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Baymard Premium Roadmap & Changelog

What’s new in Baymard Premium and what’s coming

Baymard currently has conducted 42,000+ hours of large-scale e-commerce UX research. Every year we add another 17,700+ hours of new UX research and features to Baymard Premium. All of these research findings are available only in the Premium research catalog.

This ‘Roadmap & Changelog’-page describes what’s new in Premium and what new research is coming.

Tip: If you want to get four emails per year summarizing what new research Baymard has just published — then sign up to our Quarterly Newsletter.

Major Content & Features Added Recently

Below are some of the most prominent research releases and features we’ve added to Baymard Premium in the past 12 months:

New Product Page UX benchmark with 3,700 Examples

We’re releasing our new Product Page UX benchmark dataset. This provides you with 59 large e-commerce sites rated across the 95 Product Page UX guidelines, leading to 3,700+ new worst- and best-practice UX examples, and 5,600+ new UX performance scores.

You can view the Product Page UX performance and case-study dataset in the Benchmark tool and you can see the 265 new product page design examples from leading e-com sites at in the Page Design tool.

The 3,700+ worst- and best-practice examples are already embedded in the 95 product page UX guidelines. We recommend you start with the ‘Current State of Product Page UX’ analysis.

New Search UX benchmark

We’re releasing our new E-commerce Search UX benchmark dataset. This provides you with 59 large e-commerce sites rated across the 50 Search UX guidelines, leading to 1667 worst- and best-practice Search UX examples, and 2800+ new Search UX performance scores.

You can view the Search UX performance and case-study dataset in the Benchmark tool and you can see the 237 new search design examples from leading e-com sites at in the Page Design tool.

The 1600+ worst- and best-practice examples are already embedded in the 50 search UX guidelines. We recommend you start with the ‘Current State of E-Commerce Search UX’ analysis.)

New Late-2019 Quantitative Research on 9 Different Topics

Nine rounds of new quantitative research, providing you with new late-2019 stats on user preferences and behavior on things like: why users abandon their order during the checkout flow (see Checkout intro), why users shop online instead of in physical stores (see Product Page intro), mobile app install rates, utilization rates, and top 5 installed apps (see #930), what information types which will make users abandon the checkout (#731), which SSL and trust badges that give users the best sense of trust in a checkout flow (#587), how much more users rely on customer review averages if they have a higher number of votes (#517), and how users actually “save” products they aren’t yet ready to purchase (#798).

New Mobile Study (In Progress): 141 Mobile Guidelines Published So Far

The research team is currently conducting a new large-scale Mobile E-Commerce UX study — the most comprehensive research study we’ve ever conducted. The mobile users encountered a massive 2,597 usability issues during testing, revealing new mobile user behavior specific to e-commerce, where and how mobile websites need to deviate from desktop, and which of the current approximately 500 “desktop” guidelines found in Baymard Premium are actually “platform agnostic” and apply equally to both desktop and mobile sites.

Timeline:

  • Currently 141 ‘mobile only’ and ‘platform agnostic’ guidelines have been written and published to the theme “Mobile E-Commerce Version 2”.
  • The remaining 50-80 guidelines mobile guidelines will gradually be released as they are written during the next couple of months.
  • November 2019 we’ve started a new round of Mobile UX benchmarking, initially of 20 sites, expected to be out Q1 2020.
  • Early 2020 the old mobile v1 guidelines will be removed from the guideline navigation (deep links to specific guidelines still work), and Premium will switch fully to use the Mobile V2 guidelines (incl in the Review Tool).

‘Industry’ Feature: See the 50–150 Most Important Guidelines to Your Industry

You now have a new way of navigating the 700+ research guidelines called “Guidelines by Industry”.

This feature shows you the 50-150 most important guidelines to read first for a single industry (e.g. for apparel sites, mass merchant sites, etc.) and can be found next to the other research Themes in the Guideline tool.

The industry views available are: Apparel, Mass Merchant, Electronics & Office, Home & Hardware, Houseware & Furnishings, Health & Beauty, Sports, Toys, & Hobbies, and Business-to-Business. (More will be added later.)

If you work on an e-commerce site within any of these industries, we recommend that you start examining the 50-150 guidelines listed within the corresponding industry view page before diving into the full 700+ guidelines available in Baymard Premium.

We’ve created these industry lists by analyzing the 57,000+ UX performance ratings from our UX benchmark dataset, looking specifically for which of the 700+ guidelines that — within each industry — have the largest collective negative UX performance impact. In other words, guidelines that most sites within the industry violate despite the guideline having a relatively high UX impact seen during usability testing.

The industry view is meant as a starting point. Any given site within these industries should still pay attention to all the 700+ UX guidelines in Baymard Premium. To make that task more manageable, those 50-150 guidelines found within the “Guidelines by Industry” list will for most sites (within those respective industries) be the best starting point for improving their overall UX.

New Cart & Checkout UX Benchmark Added with 5,000+ New Examples

We’ve added a new Cart & Checkout benchmark with 59 sites benchmarked. This provides you with:

  • 5,054 new worst- and best-practice checkout implementation examples. These examples are added to each of the relevant 134 checkout guidelines
  • 7,906 new checkout UX performance ratings, added to the benchmark
  • All benchmark case study pages have had their checkout UX walkthrough updated
  • 427 new annotated checkout step design examples, added to the Page Design tool

A good starting point for getting an overview of the overarching insights from this new vast dataset would be to read the updated Cart & Checkout UX benchmark analysis.​

‘Compare Mode’ Added to Scorecards

The UX performance charts now have two features to make performance comparison easier:

  1. Select Sites for Comparison — All scorecards now have an actual “Compare” mode that enables you to load specific scorecards into your current bar chart for comparison. This allows you to make direct performance comparisons between: any Review Tool scorecards you’ve created yourself, any UX audit performance scorecards Baymard have conducted for you, and any of the 60 case studies from the Benchmarks. You can enter this comparison mode by clicking the “Compare” link found in lower right corner of each bar chart graph.

  2. Superimposed Benchmark Performances — All bar charts now have the entire benchmark scatter plot superimposed as small grey dots below the bars. This means that in all UX performance bar charts you now get 39,500+ UX performance ratings (from the top 60 grossing e-commerce sites in the world) summarized right next to the site performance you’re currently viewing, providing much better context for the bar chart performance.

Search Tool Added to Premium

You can now search within Baymard Premium and Baymard.com.

You’ll find the new search tool in the upper right-hand corner of the main navigation, and it allows filtering by both Research Theme and Content Type.

‘Importance’ Added to All Guidelines

The beginning of all guidelines in Baymard Premium now lists an “Importance” sentence that describes overall importance of reading a guideline in three levels; “Detail”, “Impactful” and “Essential”. This makes it easier to immediately understand the relative importance of a guideline before reading it.

The importance is mostly based on how much of an impact we observe the underlying UX issue have on end-users. This part is the “Severity” and “Frequency” data from our large scale test sessions we’ve now combined into a single “Importance” sentence. Generally, all of the 74 research topics list the guidelines by their importance — so those guidelines found first within a topic are always more important to read than those at the end of the topic. (In some instances guideline sequence within topics deviate slightly from this if we deem that it vastly improves the reading experience of the whole topic.)

Select guidelines are also tagged as being a “Missed Opportunity”, “Web Convention”, and/or “Low Cost”:

  • Missed Opportunity: Our benchmark reveals that many sites fail to address this UX issue, despite the issue also having a significant UX impact — making it a ‘missed opportunity’. Be sure to check your site doesn’t suffer from this issue as well.
  • Web Convention: This guideline is a “Web Convention” as our benchmark reveals that almost all sites adhere to it — meaning that it’s also an experience users are highly accustomed to having. Be careful about breaking this user expectation.
  • Low Cost: This guideline will often be relatively low cost to implement for the average e-commerce site (compared to other guidelines).

If a guideline meets any of these three requirements, the guideline Importance level is boosted beyond its “severity” and “frequency” test values — as we then deem it more important to read.

Account & Self-Service Benchmark Added With 2,000+ Examples

We’ve finished the Accounts & Self-Service benchmark with 42 sites benchmarked across the 65 Accounts & Self-Service guidelines.

This provides you with a total of 2,000+ implementation examples for the 65 guidelines, 2,700+ UX performance ratings in the benchmark, and 330 annotated page design examples available in the Page Design tool.

Compared to the other overall themes of e-commerce UX, Accounts & Self-Service is the overall theme with by far the fewest decently or well-performing sites, and the theme with the second highest amount of mediocre to poor performances (only surpassed by e-commerce Search UX).

We recommend that you read the “Accounts & Self-Service benchmark analysis” as it provides a good overview of the research and highlights commonly missed opportunities relating to the account management and the order tracking & returns experience.

‘Current State of the E-Commerce UX Landscape’ Analysis Added

We’ve added a high-level analysis of the “current state” of the e-commerce landscape as a whole (from a UX performance point of view), based on the 40,000+ current UX performance scores in our benchmark database, which cover 60 major e-commerce sites across multiple industries.

We strongly recommend this for those wanting the complete overview of the e-commerce UX industry and our overarching research findings, before diving into the specific themes, topics, and guidelines. For this reason, it’s also linked to from the top of the Guideline page and the Benchmark page.

Read our new ‘Current State of the E-Commerce UX Landscape’ analysis now. ​

Exam & Certification: Become a “Certified UX Professional by Baymard Institute”

All Premium users on the Medium and Large accounts can now in the Exam & Certification tool take a series of exams and — if passing all six exams — become a “Certified E-Commerce UX Professional by Baymard Institute”.

Certification also includes an (optional) profile page in Baymard Institute’s public list of “Certified E-Commerce UX Professionals” - certifying your high level of knowledge and expertise specifically within e-commerce User Experience to clients, partners, and current or future employees.

Upcoming Features & Research

Each year we conduct approximately 11,000 hours of new UX e-commerce research for Baymard Premium, on top of this our developer team then adds another 6,500 dev hours to add new features to Premium.

Here’s the roadmap of upcoming features and research:

  • A new Mobile E-Commerce Study: The research team is currently conducting a new large-scale mobile usability study that focus on mobile homepage, navigation, search, product lists, and product pages. Note that we do observe the current mobile guidelines and underlying user behavior still applies, despite some of the screenshots looking dated. The first 123 guidelines from the new mobile study are released in Mobile E-Commerce. The remaining 40-80 mobile guidelines will come over the following months. Learn more.
  • A new Mobile E-Commerce benchmark: once the above mentioned mobile study is released we will immediately conduct a new mobile e-comemrce benchmark based on the new set of guidelines. Learn more.
  • Product Details Page UX benchmarking: The research team is currently working on a new UX benchmark for the 95 Product Details Page guidelines.
  • Search UX benchmarking: The research team is currently working on a new UX benchmark for the 49 Search guidelines.
  • ‘Share Scorecard’ in the Review Tool: the ability to “Share Scorecard” outside your company’s Premium account. E.g. sharing a Review tool scorecard with a client in its interactive state (incl the Compare tool). (The guideline titles will be obscured).
  • “Review Tool 2.0”: a completely new Review Tool, with significant improvements both in terms of communicating when to set a given rating and in terms of how many ratings are needed to create a comparative scorecard.

Changelog

How often are the research findings updated?

For Baymard Premium we conduct approximately 11,000 hours of new UX e-commerce research per year (on top of this our developer team then adds another 6,500 dev hours to add new features to Premium). How many new findings that yields depend entirely on the topics we research and what kind of evolution we see in user behavior (some e-commerce aspects change faster than others).

But from experience, we know that each year we will:

  • Create ~100 new guidelines.
  • Rewrite another ~100 existing guidelines with new findings and user behavior (combined with the new guidelines, this corresponds to around 1,500 pages of new UX research every year).
  • Conduct 4 completely new UX benchmarks, which will typically provide you with 15,000+ new best-practice UX examples and 20,000+ new UX performance scores every year.
  • Add 1-2 major features, along with 5-10 smaller improvements to existing features.

Important to note: generally, for usability research, there’s a big difference between the decay of aesthetic web style trends and the decay of actual user behavior. While style trends and aesthetic preferences change quickly, often every year, user behavior and the underlying causes of usability issues change much more slowly; for example, quite some users still double click online even though that hasn’t been relevant for 2 decades. That’s also why one of our audit clients saw a $10 million increase in annual sales from just a single checkout change, based on a checkout guideline dating back to our very first checkout study from 2010. At Baymard we, therefore, tend to go for less frequent, but more in-depth, study updates (tied to changes in actual user behavior) rather than superficial refreshes (on style trends).

You can see the complete list of all new UX research and features added to Baymard Premium in the changelog list below:

  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1098].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1097].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1096].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1095].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1094].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1093].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1092].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1091].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1090].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1089].
  • (January 2020) Guideline [Guideline #312] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2020) Guideline [Guideline #730] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2020) Guideline [Guideline #722] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2020) Guideline [Guideline #664] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2020) Guideline [Guideline #341] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.

  • (January 2020) Guideline [Guideline #290] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.

  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1088].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1087].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1086].
  • (January 2020) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1085].
  • (January 2020) Guideline [Guideline #495] updated to version 2.0
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1084].
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1083].
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1082].
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1081].
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1080].
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #308] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #344] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #705] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #719] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1074].
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1075].
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1076].
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1077].
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1078].
  • (December 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1079].
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #309] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #338] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #626] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #629] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #625] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (December 2019) Guideline [Guideline #502] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.1
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1073].
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1072].
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1071].
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1070].
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1069].
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1068].
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1067].
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1066].
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1065].
  • (November 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1064].
  • (November 2019) 35m video training module added to the topic Filtering: Interface & Layout.
  • (November 2019) Guideline [Guideline #731] updated with new quantitative data on “what information types which will make users abandon checkout”.
  • (November 2019) Guideline [Guideline #587] updated with new quantitative data on “which SSL and trust badges that give users the best sense of trust in a checkout flow”.
  • (November 2019) Guideline [Guideline #517] updated with new quantitative data on “how much more users rely on customer review averages if they have a higher number of votes”.
  • (November 2019) Guideline [Guideline #798] updated with new quantitative data on “how users actually ‘save’ products they aren’t yet ready to purchase”.
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1059].
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1058].
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1056].
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1055].
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1054].
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1053].
    • (October 2019) New desktop guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1057].
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #370] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #530] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #356] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #363] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #361] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (October 2019) Adding a new quantitative study of “Why Users Shop Online Instead of Offline” to the Product Page theme intro.
  • (October 2019) 45 minute video training module added to the topic List Items: Interface & Hit Areas
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1052].
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1051].
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1050].
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1049].
  • (October 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1048].
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #685] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #568] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #584] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #484] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (October 2019) Guideline [Guideline #576] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1042].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1043].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1044].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1045].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1046].
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #249] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #681] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #683] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #368] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #239] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #449] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) 30 minute video training module added to the topic Mobile Search
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1034].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1035].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1036].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1037].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1038].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1039].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1040].
  • (September 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1041].
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #404] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #359] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #459] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #443] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #444] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #686] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) Guideline [Guideline #620] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (September 2019) 30 minute video training module added to the topic List Layout & Loading Products.
  • (September 2019) “Business-to-Business Industry”: a new collection of the 154 guidelines that are typically most important for B2B e-commerce sites.
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #734] updated with new quantitative data on the different ways that sites impelement newsletter signup during checkout flows,
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #930] updated with new quantitative data on mobile app installs and usage.
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1033].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1032].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1031].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1030].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1029].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1028].
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #446] updated to version 3.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #253] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #440] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #622] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #623] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (August 2019) 45 minute video training module added to the topic List Items: Product Info & Thumbnails.
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1026].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1025].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1023].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1022].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1021].
  • (August 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1020].
  • (August 2019) New desktop guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1024].
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #551] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #545] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #236] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #237] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (August 2019) Guideline [Guideline #533] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.

  • (July 2019) Scorecard comparison: we’ve extended the scorecard comparison feature to now also show comparison data at the guideline level. This works in both the Case Study and the Review Tool scorecards. This will show you the exact guideline compliance for all sites selected for comparison.

  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1019].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1018].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1017].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1016].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1015].
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #552] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #732] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #286] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #235] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #343] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • “Guidelines by Industry”: a new way of navigating the 700+ research guidelines called “Guidelines by Industry”. This new feature shows you the 50-150 most important guidelines to read for a single industry and can be found next to the other research Themes in the Guideline tool. The industry views available are: Mass Merchants, Home & Hardware, Sports Toys & Hobbies, Apparel & Accessories, Health & Beauty, Electronics & Office, Houseware & Furnishing.
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1014].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1013].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1012].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1011].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1010].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1009].
  • (July 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1007].
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #251] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #268] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #238] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #261] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #274] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (July 2019) Guideline [Guideline #501] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (June 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Mobile Product List Layout & Features
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1006].
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1005].
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1004].
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1003].
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1002].
  • (June 2019) Guideline [Guideline #537] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (June 2019) Guideline [Guideline #531] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (June 2019) Guideline [Guideline #277] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (June 2019) A new Cart & Checkout benchmark with 59 sites benchmarked. Providing you with 5,054 implementations examples for the 134 guidelines, 7,906 UX performance ratings in the benchmark, and 427 annotated page design examples available in the Page Design tool.
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #1000].
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #999].
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #998].
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #997].
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #996].
  • (June 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #995].
  • (June 2019) Guideline [Guideline #300] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (June 2019) Guideline [Guideline #452] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (June 2019) Guideline [Guideline #263] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (June 2019) Guideline [Guideline #282] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (June 2019) Guideline [Guideline #441] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (June 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Mobile Site-Wide Features & Elements
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #984].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #992].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #991].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #990].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #989].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #988].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #987].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #986].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #985].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #984].
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #652] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #556] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #599] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #637] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #544] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #596] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #548] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #455] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #447] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Mobile Cart & Checkout.
  • “Low Cost” tags added: 107 of the guidelines in the research catalog are now tagged as being verified “Low Cost” guidelines, meaning that these guideline will often be relatively low cost to implement for the average e-commerce site (compared to other guidelines). The low cost tag appear as part of the guidline “Importance” sentence at the top of the guideline. (For a live example see guideline [Guideline #976]).
  • Added a high-level analysis of The ‘Current State’ of the E-Commerce UX Landscape as a whole (from a UX performance point of view), based on the 40,000+ current UX performance scores in our benchmark database.
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #977].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #976].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #975].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #974].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #973].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #972].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #971].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #970].
  • (May 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #969].
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #734] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #632] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #615] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #561] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #560] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #340] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #335] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #288] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (May 2019) Guideline [Guideline #287] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (April 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #968].
  • (April 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #967].
  • (April 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #966].
  • (April 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #965].
  • (April 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #964].
  • (April 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #963].
  • (April 2019) Guideline [Guideline #450] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (April 2019) Guideline [Guideline #334] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (April 2019) Guideline [Guideline #566] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (April 2019) Guideline [Guideline #591] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (April 2019) Guideline [Guideline #663] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (April 2019) Guideline [Guideline #303] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (April 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Shipping & Store Pickup.
  • (March 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Validation Errors & Data Persistence.
  • (March 2019) Adding a detailed benchmark analysis for the Accounts & Self-Service theme, that cover the current competitive landscape within this theme, UX performances for the benchmarked sites, along with surfacing commonly missed opportunities within the industry.
  • (March 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #962].
  • (March 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #961].
  • (March 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #960].
  • (March 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #959].
  • (March 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #958].
  • (March 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #957].
    • (March 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #956].
    • (March 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #955].
    • (March 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #954].
  • (March 2019) Guideline [Guideline #731] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (March 2019) Guideline [Guideline #577] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (March 2019) Guideline [Guideline #557] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (March 2019) Guideline [Guideline #421] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (March 2019) Guideline [Guideline #355] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (March 2019) Guideline [Guideline #242] updated to version 1.2.0 with added examples and upgraded arguments.
  • (March 2019) Guideline [Guideline #240] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (March 2019) ‘Importance Sentence’ feature. All guidelines now have an importance sentence in the intro clarifying the UX impact. The impact is a calculated value based on the test Severity rating, test Frequency rating, and the guideline benchmark compliance level.
  • (March 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Cross-Sells & Cross-Navigation.
  • (March 2019) Finishing the Accounts & Self-Service benchmark with 42 sites benchmarked across the 65 Accounts & Self-Service guidelines. This provide you with 2,000+ implementations examples for the 65 guidelines, 2700+ UX performance ratings in the benchmark, and 330 annotated page design examples available in the Page Design tool.
  • (February 2019) 1h video training module added to the topics Product Descriptions and Specifications Sheet.
  • (February 2019) Added a Search Feature to search content within Baymard Premium and the public Baymard.com site.
  • (February 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #953].
  • (February 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #945].
  • (February 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #946].
  • (February 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #947].
  • (February 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #948].
  • (February 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #949].
  • (February 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #950].
  • (February 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #951].
  • (February 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Results Layout & Filtering.
  • (January 2019) A new “Compare” mode feature for the Benchmark scatterplot that enables you to load and show any UX performance scorecard into the overall benchmark scatterplot. This means that you can now make a direct performance comparison between any Review Tool scorecards you’ve created yourself, any UX audit performance scorecards Baymard have conducted for you, and any of the 60 case studies within scatterplot itself.
  • (January 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Results Logic & Guidance.
  • (January 2019) A new Accounts & Self-Service benchmark with 27 sites benchmarked. Providing you with 1,300+ implementations examples for the 65 guidelines, 1750+ UX performance ratings in the benchmark, and 200+ annotated page design examples available in the Page Design tool.
  • (January 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #932].
  • (January 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #928].
  • (January 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #930]
  • (January 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #931]
  • (January 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #933]
  • (January 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #934]
  • (January 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #944]
  • (January 2019) New mobile guideline published based on new testing [Guideline #940]
  • (January 2019) Guideline [Guideline #250] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2019) Guideline [Guideline #252] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2019) Guideline [Guideline #607] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2019) Guideline [Guideline #528] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2019) Guideline [Guideline #798] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2019) Guideline [Guideline #458] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2019) Guideline [Guideline #284] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2019) Guideline [Guideline #788] updated to version 2.0 with new mobile test findings and is now ‘platform agnostic’.
  • (January 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Order Review
  • (January 2019) 1h video training module added to the topic Account Selection & Creation
  • (December 2018) A new “Compare” mode graph feature that enables you to load and show any UX performance scorecard in Premium into your currently viewed UX performance barchart. This means that you can now make a direct performance comparison between: any Review Tool scorecards you’ve created yourself, any UX audit performance scorecards Baymard have conducted for you, and any of the 60 case studies within the Benchmark tool. You can enter this comparison mode by clicking the “Compare” text link found in lower right corner of each barchart graph.
  • (December 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic The ‘Buy’ Section
  • (December 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Search Form & Logic
  • (November 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Intermediary Category Pages
  • (October 2018) 1h vvideo training module added to the topic Main Navigation
  • (October 2018) Search guideline [Guideline #342] updated to version 2.0 with new test findings.
  • (October 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Search Query Types
  • (October 2018) A new Exams & Certification feature: all Premium users on the Medium and Large accounts can take a series of exams and become “Certified E-Commerce UX Professionals” by Baymard Institute and will appear on a public list of certified UXers at baymard.com/certified
  • (October 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic User Reviews
  • (September 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Product Images
  • (September 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Category Taxonomy
  • (August 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Checkout Types
  • (August 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Product Page Layout
  • (August 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Homepage
  • (July 2018) A new Dashboard design and features in Baymard Premium
  • (July 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Credit Card Form
  • (July 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Customer & Address Information
  • (July 2018) 1h video training module added to the topic Search Autocomplete
  • (June 2018) A new Account & Self-Service research study added: 65 completely new guidelines exploring topics such as common usability pitfalls, along with how to design and structure: the “My Account” drop-down, the account dashboard, improve Account Sign-In, handle Address Books and stored Payment Methods, Newsletter unsubscribe and frequency, everything related to Orders & Order Tracking, then entire Order Returns flow and UI, along with general account navigation, and structure.
  • (June 2018) A new Homepage & Category benchmark: – Updated with a completely new re-benchmark of 50 top grossing US e-commerce sites along with 10 top European sites (leading to 4,100+ new best practice examples and 3,600+ performance ratings across all the Homepage & Category guidelines)
  • (May 2018) A new Product Listing & Filtering benchmark: Updated with a completely new re-benchmark of 50 top grossing US e-commerce sites along with 10 top European sites (leading to 3,400 new best practice examples and 5,600+ performance ratings across all the Product Listing guidelines)
  • (May 2018) 10 top European e-commerce sites benchmarked: 10 of europe’s largest e-commerce sites (available in English) are now in the Homepage & Category, Search, Product Lists, Product Page, and Checkout benchmarks – ensuring that Baymard’s research are now covering the “60 top grossing US, European, and International e-commerce sites”.
  • (May 2018) Cleaning up Baymard Pro: All of Baymard’s old study structures have been broken down. Here we’ve deleted 32 guidelines, as these findings actually were better to merge into overlapping guidelines in other studies. That’s removing approx. 300 pages of text, and 1000+ best/worst practice examples that were actually redundant, but used to be required for the old 6 Baymard Pro studies to work as individual products. In addition, we have merged or restructured 29 chapters to allow for better reading flows within each research theme.
  • (April 2018) A new Search benchmark: Updated with a completely new re-benchmark of 50 top grossing US e-commerce sites along with 10 top European sites (leading to 850 new best practice examples and 2,900+ performance ratings across all the Search guidelines).
  • (2009-2018) This changelog only goes back to April 2018 as the research updates from 2009 to April 2018 were not version controlled.
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