In a very interesting piece of research by Snow Valley they looked at a number of ecommerce sites. They found 79 different ways in which sites asked for your credit card type, number, your name and so on. This is a very simple form on every ecommerce site with (normally) about six fields on it!
They found 28 different terms used for the card security number (the three digits on the back of the card – technically the CVC number).
For me, this points to the need for serious standardisation, and design patterns are the way to make this happen. There is a need for an industry body to create standard design patterns for the most common operations. Starting with scrolling text and finishing with the registration form.
What does this do for creativity? I tell you what. I have just started designing a car, and I am really really really bored with the arrangement of pedals…. You get the idea?
People are not visiting web sites to admire your creativity (normally – certainly not on ecommerce sites). They want from an ecommerce site:
- To be assured that the site is not run out of a garage with a site designed by someone’s brother in law who is awfully good with computers – so it needs to look good.
- To find what they need quickly – and that flash splash screen you just spent the last week on gets right in the way of that. I have heard it referred to as the skip intro screen.
- To be able to find out enough about the product to decide whether they want it or not. So that six point grey text on slightly darker grey background may look cool but is going to go down like a lead balloon to someone who just wants to see the specs of the product.
- To be able to buy it quickly and easily without having to learn a whole new set of skills.
If you lose sight of these four objectives then you customer is going to lose money and go to another designer next time.
Bob Browning's blog 
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