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confusion zones in the navigation of online retail sites
Update 17th May 2005: New article (On the horizon for
E-commerce) discusses
faceted navigation which could eliminate many of the confusion
zones dicussed in this article.
A basic requirement of any e-commerce site is to
enable customers to find whatever product they're looking for,
quickly and effortlessly. However, we found at least one 'confusion zone'
within the navigation pathways of every one of the 15 leading online retail
sites we analysed. These will certainly be damaging sales but may also
be damaging each site's entire online brand image.
Link navigation analysis: methods
The 15 target sites were selected from listings of top retail sites
published over the past 6 months:
Amazon, Argos,
Boots, Comet,
Currys, Dixons,
Empire Direct, John
Lewis, LxDirect
(Littlewoods), Marks
and Spencer, Mothercare,
Next,
PC World, Tesco and
Woolworths . Studies of the main navigation scheme of each
site were carried out on either the 21st or 22nd April 2005. Any
inconsistency, ambiguity or ommission in link navigation, that would confuse a
significant proportion of customers was recorded as a 'confusion
zone'. Our analysis revealed 3 different types of confusion zones
within the navigation pathways: missing links, missing
products and buried treasure.
Results - 'missing links'
In the minds of customers, products can be categorised in a number of
different ways. It is, for example, equally meaningful to categorise a cooker
under either Electrical>> Appliances or Home>>
Kitchen. When a customers could quite reasonably assume that a
particular navigation path would take them to the products they are looking
for, a link should always be provided if these products are, in fact located
elsewhere on the site. Failure to provide such a link is what we've called
'missing links' and they were found on 8 of the 15 sites.
| Product:
|
Cookers |
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Home & Garden>>Kitchen
Appliances>> Cookers & Ovens:
5029 items (hobs, ovens, free-standing cookers, microwave ovens, cooker hoods
etc)
home>> Home & Garden>> Home Appliances :
No link to 'Cookers and Ovens' despite there being links to fridges, freezers,
washing machines and vacuum cleaners. |
| Insights:
|
 Having cookers
catalogued under 'Kitchen Appliances' is unfortunate since many customers
(and certain e-commerce sites) use the term to refer to small kitchen products,
such as toasters or blenders. Amazon actually reinforces this perception with
the links opposite on their main Kitchen & Home page. A link to cookers and
ovens in their Home Appliances section would go a long way to overcoming the
difficulties customer have at present in finding cookers and ovens. |
| |
| Product:
|
Coffee maker |
| Confusion zone:
|
home>>Electrical>>Kitchen &
Home>> Coffee Machines:
21 items (10 coffee-makers from £9.99 to £144.99)
home>>Kitchen Appliances>> Coffee Machines:
5 items (all coffee-makers (built-in) from £419 to £1280) |
| Insights:
|
Despite both being called 'coffee machines', these are obviously very different
types of products (the built-in coffee-makers are, on average, 10 times the
price of the others). This doesn't, however, mean that a customer looking for a
coffee-maker should have part of Boots own range of coffee-makers hidden from
view! Reciprocal links on each page is probably the best way to achieve this. |
| |
| Product:
|
Slow cooker |
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Kitchen & Home>>
Cooking:
This has no slow cookers - in order to find them you need to go to ...
home>> Kitchen & Home>> Small Appliances>>
Other Cooking Appliances:
4 slow cookers, 5 steamers, 3 breadmakers and 15 fryers |
| Insights:
|
If you think a customer might mistakenly look for a product in the wrong
category then provide a cross-link directly to the product. A note in the
cookers section could, for example, say "you may also be interested in
slow cookers,
steamers,
breadmakers or
fryers which are in the small appliances section of this site". |
| |
| Product:
|
Digital camera |
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Audio & TV>> Cameras &
Camcorders>> Digital Cameras:
home>> Computing>> Digital Photography>>
Digital Cameras:
home>> Electrical>> Audio & TV>> Cameras &
Camcorders>> Digital Cameras: These all lead to the same
list of 69 digital cameras.
home>>
Sports & Leisure:
However, for customers thinking of photography as a leisure activity the Sports
and Leisure category offers no links to cameras. |
| Insights:
|
Different customers arrive at sites with different pre-conceptions of the same
product. Effective navigation design will take them directly to what they are
looking for, regardless of how the product happens to be represented in their
mind at the time. |
| |
| Product:
|
Lawn mower |
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Your Home>>Your Home & Garden>>Outdoor:
This has only 1 product: a hedge-trimmer.
home>>Your Home>>Your Home & Garden>>Garden
Equipment:
This, however, has 24 different product types, including 25 electric or
petrol mowers. |
| Insights:
|
A customer looking first in the 'Outdoor' section of Home & Garden is
likely to conclude that Littlewoods don't sell any lawn mowers. |
| |
| Product:
|
Baby car seat |
| Confusion zone:
|
home>>Safety:
This has no car seats.
home>>
Travel:
This, however, has 39 different car seats. |
| Insights:
|
Again, a single cross-link from safety to travel could prevent potential
loss of sales. |
| |
| Product:
|
Computer monitor
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Upgrades:
home>> Accessories:
home>>
Component Shop:
These have no computer monitors.
home>> Computers:
This has 40 different computer monitors. |
| Insights:
|
This could be particularly annoying for customers because of the odd way
they've categorised monitors - how many would start their search under the
heading 'computers'? Some customers would probably think of a monitor as a way
of upgrading their computer; others will see it as a component of a computer
system; a few might be looking for a second monitor and hence think of it as an
accessory. So give them all direct cross-links to monitors! |
| |
| Product:
|
Mobile phone
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Electrical>> Telephones:
This has no mobile phones.
home>> Telecomms>>
Tesco Mobile:
This has 18 different mobile phones. |
| Insights:
|
On the Electricals page there is a direct cross link to mobile phones but this
will be of little help to customers. As soon as they see a link to telephones,
most will assume this is where mobile phones will be found. It is on this
telephones page, therefore, once they've discovered their mistake, that they
need the link to mobile phones. Bizarely it contains links to 9 other product
categories (e.g. televisions, vacuum cleaners) but not to mobile phones! |
| |
Results - 'missing products'
6 of the 15 sites suffered from what we've called 'missing products'.
These are products that have been incorrectly omitted from part of the
site navigation.
| Product:
|
Photo printer
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Photography>> Digital photo printers:
This has 5 printers from £149 to £199.
home>> Office, PC and phones>> Printers>> Photo printers:
This has 16 printers from £79 to £149. |
| Insights:
|
Argos actually features 20 different photo printers. Why then show 5 of
them under photography, 16 under Office/PC printers and only 1 in both
categories? |
| |
| Product:
|
Microwave oven
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Cooking>> Microwaves>> Conventional:
home>> Cooking>> Microwaves>> With Grill:
home>> Cooking>> Microwaves>> Combination Oven:
These links respectively lead to 29 conventional microwaves, 5 microwaves
with a grill and 9 combination microwaves with an oven.
home>> Small appliances>> Microwaves:
This only has the 29 microwave ovens listed under
'conventional microwaves' within Cooking. 14 of their higher
specification products are thus completely hidden from view to customers on
this navigation path. |
| Insights:
|
Hiding any products from customers is a bad idea but hiding your best products
is really something that needs sorting out! |
| |
| Product:
|
Widescreen TV
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Television>> Widescreen TV:
This has 54 widescreen TVs.
home>> Television>> LCD and Plasma Televisions:
This has 66 televisions, 29 of which are widescreen but none of which
feature in the Widescreen TV category above! |
| Insights:
|
If you feature 2 types of widescreen TVs (CRT and LCD/Plasma) then say so and
give the customer the choice of which to explore. Misleading shortcuts in
navigation design can lead to long and frustrating customer journeys - or to
lost sales when customers go elsewhere to shop! |
| |
| Product:
|
Portable DVD Player
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> In-Car Media>> Mobile Multimedia:
This has 1 in-car DVD player with screen, 2 in-car DVD players (without
screens) and 2 separate screens.
home>> Visual>> DVD>> Portable DVD Players:
This has 7 portable DVD players, 3 of which clearly state that they
are suitable for in-car use. |
| Insights:
|
Showing the missing products could double the number of in-car DVD players
available to the customer. |
| |
| Product:
|
Lawn mower
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Your Home>> Garden Equipment>> Electric Lawnmowers:
This has 15 mowers including 7 that are hover mowers.
home>> Your Home>> Garden Equipment>> Hover Mowers:
This has only 1 hover mower and it's not one of the 7 listed under
'Electric Lawnmowers'. |
| Insights:
|
This is very likely to kill potential sales. Who would imagine that Littlewoods
actually stock 8 different hover mowers when only 1 is listed under
a link that is actually called 'Hover Mowers'? |
| |
| Product:
|
Kitchen chair
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Furniture>> Chairs:
This has 24 chairs.
home>> Furniture>> Kitchen Furniture:
This has 15 items including 1 chair and this is not featured
in the 'Chairs' category. |
| Insights:
|
If a customer is looking for chairs, are they likely
to keep looking after they've seen what's in the 'Chairs' section? Would it not
be sensible to include all chairs in the 'Chairs' category? |
| |
Results - 'buried treasures'
2 of the 15 sites suffered from what we've called 'buried
treasures'. These are products or entire categories of products that would be
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find by customers.
| Product:
|
35mm film camera
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Electronics>> Photography>> 35mm Film Cameras:
This features 7 film cameras. |
| Insights:
|
This is a difficult one for the e-commerce manager. You sell 58 digital cameras
but only 7 film cameras - its all too easy to catalogue them side by side. But
for a customer wanting a film camera, the last place they are going to think of
looking is in the 'Electronics' section! |
| |
| Product:
|
Hair styling
|
| Confusion zone:
|
home>> Homeware>> Storage>>
page 5:
This features 9 hairstyling items (5 hair straighteners, 3 hair curlers/stylers
and 1 hair dryer). |
| Insights:
|
Come on, this is a joke, right? Or maybe a devious cross-selling
strategy. For customers looking not only for a storage box but also
something to fill it with - why not consider a hairdryer? Bizarre! |
| |
Conclusions
One thing that is clear from this analysis is that there is a big
difference between a navigation scheme that is logical and well-ordered
and one that meets the psychological needs of the customer. The
above examples of confusion zones will affect sales to very different
extents. The impact, for example, of failing to find one chair
within the range of 16 on the Marks and Spencer site would be
minor. Much more serious is LxDirect convincing their customers
that they only offer 1 hover mower, when in fact they have 8.
Regardless of the impact of these confusion zones, however, they are indicative
of bad practice within the design and design validation of the navigation
paths of all of the sites studied here. Designing the navigation scheme
for an e-commerce site needs to take account of how customers assign products
to cognitive categories and how this categorisation guides their navigation
behaviour.