User Experience - Practical Ecommerce

Charts: Website Accessibility Trends 2024

Adel Boukarroum — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 12:00:11 +0000

A new report by Crownpeak and London Research identifies the digital accessibility plans and challenges of E.U. and U.S. organizations.

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Beardbrand’s Lawyer Recaps ADA Lawsuit

Eric Bandholz — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 14:37:40 +0000

Beardbrand recently prevailed in a lawsuit alleging violations of accessibility laws. The company's attorney shares the details.

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E.U. Accessibility Act Impacts Global Merchants

Bet Hannon — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 09:00:44 +0000

No matter their location, ecommerce businesses with E.U. customers must comply with the European Accessibility Act. Only "micro-enterprises" are exempt.

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Simple Steps to Mobile-first Web Design

Barbara Carneiro — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 10:59:59 +0000

For too long mobile websites have been scaled-down desktop versions. The result is often an awkward user experience. Mobile-first design reflects the reality of today's consumer.

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3 Questions Every Home Page Should Answer

Barbara Carneiro — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 10:45:28 +0000

Modern consumers are deluged with information. Our brains subconsciously adapt, using three questions to cull out what's important. Websites should address those questions — quickly.

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Design Every Page for the Desired Outcome

Barbara Carneiro — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 09:00:51 +0000

When developing an ecommerce website, merchants should ensure every page guides visitors towards the desired outcome. Longtime design guru Barbara Carneiro explains.

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6 Accessibility Basics Cause 97% of Errors

Joseph C. Dolson — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 13:52:40 +0000

An accessible ecommerce site doesn't require an expert. Learn the six most common accessibility errors and how to fix them in-house.

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How to Design a Website Footer

Barbara Carneiro — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 17:33:57 +0000

Designed correctly, website footers carry much value for a brand. The key is to focus on the footer's purpose and desired outcome. Our design and usability guru explains.

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Web Design for Everyone Pleases No One

Barbara Carneiro — Tue, 17 May 2022 10:00:23 +0000

The ages of shoppers impact web design and messaging. Each generation has unique preferences, desires, and habits. Merchants who recognize this will have higher conversions.

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Visitors Seek Effortless Navigation and Design

Barbara Carneiro — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 16:46:25 +0000

Consumers in the West read and write from left to right. Website navigation using that natural tendency is effortless and less stressful for visitors.

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The Best Navigation for Ecommerce Sites

Barbara Carneiro — Sun, 27 Mar 2022 12:40:38 +0000

The best ecommerce navigation mimics human decision-making. Too many sites overwhelm visitors with complex menus and an avalanche of info.

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How Information Design Drives Conversions

Barbara Carneiro — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 16:44:57 +0000

Understanding visitors' goals and the steps you want them to take will help determine the layout of your site's information. We explain in this post, using four examples.

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Ecommerce Design Is Critical (but Misunderstood)

Barbara Carneiro — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 15:08:45 +0000

Done correctly, ecommerce design conveys trust and drives conversions. Its value is much more than being good on the eye. Longtime designer Barbara Carnerio cites three critical rules.

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Minimalist Design Can Increase Ecommerce Sales

Pamela Hazelton — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 13:19:01 +0000

Minimalism can present products in a refreshing way and focus on key selling points. The result is more engagement and conversions. When considering a minimalist design, keep the following conversion pointers in mind.

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9 Ways UX Improves Rankings and Revenue

Jill Kocher Brown — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 14:12:12 +0000

User experience impacts organic search performance. A positive UX reduces bounces and encourages visitors to browse and purchase. It drives ratings, referrals, and inbound links. These nine factors influence user experience and thus organic search traffic.

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WCAG 2.1 a Welcome Update to Web Accessibility

Joseph C. Dolson — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 13:35:58 +0000

WCAG 2.1 is the first major update to web accessibility guidelines since 2008. Rather than writing a new set from scratch, the W3C amended the existing guidelines to add several new key recommendations.

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The Legal Picture for Web Accessibility in 2019

Joseph C. Dolson — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 14:31:38 +0000

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires websites to be accessible to disabled users. This has been well established in the courts — most recently in a decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals against Domino's Pizza.

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14 Usability Tools to Optimize Your Website

Sig Ueland — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 13:40:11 +0000

Here is a list of usability tools to test and optimize your site. There are tools to track the actions of your users, as well as tools to gather feedback and insight. There are also tools to measure your site's performance.

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SEO: 8 Ways UX and Design Could Reduce Traffic

Jill Kocher Brown — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 14:13:32 +0000

For more than a decade I've optimized organic search traffic for big and small companies. They often come to my team with greatly diminished search performance stemming from decisions on overall strategy and design. The decisions resulted in changes to internal linking structures and reduced textual content, which affected the authority and relevance signals that search engines rely on to rank pages. Here are eight common strategy and design decisions that, in my experience, often harm organic search traffic.

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SEO: Design for People, Develop for Bots

Jill Kocher Brown — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 12:01:27 +0000

One of the frequent reasons given for ignoring search engine optimization is this: “We’re not selling to bots, we’re selling to people.” This argument highlights an ignorance of the role ...

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SEO: What Google’s Mobile-first Index Means for Ecommerce

Jill Kocher Brown — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 14:04:17 +0000

Google started experimenting with a mobile-first index two weeks ago, making the mobile ecommerce experience even more critical to natural search performance.
Shopping is a core behavior for mobile users. Last ...

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SEO: Rethinking Mobile Search, for Ecommerce

Jill Kocher Brown — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 12:57:51 +0000

Smartphones are fast becoming a search marketer’s best friend — or biggest concern. More than half of all searches on Google are conducted on a smartphone. In this critical holiday ...

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Understanding ARIA, for Web Accessibility

Joseph C. Dolson — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 14:38:42 +0000

If you research web accessibility, you’re likely to run into ARIA — Accessible Rich Internet Applications. Some will call it the solution to all web accessibility issues. Others will condemn ...

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5 Basics to Make a Website Accessible

Joseph C. Dolson — Fri, 27 May 2016 13:58:04 +0000

The topics of accessibility, screen readers, and how users interact with voice command applications can be challenging to grasp. But for 90 percent of websites, there are simple choices that ...

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How to Measure Color Contrast, for Web Accessibility

Joseph C. Dolson — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 19:37:53 +0000

The essence of accessible color contrast is simple. Given a foreground color and a background color, the contrast between those two must be distinguishable in a wide variety of environments,

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Using Keyboard-only Navigation, for Web Accessibility

Joseph C. Dolson — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 16:35:06 +0000

At many of the web development conferences I attend, there is a talk on how to use an integrated development environment to aid in programming. The speaker will almost invariably ...

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How to Make Videos Accessible for Blind, Disabled Users

Joseph C. Dolson — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 13:24:03 +0000

A video is a compelling option when you want to demonstrate a product or show off its features. But a video can cause accessibility challenges. They aren’t insurmountable, by any ...

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7 Mistakes to Avoid When Designing Website Forms

Daniel Kedinger — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 12:30:17 +0000

Web forms are often one of the last things considered in a website’s design, but it is one of the ways people interact with a site most frequently. Whether it is a checkout form, registration signup, or simple contact form, the following seven web form mistakes can hurt your chances of a getting a prospective customer to do business with your company.

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Common Web Accessibility Problems on Leading Ecommerce Sites

Armando Roggio — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:31:33 +0000

From missing alternative text to redundancy, several of the Internet’s leading ecommerce sites have potential web accessibility problems, which might make it difficult for shoppers with disabilities.
In the absence of ...

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Strategies for Website Accessibility, for Ecommerce

Armando Roggio — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 13:02:00 +0000

Goodwill, smart business, and even vague governmental regulation should compel ecommerce businesses to make websites accessible to all potential customers, including those who are blind or deaf or have other ...

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