It is a paradox of e-commerce, brands and retailers are sensitive to feedback from their customers when it comes to adjusting their offer or improving their products. But how many people question what their users think of their sites or applications. Are these services well-designed, easy to search and buy?
Few projects devote time and budgets to real user testing. However, they are a considerable mine of information. Without being able to practice them, it is always possible to learn from research such as that of the Baymard Institute. Here are some translated and illustrated excerpts from conclusions of their recent study on merchant applications (Mobile App UX Trends: The Current State of Mobile App UX (10 Common Pitfalls & Best Practices).
Beware of Excessive Promotional Content
What brand doesn’t want to highlight its promotions or special offers? Let’s be honest, none.
Unfortunately, these large promotional banners are often seen as obstacles to exploration on mobile. Three out of four apps engage in these practices, which users find counterproductive: accidental clicks, endless scrolling, and slow access to products.
The ideal solution: position these banners at the bottom of the page!
Sur les sites des enseignes Sephora et Beauté Privée, la page d'accueil accumule les mises en avant promotionnelles, reléguant les accès vers les produits dans la partie basse de la page.Bon point pour l'application Notino dont les proportions des blocs publicitaires sont bien adaptées au mobile.
Research and product suggestions: ergonomics and engine behavior
Research remains the fastest way to explore a catalog of several hundred products. But typing on mobile is not always fun, which is why users get frustrated when the search engine isn't up to the job. Among the behaviors that irritate: the absence of a button to validate the search term after entering. This validation is done more and more often with the enter key on the keyboard, which is then displayed on the screen. But this is still unsettling for some subjects who expect to find a button directly in the search field.
Autre comportement jugé pénible : des suggestions de recherche dupliquées. L’utilisateur se voit proposer une multitude d’expressions dérivées des mots-clés saisis sans être certain qu’elles le conduiront aux résultats espérés.
The breadcrumb trail, a neglected basic reference point
96% of the applications tested in the study do not offer breadcrumbs in the category pages. A regrettable absence that prevents users from going up a notch in the tree to access a wider range of products.
The limits of product lists without pagination
The study is clear on this subject: the fact of not offering pagination in product lists wears out. Users are losing their bearings. How many products have just been loaded onto the screen? Where is this product that was noticed a few minutes ago? The visual journey of product lists becomes confusing and can feel endless.
Another side effect to mention: if the user wants to access the site's footer to access certain practical links, he will have no choice but to scroll through an entire page whose length he does not know, an ordeal.
L'application mobile de l'enseigne Nocibé ne propose pas de listes de produits paginées. Dans le cas capturé, ce sont donc 421 produits qui vont être présentés en une seule page !Son site web en revanche propose bien des listes organisées en plusieurs pages.
Product cards that are too high
The low screen height available on mobile requires optimizing the size of the elements as much as possible. Some sites or applications did not sufficiently anticipate the volume of information to be displayed for products. The result is presentation cards that are too tall that can be the object of unwanted interactions when the user wants to scroll vertically. The study recommends not exceeding 50% of the screen height for these product cards.
Le site de la marque La Roche Posay est un parfait exemple des difficultés d'utilisation associées à une hauteur de carte produit mal maîtrisée.Les informations du produit affiché, tout comme le bouton d'achat, sont masqués par des éléments fixés à l'écran
