Web design is all about balancing functionality with style and practicality to produce a website that is visually stunning, but also functional and practical too. Unfortunately, many companies only pay close attention to the landing page, and the rest of the customer journey can be a little neglected. The checkout or shopping cart page is frequently the most poorly designed, both in terms of style, and functionality. So what can you do? And what are the most important visual web design features for effective website checkouts? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design professionals. From Wigan to Southport, we work with companies across Manchester and the surrounding region to deliver high quality web design solutions that really get results. As a result, we have produced this guide to the essentials of checkout design.
Important visual web design features for effective website checkouts
So to make sure your checkout is a success, what should you bear in mind, and which features should you include? Well, there are many aspects to consider, including:
- Using relevant design icons
- Using loading animations
- Quality form design
Using relevant design icons
To make your checkout area more visually appealing, you might consider using some icons. These can be easier to process than words, and they can add some visual quality to this checkout page, which is usually text heavy, and filled with forms. But any icons need to be well designed, obvious, and consistent with your company branding, and overall web design, to ensure a positive result. These can include:
- Different icons for delivery and collection options
- Different icons for payment methods- use the official icons of different companies, like Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Google Pay for an effective result
Using loading animations
We’ve all been there. Clicked on a link and waited for the page to change, then clicked again. And then again just to be sure. But this often leads to a repeated command. And as part of the checkout process, this is the last thing you want to happen. So to help users, add a visual loading animation that appears as soon as a button has been pressed. This will visually show that the website is processing and handling the request, and this visual feedback can be satisfying for the user.
Using high quality form design
The checkout process involves completing a number of forms. This can be off-putting for some users, and forms that are not well designed, can contribute to the whopping 70% of shopping baskets that are abandoned at the online checkout stage. So to make sure your customers feel safe and secure, and to make checking out easier, be sure to deign high quality forms. These should:
- allow users to check out without making an account
- include error capture to help ensure the form is filled in correctly, and make it easier for users to see where a mistake has been made
- only ask the relevant questions, i.e., unless the product is age restricted, there is no need to require a date of birth
For more information or advice about checkout design and what it could do for your company, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.