Should I say “Call to Action” or “FOUR”? Check out this Discount Golf Equipment site. When you visit you will quickly notice that it is a e-commerce site, and that they sell golf equipment. When visiting one of their product pages the call to action is very obvious. There are product details, pictures, product options, and an obvious method to make a purchase. What about the home page though? Are you compelled to do anything?
Getting Action Out of the Home Page
One of the big problems with a sites home page is that fact that they are usually designed for a general audience. We often design them trying to reveal everything we have to offer, and not really consider what the next action would be.
Here are your options, hope you do something.
So how do you get action out of a visitor without reallying knowing what they want, and without displaying your entire sitemap on the home page? You let them search.
Zappo Into Action
One of my favorite e-commerce sites usability wise is Zappos, the shoe store. What is their major call to action on their home page? It’s their search function. Comparing both sites they are both very similar in content. They both have: a search function, categories of products, and products that you can buy right from the home page. What gets people moving though is the very obvious search box Zappos has. It’s compelling, and once a visitor hits that search button the sale is half way done. Zappos knows the visitor wants shoes, they just don’t what kind. What should the visitor do? They should find it. What should the major call to action be? Make them search.
Not an e-Commerce Site
Not all sites are their to sell, but having a call to action on the home page is still just as important. Imagine if you site was just about golf tips in general like the Golf’s site blog, Golf Equipment Blog. Emphasis needs to be created to why a visitor is there, and what the valuble parts of the site are. Establish specific values, and specific actions will follow.
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I get the point about Zappo being your favourite ecommerce site usability wise, what in particular make is so user friendly in your opinion?
They have made a few changes/improvements since the last time I did an analysis on them, but here are a few reasons, and a couple of negatives.
First a few negatives. Hate the fact that it was designed for a 800px monitor. I also hate the small font, and way to much vertical scrolling. Expanding the width of the design could fix it all. Their new Zeta size has at least addressed the width.
Pros: For starters it rated Fair – Excellent in 30 out of 35 of the things I look for in my usability analysis. Not very many sites do this. It’s extremely easy to find a product. Products have extensive details, contact information is obvious, they offer live help (and it’s obvious), help boxes will appear when making a mistake during a purchase, products shows availability in shopping cart. Basically, it’s clearly a shoe site, and even my Dad could figure it out. I know many use the term Mom proof, but my Mom is very computer savvy, and has even made purchases from Zappos. Another thing, and this is a usability issue, is that it is easy to find on the net. Try searching for Zappo on Google. Try searching for Shoes on Google.