Deri reckons that e-commerce is a sector that isn't ready for the idea of design patterns yet ...
On the one hand I'm very tempted to agree - some of my discussions so far have made me feel like I'm trying to push water uphill!
But let me explain why I remain optimistic in the face of adversity.
I've built up a pretty extensive list of people in e-commerce who have been using reports such as my Online Retail User Experience Benchmarking to guide their site reviews and upgrades. They seem to find the structured analysis of all the things you can do wrong in e-commerce site to be useful and informative.
Of course, what reports like mine have been doing is, in the language of design patterns, documenting anti-patterns - examples of departures from good practice! So far so good - they have unwittingly made the first step towards using design patterns within their e-commerce management processes. And an extensive library of anti-patterns is probably essential for discerning the good-practice principles that go to make up the design patterns themselves. But anti-patterns are only the first step; seeing an example of bad practice doesn't always make it obvious how to achieve good practice.
So how do we manage a migration from the occasional (and probably unstructured) use of anti-patterns to the systematic and integrated use of design patterns in e-commerce?
Here are 4 steps that I feel might work:
Step 1 Establishing the right mindset. There is a feeling out there in the e-commerce community that design patterns = templates = standardisation, uniformity and little competitive differentiation. It is essential that e-commerce managers are convinced that this is NOT what design patterns are all about. The very essence of design patterns is that they describe good practice principles in ways that can be implemented in all sorts of different and disctinctive ways.
Step 2 Making the design pattern library practical, usable and valuable for busy managers and developers. The problem with a number of existing design pattern libraries is that it's difficult to see the wood for the trees! Having a design pattern library focused entirely on e-commerce design patterns makes life easier but not necessarily easy. The tasks that e-commerce teams need help with are more specific and hence it should be possible to help them navigate to the specific design patterns that will assist them in completing that task.
Step 3 Making each design pattern valuable and useful, in practice. This begins with a checklist of things to consider (e.g. when designing a product-specfic landing page). For each checklist item there ideally needs to be a description of principles of good practice, an explanation of why it is good practice and a list of the most common ways good practice can slip into bad practice.
Step 4 Embedding design patterns within the working practices of individual companies. The secret here, I believe, is to make design patterns available to e-commerce companies for them to add descriptions of what makes their particular site distinctive and effective - but within a framework of generic good practice. So often, it is the things that make particular sites distinctive (either visually or functionally) that breach good practice principles for e-commerce in general.
E-Commerce Design Patterns, MikeBaxter, 9 May 22:43 Okay you may think I over-stated things slightly when I predicted that "in 5 years' time the major online retailers will have defined what best practice means to them using design ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, TimLeighton-Boyce, 10 May 14:18 I've just spent this very morning running through the mock ups for a proposed new checkout process for a client of one of the companies specialising in ecommerce sites.
Several ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, DeriJones, 12 May 19:20 I wish you were right saying 'they're used lots in software design'.
Unfortunately, in the course of the work I do testing web sites, it seems to me that the ecommerce sector is ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, MikeBaxter, 13 May 12:11 Deri reckons that e-commerce is a sector that isn't ready for the idea of design patterns yet ...
On the one hand I'm very tempted to agree - some of my discussions so far have ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, DeriJones, 15 May 13:28 Mike - your last sentence was interesting:
"So often, it is the things that make particular sites distinctive (either visually or functionally) that breach good practice princip ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, textor, 13 May 12:45 I think what Mike has in mind is that software people are big on reusable code, so that they don't re-invent the wheel every time they sit down to create a piece of software.
...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, JonBov, 15 May 12:03 Mike, your document focused heavily on FMCG/Low margin-high volume business, with a couple of exceptions in the form of John Lewis which is 'middle of the road' in terms of brandin ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, MikeBaxter, 15 May 15:05 Hi Jon - the difference between mainstream and hi-end luxury e-commerce is an interesting one. First, I'd say that, at a certain level of analysis, the differences don't matter and ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, DeriJones, 15 May 13:08 You're right Bob, software people like to reuse code. But that often means that they want to reuse their own code; whereas can be nervous about 'reuse' of using someone elses code ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, TimLeighton-Boyce, 15 May 14:41 On 12:45:48 13 May 2006 textor wrote:
I can give you one design pattern that i see over and over again (including our sites.). You hit checkout and you get a form that asks if ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, textor, 15 May 17:16 I have made that exact mistake (nearly that anyway) myself. It wasn't until I hit the wrong button I realised the problem.
Is anyone up for forming some sort of special inter ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, ianjindal, 16 May 20:49 Mike - you know I'm a fan of patterns, so rather than just agree with you (temptiing!) I thought I give a complementary perspective....
There are three main types of 'thinkers' ...
RE: E-Commerce Design Patterns, JamesSaunders, 26 May 10:54 A very interesting discussion and one in which I'm sure there'll be much more debate.
Having developed software applications for a number of platforms and also a number of doma ...
Re: E-Commerce Design Patterns, Ashley , 31 May 13:35 Hi Mike
As you know, I'm a big fan of Design Patterns and we're going to be pushing them over the coming months to try and drum up further interest.
Having worked for a big ...
Re: E-Commerce Design Patterns, JamesSaunders, 31 May 13:41 Hi Ashley,
Sounds great. With regard the design pattern(s) to start with, I agree that the checkout process and site search are the most important for any ecommerce site (and th ...
E-Commerce Design Patterns, MikeBaxter, 9 May 22:43
, 31 May 13:35
