Customer-Centered Design: A New Approach to Web Usability

Chapter 7. Winning Webstores

What does it take to have a winning webstore? Customers can tell you. A customer's preferred shopping process is a one-to-one mapping to predetermined expectations. Customers tolerated poorly designed websites in the early years of Internet shopping, but now they've come to expect a base level of usability. Each day, as websites improve and provide new customer conveniences, the bar is raised.

What customers say, however, may be different from what they actually do. The key to these communications is in the interpretations. You must both listen and observe. You must also add other dimensions and opinions from Internet usability experts who've listened and watched thousands of Internet users, shoppers, browsers, customers, ...