Everyone gets exasperated by bad websites. But we think of those things as tiny annoyances, and assume that users will eventually get what they need. Not true: Tiny mistakes can cost businesses dearly—in fact one poorly designed button might cost $300 million.
Jared Spool runs User Interface Engineering, which does usability studies on e-commerce sites. Recently, they did work for a major retailer, whose site probably had the most unoffensive design you can imagine: After filling your cart, you press "checkout." After that, you're prompted to log-in or register, before finishing your purchase. The web designers assumed that returning users would know their info, and the new users wouldn't mind the little step of signing up an account, since they'd probably be back. An innocuous set of assumptions. But a massive mistake.
UIE studied people actually using the site, and it turns out that the prospect of registering was enough to turn some users away; meanwhile, even return users had problems logging in because they didn't remember the email address or password they signed up with. (45% of users apparently had multiple registrations—a few had up to 10.) Granted, these represented a small portion of users. But for a retailer with $25 billion, even small portions signify huge lost profits.
So UIE redesigned the site, replacing the "register" button with "continue." They also added a message, saying that registering wasn't required to checkout, but was optional and might be helpful if you returned.
Sales went up 45%—$15 million in the first month, and $300 million in the first year.
Given UIE's success, it's a wonder how often you still see byzantine registration forms on websites. But there's a bigger lesson: That empirical research into how people actually behave matters far more than the intuitions of any designer, no matter how experienced that designer might be.
[Via Kottke]
Related Stories: | Topics:Innovation, Technology, Design, Ethonomics, Web Design. E-Commerce, Jared Spool, Retail Trade |
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Recent Comments | 13 Total
January 30, 2009 at 6:46am by Ghamal de la Guardia
I thought I was the only one who would rather not buy something I was thinking of buying because I was too lazy to register. :-)
January 30, 2009 at 6:57am by Ghamal de la Guardia
BTW, it took 15 whole seconds for your website to register my comment and update this page. And I'm using Opera wich is generally the fastest browser I've used. Too long! Next time I might be too lazy to comment...
January 30, 2009 at 12:07pm by Noah Robischon
@Ghamal: Our reg path is horrible, I agree. It's on the fix list, and Facebook Connect integration coming soon!
January 30, 2009 at 1:21pm by Bhupesh Shah
Designers and marketers should be required to be "customers" before the website is released. Only then will they know how it feels to go through the seemingly simple hoops. If they are frustrated or unhappy with the experience, you can bet a real customer is even more annoyed.
@Noah - your login process is equally as horrible. Why not include a "Remember me on this computer" option like many other online pubs like do. Or, use OpenId! The easier it is for people to connect with you, the more apt they will be to engage and even leave comments.
January 30, 2009 at 9:15pm by Jared Spool
@Bhupesh: The problem with the "required to be customers" is that the process of designing the site conditions you to certain elements. Because you were there when the design decision were made, you're more likely to tolerate something that "real customers" would find frustrating.
A better approach is to spend time watching real customers approach the site for the first time. That's what we help our clients with and all the best sites do this on a weekly basis.
-- Jared
January 31, 2009 at 12:22pm by Ed Overy
They are finding they get $3 to $1 profit on return customers. Therefore they want to info so they can attract satisfied customers to return and buy more. This assumption of this article is totally wrong form the expert marketing handbooks.
January 31, 2009 at 2:48pm by Cliff Kuang
Hi Ed---Thanks for reading and commenting. However, I think you're making some false assumptions here—in fact the same sorts of assumptions that led to the website's initial poor performing design.
First, it might be true that return customers yield improved profits. But the question of how you "attract satisfied customers to return" is more complicated that you suggest. On the one hand, there's the issue of making sure that a customer is satisfied to begin with—Jared's work implies that customers are far less satisfied when they have to give up personal information and go through the hassle of registration. Another problem with your argument Ed is that you assume personal information is the key to bringing back satisfied customers. That is, wouldn't a seamless, uncomplicated checkout process be a greater inducement to return to a site than being bombarded with weekly spam emails?
Lastly, there's the obvious fact that to attract a return customer, you have to make that person a customer to begin with. Jared's work shows that making that conversion is a far more subtle process than first thought—and one that goes against the assumptions of most web designers (and marketing textbooks, for that matter).
January 31, 2009 at 8:34pm by VJ Misra
It is phenomenal what a little change to the UI can do to e-commerce. We, as customers, have a penchant to be quick, efficient and to be able to get to our goal as soon as possible. It is not like we are lazy or do not want that added task of “registering” ourselves. Some people might only want to buy from that website once. Others think that they would rather not have their personal address, email or credit card information stored in a company’s database. But whatever it takes, if it makes things work – all hail to it.
February 2, 2009 at 6:12am by George Bush
... said the guy who requires people to register just for posting a !!comment!! shame on you.
Same goes for tons of bugtracking systems. forcing the user to register to report a bug in a product turns many people away from actually reporting the bug they found.
Also: bugmenot 4tw
February 2, 2009 at 8:25am by nic bun
Too bad these 'simple' best practises are not standard in some of the standard ecommerce software out there... it would save small etailers the cost of changing the shop whereas they would start making money from the start...
February 2, 2009 at 10:16am by M Camp
"That empirical research into how people actually behave matters far more than the intuitions of any designer, no matter how experienced that designer might be."
This is gospel...those in UX just have to keep plugging away & making their effects knows - UX Teams represent the user 24/7.
May 13, 2009 at 9:40am by Jerome Wilson
I'm sure it worked but it's just semantics isn't it? They can't send you your goods unless you register in one way or another. The only difference is that you don't choose a password.
October 21, 2009 at 12:42am by johnys combos
Others think that they would rather not have their personal address, email or credit card information stored in a company’s database. But whatever it takes, if it makes things work – all hail to it.
Andrew
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