On the Development of User Interface Design Guidelines for Electronic Commerce

Abstract

This paper contains a description of an approach to developing and delivering user interface design guidelines. The guidelines, embodying good user-interface design practice, can improve the usability of new systems and the efficiency of delivering a design and evaluation service. The methodology for developing the guidelines and the way they are delivered is applicable to many domains; the guidelines described here support an E-Commerce web site design and evaluation service. The guidelines span several levels of an interface design, including design of the information content required to support users' tasks, the way in which the site content is organized and navigated, as well as aesthetic and visual issues. Although some of the guidelines were drawn from the archival literature, the primary source was a study of 55 end users performing shopping tasks in four existing E-Commerce sites. Because the guidelines are delivered to designers and developers via a web site that integrates the recommendations into a user-centered design process, they can readily be extended and communicated as more usability evaluations are performed.