Considering 2018 an epitome for user experience (UX), the revolution in this field has continued to embrace its impact in 2019 as well. Digital design, over the last few years, has undergone a tremendous change and is constantly improving with new updates being introduced to improve the comprehensive user experience.
In recent times, new trends, best practices, and enhancement techniques, especially for ecommerce UX, have grown more sophisticatedly.
Let’s have a look at the popular techniques that have created a buzz in this industry.
Mobile-First Design - Today, the usage of mobile devices has significantly increased, especially in ecommerce. Mobile-first design, the most popular UX trend, depicts the method of designing a website for cellular devices before considering its accessibility for large-screened devices. As per statistics about 52% of traffic comes from cellular devices and about 37% of sales are purely delivered by these devices. Hence initiating website with a mobile-first method has now become a necessity in ecommerce. While few sectors such as fashion have effectively closed the gap, many other still face challenges in terms of UX.
Visual Depth - 2019 is witnessing the return of depth, i.e. the use of parallax scrolling, the use of shadows, and grids after the fade of flat design. The effect of shadows will not just enhance the aesthetic appeal of the web presence, boost the UX by offering emphasis and will improve the CTAs. The added advantage of this strategy is that it lets you combine vibrant colour gradients with soft & subtle shadows and enhance the effect.
Simpler Navigation - Navigation focuses on helping customers find and purchase the desired product effortlessly. With the advancement in UX, professionals all over the world are opting for sticky tab-based menus to enhance the navigation efficiency and time on the website. Sticky navigation is gaining immense popularity, with menu elements at the top, side or bottom of the page. This will enable potential customers to access different parts of the website.
Simplified Checkout - Checkout is perhaps the biggest hurdle in terms of user experience. It can rapidly turn a good on-site experience into a not so pleasing one. The main reason behind being the length of checkout, confusing form fields, or sometimes even a lack of payment options. One way to improve checkout UX is via shortening & simplifying the process and the best way to do this is guest checkouts. However, another method is to eliminate checkout steps, fields or to utilise single page checkouts.
Augmented Reality - Although Augmented Reality wasn’t new in ecommerce, it is only in 2019 that AR is finding its application in this industry. Although some of the initial samples of AR were clumsy, with improvements in technology, AR can be used to enhance the user experience. Recently, Apple introduced AR Quick Look which means that AR can be utilised within the Safari browser without any need to download separate apps.
Embrace Bigger Product Images - With the growing popularity of increasing screen sizes and resolution, ecommerce websites are embracing better & bigger product pictures to improve the user experience. The actual impact of bigger images can best be viewed on product pages. Visitors tend to have an in-depth look at the image and often try to analyse their minutest details( especially if those details aren’t mentioned in the product description). Hence it is advisable to have bigger product images. Note that the bigger images can not just be included in the product section but can be incorporated in category page as well.
Include Multiple Images - While displaying bigger product images is the one part of the story, presenting multiple images with multiple views is another. The benefit of using multiple images with different views is that it tends to provide more and in-depth information about the product to the visitor.
Customised Cinemagraphs - A cinemagraph is nothing but a combination of photograph and video that enables you to highlight your products as well as their best features. The best characteristics of cinemagraph is that it generates the Illusion of moving images. Here the high-quality pictures loop a video reel to develop an illusion of a moving photograph. Also unlike videos, cinemagraphs does not take too much of digital space as they aren’t interruptive.
Native Advertising - According to Google, websites that feature popup ads that interrupt user experience can be penalised in the search results. To avoid this, you must use pop-up ads in an intelligent manner. However, the best approach would be native advertising. This type of advertising includes placing ads within the user experience which enable them to flow perfectly with the form and function of the webpage. The added advantage of native advertising is that it blends perfectly with the content because the ad would look like an editorial. Which means that visitors may view it as website content and go through it rather than ignoring it as ad content.
While the above mentioned UX techniques can make a difference to your ecommerce website, there are few elements such as hidden product description, flat design, etc. that must be avoided at any cost.
In the UX design space, change is constant. New solutions keep emerging everyday. To keep your ecommerce timelessness intact and yet look trendy, remain updated with the latest trends and implement them to the best of your ability.
