The earliest shopping carts were designed by technical web developers, just as the earliest software GUIs were designed by programmers.
Nowadays, the look and feel of the best websites are created by visual designers, with the underlying code and structure being built by web programmers.
This is as it should be, but as with software interface designs, many of the most common aspects of eCommerce sites remain unchanged from their initial design.
It may be that the more visually aware designers felt they could not change something that users have become so used to, or it may be that even these designers have assumed that things are the way they are because the original design is the best design.
This is not the case.
We all use Microsoft Word, or an equivalent word processor regularly.
Have you ever wondered why, every time you make a change to a document and go to close that document, Word asks you if you want to save the change you've made? It gives you 3 choices: Yes, No, and Cancel.
Never mind that every single time you've been asked the question for the past 10 years you've said yes.
Never mind that you've just spent 20 minutes writing 4 extra paragraphs, and why would you do that if you were going to toss it all away? The fundamental error here is that Word, and indeed any piece of software that asks you this question, is assuming that the likelihood of you answering 'No' is just as great as the likelihood of you answering 'Yes'.
This happens because in the underlying code in the software, it is a Boolean decision (true or false), and likelihood doesn't come into it.
The structure of the code is then mirrored in the visual interface, because this is how the early programmers thought when they designed it.
And because it started out this way, it works this way today.
Many shopping carts have a similar true or false option built in as default: The Add and Delete buttons.
How many online catalogues have you browsed where beneath the picture of each item are two buttons? The two buttons are given equal weighting, as if the likelihood of you removing something from your shopping cart is as great as the likelihood of you adding it.
This is wrong on many levels.
Firstly, it's simply not true.
You've chosen to add something to your cart for a reason.
Yes, you may change your mind later, but when you progress to the checkout stage there is always an option to delete or amend the item quantities in your cart.
Secondly, you do not need a 'Delete' button when you have yet to add the item in question to your cart.
A shopping cart should never have more than a single button per item - Add to Cart to begin with, which changes to Remove or Update if the item is already in your cart.
So long as the status of the item is clear (has it already been added to your cart?), this should not confuse customers.
One of the businesses which I've been involved with for some time is an online wholesale jewellery business, where customers regularly build shopping carts of 100s of individual items.
Since introducing these changes over a year ago, we've never had a single query from customers about the absence of a delete button.
Our shopping cart is built with our customers in mind, without reference to what came before.
The only time the absence of a delete button was brought to our attention was when a web developer was looking at the site.
But then, if you question a software programmer as to why MS Word asks you if you want to save your work, he'll be the first to tell you how essential it is.
After all, some time this year you may decide not to save a document...
Nowadays, the look and feel of the best websites are created by visual designers, with the underlying code and structure being built by web programmers.
This is as it should be, but as with software interface designs, many of the most common aspects of eCommerce sites remain unchanged from their initial design.
It may be that the more visually aware designers felt they could not change something that users have become so used to, or it may be that even these designers have assumed that things are the way they are because the original design is the best design.
This is not the case.
We all use Microsoft Word, or an equivalent word processor regularly.
Have you ever wondered why, every time you make a change to a document and go to close that document, Word asks you if you want to save the change you've made? It gives you 3 choices: Yes, No, and Cancel.
Never mind that every single time you've been asked the question for the past 10 years you've said yes.
Never mind that you've just spent 20 minutes writing 4 extra paragraphs, and why would you do that if you were going to toss it all away? The fundamental error here is that Word, and indeed any piece of software that asks you this question, is assuming that the likelihood of you answering 'No' is just as great as the likelihood of you answering 'Yes'.
This happens because in the underlying code in the software, it is a Boolean decision (true or false), and likelihood doesn't come into it.
The structure of the code is then mirrored in the visual interface, because this is how the early programmers thought when they designed it.
And because it started out this way, it works this way today.
Many shopping carts have a similar true or false option built in as default: The Add and Delete buttons.
How many online catalogues have you browsed where beneath the picture of each item are two buttons? The two buttons are given equal weighting, as if the likelihood of you removing something from your shopping cart is as great as the likelihood of you adding it.
This is wrong on many levels.
Firstly, it's simply not true.
You've chosen to add something to your cart for a reason.
Yes, you may change your mind later, but when you progress to the checkout stage there is always an option to delete or amend the item quantities in your cart.
Secondly, you do not need a 'Delete' button when you have yet to add the item in question to your cart.
A shopping cart should never have more than a single button per item - Add to Cart to begin with, which changes to Remove or Update if the item is already in your cart.
So long as the status of the item is clear (has it already been added to your cart?), this should not confuse customers.
One of the businesses which I've been involved with for some time is an online wholesale jewellery business, where customers regularly build shopping carts of 100s of individual items.
Since introducing these changes over a year ago, we've never had a single query from customers about the absence of a delete button.
Our shopping cart is built with our customers in mind, without reference to what came before.
The only time the absence of a delete button was brought to our attention was when a web developer was looking at the site.
But then, if you question a software programmer as to why MS Word asks you if you want to save your work, he'll be the first to tell you how essential it is.
After all, some time this year you may decide not to save a document...
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