For an online store (an e-commerce site), having a good UX is crucial. Without it, internet users can feel lost when navigating your online business. A physical store is well-organized and designed to guide customers through their buying journey. The same should apply online. Given the vast amount of information and offers available on the web, user experience must be prioritized.
To that end, we conducted an interview with Digidop's UX Designer, Mérieux, to help us understand the best practices that should be followed to optimize and achieve successful UX design for an e-commerce site.
Introduction to our UX Designer
I am Mérieux Hechter, a UX Designer for the past two years. This role came to me quite naturally, driven by my passion for design. In my role as an UX designer, I aim to envision the future user experience (UX) for end-users. This user experience is crafted across client platforms focusing on both UX and UI (user interface).
For me, user experience (UX) refers to the responses and perceptions of a person that result from using a product, service, or system. It also encompasses creating a good digital experience that meets business challenges and user expectations. This work is increasingly vital today, as the world becomes more digital, and businesses need a website to maintain online visibility. Having a website is just one step; designing it with the user in mind is another. A site with a positive user experience helps reduce bounce rates, extends user session duration, and generates leads. Moreover, UX Design and SEO are becoming more interconnected. You can also check out our natural referencing (SEO) tips for an e-commerce site.
Thanks to my training and professional experience, I have been able to work on various projects. I have served as a facilitator, created wireframes and mockups, and designed user journeys and conducted user research. All these tasks have been successfully executed due to my skills in interface design, user experience design, user journey conception and prototyping, and testing.
What are the most important criteria for UX Design in E-commerce?
UX Design is subject to numerous demands. Each page of your site must be thoughtfully designed so that the user knows their location within the site. These demands are even more pronounced for an e-commerce site. Indeed, if the user experience is poor on an online store, your sales will not increase. In this section, we will focus on three essential criteria for UX Design in an e-commerce site: the voice of the business, the voice of the market, and the voice of the user.
The voice of the business: Understanding needs
One of the first steps involves understanding the ecosystem. In this criterion, we take the time to listen to the user's voice. It's essential to analyze all kinds of constraints that a user may encounter based on their needs, while also considering the team's requirements. Next, we must successfully implement all of this with business challenges in mind.
The voice of the market: Conducting strategic monitoring
Here, we will particularly focus on market trends. To do this, we will conduct research on current trends and practices. The goal is to propose a product that meets user needs while considering market requirements. We need to ensure that we offer a system in which users feel comfortable and familiar with the usability.
The voice of the user
This criterion allows us to confront the primary needs of users with the strategic/marketing objectives of the business. We must consider the context of use. This is when we take the time to understand real needs. It’s also the moment we place ourselves in actual conditions to respond to these needs. All while ensuring to provide a technology that is simple/easy to use for the user and implementable for the technical team.
So far, we have examined three voices that need to be heard. All these voices enable us to create an experience, I would even say a real experience!
Do you have any tips/advice for improving the UX design of an e-commerce site?
There are several tips available online for enhancing the UX design of an e-commerce site. The tips I use adhere to the UX methodology. This methodology teaches us to understand:
- The real needs
- The challenges
- The problems presented by the user
This approach is executed based on three axes: we must maintain a general context (having an overall view), the context of the business, and the context of the users.
General context: the needs of the E-commerce site
In this section, we will see that it is important to understand the real needs of an e-commerce site. Indeed, it's crucial to have a comprehensive view of the project before starting its construction. This is an important study phase during which we will ask ourselves the following questions:
- What are the project's objectives? (The answer to this question is the driving factor that encourages users to visit your site)
- What problem do we need to solve? (The answer helps not only to target user needs but also to bring a touch of innovation)
- Who are your users? (students, elderly people, working individuals, children...)
Depending on the answers to these questions, we will not build the e-commerce store in a certain way or another, but rather in a specific manner.
Business context: the challenges of the E-commerce site
On the other hand, we must understand the challenges of the business. That is to say, we need to determine what the business expects from its website. For this, we can pose two major questions:
- What are the specific challenges for the company? (For example: Enhance the image of your brand or company? Sell more? Increase the conversion rate? Boost visibility? Reduce cart abandonment?)
- What are the pain points? (Analyze costs, timelines for design, or implementation of your product)
Knowing the client allows us to construct the site to meet their expectations. Next, we will combine the company's expectations with those of the users to achieve the best possible UX. Thus, online navigation (menu, home page, calls to action, content, elements) will be fully tailored, and the site will have good ergonomics.
User context: the issues of the E-commerce site
Finally, we take the perspective of the users/visitors of the site. Indeed, gathering and understanding customer feedback will facilitate the optimization of the UX process. Additionally, it will ease the creation of an effective, conversion-oriented site. Again, we need to address several questions and issues:
- What tools do users currently use? (This phase allows you to observe which types of devices are being used: Is it a smartphone, tablet, or computer? Which applications do they use?)
- How do they use these tools and how have they been using them up to this point? (Gather user feedback)
Bonus Tip
One small bonus tip I can offer is to plan for documentation. This is a document you will fill out gradually as a database. You can include the problems you've encountered or ideas you've had. This way, if you face similar situations across different projects, you will know how to address the issue.
Digidop Designs and Builds Your E-commerce Site with UX in Mind
Digidop is a web agency. We provide our clients with a 360° experience for both their showcase sites and e-commerce platforms. Do you have a project?
- We create a wireframe and a mockup of your project
- We develop an optimized and personalized site just for you
- We automate your tasks to simplify your life
- We ensure that your site adheres to best SEO practices so it ranks well on search engines
