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$496 for a single-user license for all 13 reports (save 58%)
or
$996 for a site license for all 13 reports (save 58%): allows you to make copies inside your organization and to place the reports on your intranet
Buy CD-ROM with All 13 Reports (from Yahoo Store)
Shipping/handling: $2 USA/Canada, $5 other countries (US dollars) |
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13 reports, PDF format (1 per report)
Download Individual Reports (single-user license)
Download Individual Reports (site license)
$98 for a single report, $198 for each report and the right to place on your intranet and make unlimited copies within your organization.
No S/H is added for downloads. |
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Summary
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The reports contain extensive guidelines for how to design e-commerce sites to make them more usable. All guidelines are based on findings from detailed usability studies of 226 e-commerce sites with users in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
See the descriptions of the individual reports below for more information.
2,140 pages with 874 design guidelines. Richly illustrated with 1,715 color screenshots of designs that worked particularly well or that caused problems for shoppers.
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Individual Reports
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This report distills the data from our major international usability studies into the essence of e-commerce, discussing the strategic implications of our findings on how people shop online. This is the report to give to your boss if he or she doesn't have time to read the detailed reports.
Category pages organize and prioritize a site's offerings. Some homepages clearly show what the site sells, but others confuse users by obscuring the purpose of the site. Product listing can be tricky to design because they must provide the right amount of information, and organize it well. 71 design guidelines.
Users need sufficient information about a product before purchasing it online. Product pages provide that information using a combination of text and images. Effective product pages show availability, product options, and total cost. Good images also matter. 75 design guidelines.
Filling out forms correctly during shopping is very difficult for most users. Forcing people to register during their first purchase is a confusing and frustrating tactic that drives customers away. Better designs mean more customers can complete the shopping process. 114 design guidelines.
Many of our users went right to the site's search tool (unless it was hidden) but there were several reasons search didn't always help them. How to improve search results and search pages in product catalogs. 62 design guidelines.
Help users help themselves. Sites should provide the information shoppers want, when they want it. This extends throughout the site. 47 design guidelines.
Some sites drive their customers away with high prices, unreasonable shipping costs, or unavailable items. Sites that learn to avoid these problems can then focus on tactics for achieving additional sales through cross-selling, recommendations, and gift-giving. 82 design guidelines.
Wishlists and gift cards introduce your site to new customers and drive incremental business. But these customers are often first-time users, and arrive at your site because somebody else likes to shop there, creating additional usability challenges for these profitable features.
103 design guidelines.
Trust is the user's willingness to risk time, money, and personal data on a website. This report discusses many factors that can enhance (or damage) an e-commerce site's credibility. 59 design guidelines.
When US-based sites go global, many aspects of the user experience get broken. This report focuses on not only the obvious issues such as address formats, but also cultural issues as well. Based on usability tests of European and Asian users, as well as Americans shopping on overseas sites. 62 design guidelines.
Help customers find your stores and physical locations. "Bricks & clicks." 56 design guidelines.
Important touchpoints for keeping customers appraised of the status of their transactions and for enhancing your reputation for great customer service. Good email usability has huge ROI from eliminating telephone calls. Bad email is often deleted unread. 143 design guidelines.
This report details how we conducted our user research, including a summary of user demographics, how we briefed and interacted with users, and a summary of all the tasks. No design guidelines, but plenty of advice for conducting usability studies of your own site.
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Comparing the Editions
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If you already own the first edition of this report series, should you buy the second edition?
Yes, because there have been immense advances in e-commerce usability since we wrote the first edition. The second edition contains more than 4 times as many insights as the first edition.
Comparing the editions:
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1st edition |
2nd edition |
| Guidelines |
207 |
874 |
| Page count |
453 |
2,140 |
| Screenshots |
221 |
1,715 |
| Number of volumes |
9 |
13 |
| Report file size |
13 MB |
185 MB |
| Websites tested |
20 |
226 |
| User research methods |
lab tests |
lab tests
eyetracking
diary studies |
| Test locations |
USA (NH),
Denmark |
USA (GA, IL, NH, NY),
China, Denmark, UK |
| Topics covered |
shopping |
shopping
customer service
confirmation email
gift cards
store finders |
| Products users shopped for |
physical products |
physical and virtual products (e.g., tickets) |
> Read Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox about the 2nd edition
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How Can We Sell These Reports So Cheaply?
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Please help us continue publishing low-priced reports by buying a site license if you have colleagues who will read a report. If you only need it for yourself, then that's obviously what the single-user license is for. If somebody "gives" you a copy, then please buy a download anyway to keep prices down in the future.
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Who Should Read These Reports?
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This report has timely and important information for anybody responsible for an e-commerce site and interested in increasing the conversion rate.
Running a similar usability study yourself to collect comparative design lessons from a large number of websites around the world would cost thousands more than the cost of these reports, not to mention months of effort by your team of experienced usability professionals.
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 Press Coverage |
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ECommerce Guide:
E-Commerce Site Design: The Product Page
InfoWorld:
"So many useful e-commerce findings are packed into Nielsen Norman Group's nine-part report that my summary can hardly do it justice. This is a study that every e-commerce site's managers would benefit from reading."
WebReference:
"worth its weight in gold"
Information Age:
"anyone concerned that his or her site is not performing as it should is well advised to invest in a copy"
News.com:
"The design of some of the leading online stores is mediocre at best, but it is improving, according to a new study by Web site usability expert Jakob Nielsen."
Wall Street Journal:
"We're well into the age of e-commerce, and online shoppers still have to suffer through sites that are confusing and hard to navigate and that make it more difficult than necessary to find items they're looking for."
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