the use of overlays, feedback requests, introduction of site-specific features, and embedded content from third-parties.

Cross-Sells — Active vs. passive cross-selling, adapting cross-sells to user context, and pitfalls of specific placements and wording.

Form Design & Features — How to design and position the primary button, “Apply” buttons, minimizing form intimidation, multi-column layouts, tabbing flows, CAPTCHAs, back-button and enter-keystroke behavior.

Validation Errors & Data Persistence — How to design and position error messages, how to word them, and persisting data in non-secure and secure form fields, along with inline validation.

Address Validators — When address validations are necessary, “Force-Proceeding” through address validators, along with address validator design and logic.

Field Labels & Microcopy — Marking optional and required fields, field label position, tooltips, and optimizing microcopy and descriptions.

Field Design & Features — How to match the type of interface with the input type, drop-downs and radio button implementations, input masks and character restrictions, custom designed input fields, etc.

Default Values & Autocompletion — Intelligent form features, including inferred selections, pre-fills, auto-fills, and personalization of the checkout flow.

‘My Account’ Sign-In — Account sign in, including password reset and account lockouts, “Soft” sign in, automatic sign out, and where users should be sent after signing in.

‘My Account’ Drop-Down — Placement of the “My Account” drop-down menu, account features to include, how the “My Account” drop-down should be structured and styled, personalization, and what “My Account” drop-down implementations should be avoided.

‘My Account’ Dashboard — Providing paths to all ‘My Account’ features, highlighting recent orders, limiting ads, and using icons; dashboard designs that use a sidebar or “Cards “for navigation.

‘My Account’ Stored Addresses, Cards, and Newsletters — Credit card updating flow, default addresses, editing vs. adding a new address, newsletter frequency and “unsubscribe “, confirmations, and ‘Apply’ buttons.

Mobile Basics — Content and structure of mobile site vs. desktop site, size and spacing of hit areas, multiple hit-areas within the same visual element, font-sizes, landscape mode, bugs and quirks vulnerable to the mobile platform, auto-zoom, etc.

Mobile Site Homepage & Main Navigation — Main navigation design and logic, double-hit area issues, homepage structure and design, auto-rotating carousels, etc.

Mobile Search — User’s crossover from category navigation to search, search scopes, misspellings and synonyms, search query support, “No results” pages, Faceted Search filters, etc.

Mobile Product Lists — List item size, product thumbnail size relative to product type, amount of product attributes in list items, hit areas within the product list, separation of list items, pagination vs. load more vs. endless scrolling, visual indicators, product variations, list item interactions on a touch screen, etc.

Mobile Filtering & Sorting — Styling and position of both “filter” and “Sort” options, sort types, “apply” buttons vs. auto-applying filtering values, the display of applied filters, information scent, product status, filtering interface, etc.

Mobile Cross-Navigation & Compatibility — Interlinking of compatibility-dependent products, cross-sells, list item consistency, etc.

Mobile Product Page Layouts — Product page structure, sub–product pages, collapsed product page sections, user reviews, “add to cart” button placement, “Store Pickup”, etc.

Mobile Product Images — Product image size, product image zoom levels, image ambiguity, touch gestures in the image gallery, etc.

Mobile Product Descriptions, Specs, & Compatibility — Division of product info between description and spec list, styling of product description, amount and level of specs included, product compatibility information and relationships, etc.

Mobile Shopping Cart — Cost estimates, number and placement of “checkout” buttons, saving mobile carts, picking up mobile carts on desktop devices, etc.

Mobile Checkout Steps — Account creation and guest checkout, shipping and billing addresses, shipping methods, “Store Pickup”, payment, order review, linear checkout flows, mobile process steps, etc.

Mobile Checkout UX — Optional vs. required fields, minimizing number of fields, form field label placement in smartphone portrait and landscape modes, inline labels, floating labels, grouping checkout info for mobile overview, field context, location detection, touch keyboard auto-correct, optimized keyboards, auto-capitalization, etc.