Hey everyone,
I made just a few small changes today, based on some usability testing I did earlier in the month. It was fascinating (and sometimes mortifying) to watch HC-newbies navigate the site for the first time, and I made two changes based on some of my observations:
- Shopping cart icon: this probably should have been a no-brainer, but having an e-commerce site without a shopping cart icon is not a good thing. I had considered and dismissed the idea before because, as you know, HCS stores don’t use shopping carts. Plus, it seemed confusing to have a cart icon on the main site pages when shoppers have to check out of each store separately. After some thought, I think I’ve come up with a good and usable compromise. What do you think?
- Grayed out purchase buttons: OK — turns out some people don’t read all the text on a page (that should have been a no-brainer too). I watched a shopper get more and more frustrated as she attempted to purchase an item that was previewing and could *not* find an “add to cart” button. She hovered over the “XX available on such-and-such date” several times, but never read the text. So, on every page now, if the item is previewing, there is a grayed-out “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart”, etc. button that, when clicked, pops up a window explaining that the item will be available for purchase on a future date. Hopefully that will make things more clear to people
Please let me know your thoughts and also any other input on how to make the site better for newbie visitors.
Thanks everyone!