Internet Service Providers Website UX Audit – Baymard Institute (2023)

Homepage — The homepage structure, design, carousels, personalization, and promotions.

Main Navigation & Category Taxonomy — The overall e-commerce category structure and taxonomy, including mega drop-down menus, the visual hierarchy, and the structural component of a site’s product categories, including information architecture, catalog breadth, and category naming.

Query Types — The level of compliance with the overarching types of search queries that users perform. How and what website data is actually searched.

Search Form & Logic — The design and behavior of the search field itself, query persistence, manual and automatic search scope selection, how the autocomplete feature (“predictive search”) should be designed,

Results Layout & Guidance — How to guide users toward better paths on the results page, “No results” pages, layout and features of the search results page, etc.

Product Page Layouts — “Horizontal Tabs”, “Sticky TOCs”, “Collapsed Sections”, “One Long Page”, etc.

The Plan Matrix - Design and user comparison of the plan options, collapsed matrixes and features, explaining unique features, primary CTA, etc.

Product Description — Product information and descriptions, the type of content needed, text styling, sub-titles, product headlines, etc.

Check Availability — Designing and implementing the interface for checking service availability, how to improve the error recovery and address validation experiences for users and how to implement address lookup features.

Shopping Cart Interface & Layout — Implementation of the shopping cart page, including item information, quantity selectors, “Save” features, and order summary information.

Checkout Types & Application Form Layout — The layout and design of checkout process steps, as well as traditional multi-step checkout, one-step checkout, and accordion checkout, form fields, primary button, and implementation of cart link.

User Information — Form fields for personal user data such as, shipping addresses, billing addresses, name, and phone number. etc.

Shipping/Installation Options & Store Pickup — Shipping interface design and information hierarchy, shipping descriptions, order cut-off times, and “Free Shipping” tiers, along with omni-channel features such as Store Pickup, Store Availability, and Ship to Store.

Payment Flow & Methods (includes Third-Party) — The payment methods interface, how to integrate and display third-party payment options, gift card redemption flows, international currencies, coupon codes, etc.

Credit Card Form — The credit card field design and its validation logic and formatting, along with the expiration date, security code, and cardholder name inputs, field sequence, card icons, and card type selection.

Order Review — Review step design, “Place Order” button placement, and necessary review data, along with its editing flow.

Order Confirmation & E-Mail (to the extent it’s possible to access this) — The information and actions needed on the order confirmation page, along with the order confirmation e-mail.

User Attention & Interactions — Load indicators, feedback on user actions, the use of overlays, feedback requests, active vs. passive cross-selling, introduction of site-specific features, and embedded content from third-parties.

Form Design & Features — How to design and position the primary button, “Apply” buttons, minimizing form intimidation, multi-column layouts, tabbing flows, CAPTCHAs, back-button and enter-keystroke behavior.

Validation Errors & Data Persistence — How to design and position error messages, how to word them, and persisting data in non-secure and secure form fields, along with inline validation.

Field Labels & Microcopy — Marking optional and required fields, field label position, tooltips, and optimizing microcopy and descriptions.

Field Design & Features — How to match the type of interface with the input type, drop-downs and radio button implementations, input masks and character restrictions, custom designed input fields, etc.

Default Values & Autocompletion — Intelligent form features, including inferred selections, pre-fills, auto-fills, and personalization of the checkout flow.

‘My Account’ Sign-In — Account sign in, including password reset and account lockouts, “Soft” sign in, automatic sign out, and where users should be sent after signing in.

‘My Account’ Drop-Down — Placement of the “My Account” drop-down menu, account features to include, how the “My Account” drop-down should be structured and styled, personalization, and what “My Account” drop-down implementations should be avoided.

‘My Account’ Dashboard — Providing paths to all ‘My Account’ features, highlighting recent orders, limiting ads, and using icons; dashboard designs that use a sidebar or “Cards“ for navigation.

‘My Account’ Stored Addresses, Payments, and Newsletters — Credit card updating flow, default addresses, editing vs. adding a new address, newsletter frequency and “unsubscribe“, confirmations, and ‘Apply’ buttons.

Mobile Basics — Content and structure of mobile site vs. desktop site, size and spacing of of hit areas, multiple hit-areas within the same visual element, font-sizes, landscape mode, bugs and quirks vulnerable to the mobile platform, auto-zoom, etc.

Mobile Site Homepage & Main Navigation — Main navigation design and logic, double-hit area issues, homepage structure and design, auto-rotating carousels, etc.

Mobile Search — User’s crossover from category navigation to search, search scopes, misspellings and synonyms, search query support, “No results” pages, Faceted Search filters, etc.

Mobile Product Page Layouts — Product page structure, sub–product pages, collapsed product page sections, “add to cart” button placement, “Store Pickup”, etc.

Mobile Product Descriptions — Product information and descriptions, the type of content needed, text styling, sub-titles, product headlines, etc.

Mobile Plan Matrixes — Design and user comparison of the plan options, collapsed matrixes and features, explaining unique features, primary CTA, etc.

Mobile Shopping Cart — Cost estimates, number and placement of “checkout” buttons, saving mobile carts, picking up mobile carts on desktop devices, etc.

Mobile Registration & Checkout Steps — Account creation, addresses, shipping methods, “Store Pickup”, payment, order review, linear checkout flows, mobile process steps, etc.

Mobile Checkout UX — Optional vs. required fields, minimizing number of fields, form field label placement in smartphone portrait and landscape modes, inline labels, floating labels, grouping checkout info for mobile overview, field context, location detection, touch keyboard auto-correct, optimized keyboards, auto-capitalization, etc.