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E-Commerce Design Patterns

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Subject:  E-Commerce Design Patterns
Author:   TimLeighton-Boyce:   view profile | all posts by this author | add to favourites
Date:   14:41:27 15 May 2006
 

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 you are a returning user, if so please enter your email and password, otherwise click here to continue.  I see the same design over and over again which is a good thing.

Even such a standard log in screen can be fatally sabotaged by design, which is why the idea of patterns, complete with common errors, is so interesting. I recently heard Marty Carroll from Foviance give a talk in which he described a version of this very screen in which the "Forgotten your password" link was right underneath the password entry field and also much more prominent than the "submit" one. People entered the password, hit the wrong link, got the "enter your email and we'll send you your password" screen. Got fed up...

And even with such a standard screen the order switches around. A quick straw poll reveals:

Amazon UK: Email field then "I am a new customer"
John Lewis: Email field then "Yes, I have a password" (default)
Boden: Email field then "Do you have a Boden.co.uk password? Yes"
Lands End: Email field then "I currenly have an account and my password is" (default)

Tim

 

 
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  • 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 ...
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