With the end of 2023 nearing, here’s an overview of everything we’ve been working on, as well as what we have planned for 2024.

Baymard’s 10 Most Popular UX Research Articles in 2023

The 10 most popular UX articles for the year are:

1. Testing ChatGPT-4 for ‘UX Audits’ Shows an 80% Error Rate & 14–26% Discoverability Rate
2. The Current State of Homepage and Category Navigation UX (12 Common Pitfalls)
3. The Current State of E-Commerce Product Page UX Performance (15 Best Practices)
4. 2 Key Design Principles for Product Listing Information (64% Get at Least 1 Wrong)
5. Top 1% E-Commerce UX Awards — 2023 WINNERS
6. Always Collapse Completed Accordion Checkout Steps into Summaries
7. 6 Ways to Get More Out of Your Order Confirmation Page
8. Make All Color Swatches Available in Mobile List Items for Visually Driven Product Types (57% Don’t)
9. The Current State of E-Commerce Product List UX Performance (15 Best Practices)
10. Payment Method UX: Designing Payment Selection

New UX Research Studies in 2023

In 2023 we’ve conducted and published 30,000+ hours of new UX research. The 4 most significant UX research studies added during 2023 were:

1) New “Vitamins & Supplements” Research Study

This research focuses on “Vitamins & Supplements” websites and included test sites from 11 multibrand Vitamins & Supplements sites: eVitamins, GNC, iHerb, Lucky Vitamin, PipingRock, Pure Formulas, Puritan’s Pride, Swanson Vitamins, Vitacost, Vitamin Shoppe, and Vitamin World.

See the findings from our Vitamins & Supplements research study or explore our Vitamins & Supplements UX articles:

• Always Provide a “Supplement Facts Label” Image in the Main Image Gallery of Vitamins & Supplements Sites
• 3 High-Level Takeaways from 1,800+ Hours Testing Vitamins & Supplements Sites

2) New “Travel Tours & Experience Booking” Research Study

This research focuses on “Travel Tours & Experience Booking” websites and included small- and medium-sized test sites offering a variety of tours and experiences:

• Helicopter tours of New York City (HeliNY Sightseeing, New York Helicopter Tours, Zip Aviation)
• River tours and lake cruises in Chicago (Shoreline Sightseeing, Tall Ship Windy, Wendella)
• Guided tours and activities in Hawaii (Blue Hawaiian Activities, Roberts Hawaii, Volcano Tours)
• Group walking tours in London (Fun London Tours, Golden Tours, London Top Sights)
• Guided tours and adventures in Iceland (Arctic Adventures, Gray Line Iceland, Reykjavik Excursions).

See the findings from our Travel Tours & Experience Booking research study or explore our Travel Tours & Experience Booking UX articles:

• 3 High-Level Takeaways from 1,700 Hours Testing Travel Tours and Experience Booking Sites
• Travel Tours & Experience Booking Sites: New UX Benchmark with 2,500+ Performance Scores and 1,500+ Best Practice Examples
• Always Have a Map on the “Tour Details” Page Indicating the Departure or Meeting Point for the Tour
• Always Link to Third-Party Sources of Reviews, Aggregate Ratings, Awards, and Endorsements on Tours and Experiences Sites

3) Ongoing “Product Listing & Homepage & Navigation” Research Study

This research focuses on the product finding and product browsing aspects of the e-commerce user experience and includes electronics and office test sites (Staples, HP, Office Depot, Best Buy, B&H Photo, and Newegg) and apparel test sites (GAP, H&M, AEO, Nordstrom, L.L. Bean, and Urban Outfitters).

See the findings from our Homepage & Category Navigation UX and Product Lists UX research studies or explore our articles.

Product finding articles published 2023 (listed by popularity):

• The Current State of Homepage and Category Navigation UX (12 Common Pitfalls)
• 2 Key Design Principles for Product Listing Information (64% Get at Least 1 Wrong)
• The Current State of E-Commerce Product List UX Performance (15 Best Practices)
• Product Listing UX: What Information to Display in Product Listings (50% Get It Wrong)
• Avoid “Quick Views” for Spec-Driven Product Types (21% Don’t)
• Overcategorization of the Product Catalog Can Lead to Abandonment (Yet 75% Get It Wrong)
• Display “Price Per Unit” For Multiquantity Items (86% Don’t)
• Always Show the Number of User Ratings in List Items (5% Don’t)
• Consider Promoting Important Filters (61% Don’t)
• Make Product Categories the Top-Level Navigation Items on Mobile Sites (33% Don’t)
• Consider Providing “Intermediary Category Pages” (13% Don’t)
• Provide a Hover Delay of 300–500 MS for Hover-Based Drop-Down Menus (60% Don’t)

4) Ongoing “Cart & Checkout” Research Study

This research focuses on the cart and checkout experience and includes the following test sites: Etsy, Theo Chocolates, CVS, Best Buy, Stance, Hayneedle, Apple, Everlane, The Container Store, Williams Sonoma, Overstock, Walgreens, Snowe Home, AEO, Wayfair, and Samsung.

See the findings from our Cart & Checkout research study or explore our articles.

New checkout articles published in 2023 (listed by popularity):

• Payment Method UX: Designing Payment Selection
• Form Field Usability: Avoid Extensive Multicolumn Layouts (16% Make This Form Usability Mistake)
• Format the “Expiration Date” Fields Exactly the Same as the Physical Credit Card (72% Don’t)
• Use “Shipping Address” as “Billing Address” by Default (16% of Mobile Sites Have Implementation Issues)
• Use “Delivery Date” Not “Shipping Speed” (41% Don’t) — From UX Research to Implementation Roadmap
• Checkout Usability: Autodetect “City” and “State” Inputs Based on the User’s Postal Code (28% of Mobile Sites Don’t)
• Save Account Creation for the Confirmation Step (42% Don’t)
• Always Collapse Completed Accordion Checkout Steps into Summaries
• 6 Ways to Get More Out of Your Order Confirmation Page
• Make “Guest Checkout” the Most Prominent Option (47% Don’t)
• Grocery UX: Dynamically Update the “Add to Cart” Button to a Quantity Selector after Item Added
• Provide a “Fully Automatic Address Lookup” Feature (55% Don’t)
• Include All Order-Fulfillment Options in the Fulfillment-Selector Interface (50% Don’t)
• Have an Address Validator (47% Don’t)

New UX Training & UX Certification

During 2023 we also launched our online self-paced UX training platform:

• A comprehensive research-driven UX training program, that covers the core findings of our 130,000+ hours of UX research
• All courses are available in 3 skill levels to match all UX backgrounds and ambitions - from junior UX’ers to UX veterans
• Get ‘UX Certified by Baymard’ at three different levels. 349 UX’ers are already certified
• There are also guest lectures from Brad Frost, Paul Boag, Google, and more

Learn more about Baymard’s UX training.

14 New UX Benchmarks Published in 2023

In 2023 we also conducted 14 new UX benchmarks, adding 30,000+ new best practice and worst practice examples illustrating how leading sites stack up against the 650+ UX guidelines available in Baymard Premium.

You can browse parts of this dataset for free in our public E-Commerce UX Benchmark and in the Page Design tool.

You can see the 14 new UX benchmarks in detail here:

• Product Lists & Filtering
• Mobile Customer Accounts
• Homepage & Category Navigation
• Home & Hardware
• Internet Service Providers
• Automotive Parts & Specialty
• Mobile Apps
• Insurance
• Sports Gear & Equipment
• Health & Beauty
• On-Site Search
• Travel Tours & Experience Booking
• Product Page
• Toys

13 New Team Members and Hiring

In 2023 we welcomed 13 new colleagues to Baymard — and we have more hiring plans for 2024.

If you want to join Baymard in 2024, or know of someone who’d be a great fit, then sign up for our job email alert to get notified when Baymard is hiring (max 4 emails per year).

First Half of 2024

Looking ahead to the first half of 2024, we have 6 new UX research studies coming out, dedicated to:

• ‘New Checkout Patterns’
• ‘Navigation, Search, & Product Listings’
• ‘B2B Electronic Components’ sites
• ‘Apparel & Accessories’ sites (incl DTC)
• ‘Houseware & Furniture’ sites
• ‘Telco’ sites

In the first half of 2024 we’ll also release new UX industry benchmarks for:

• Online Grocery
• Vitamins & Supplements
• Luxury Goods, Electronics,
• Mass Merchants
• Home & Hardware
• Order Tracking & Returns
• Houseware & Furnishings
• Takeout & Food Delivery
• Digital Subscriptions & SaaS
• Apparel & Accessories
• Travel
• B2B Components & Electronics

You can see a full breakdown of all changes on our Roadmap & Changelog page.

We’re looking forward to 2024.

- Christian, Jamie, and the entire Baymard team

Getting access: our research findings are available in the 650+ UX guidelines in Baymard Premium – get full access to learn how to create a “State of the Art” e-commerce user experience.

If you want to know how your desktop site, mobile site, or app performs and compares, then learn more about having Baymard conduct a UX Audit of your site or app.