Identifying de-facto standards for e-commerce Web sites

Designers of desktop software rely on published user interface standards to help make systems more consistent, and therefore more usable. Though no such published design standards exist for the Web, certain design practices have become increasingly common. Some of these are pervasive enough to be considered de facto standards. In this study, 75 leading e-commerce sites were analyzed to determine how similarly they presented standard e-commerce functions to users. The study examined the location, labeling, and icon use for five functions: Return to Home, View Cart, Manage Account, Get Help and Search. While a few de facto standard practices emerged, overall there was considerable variation, particularly in the location of functions. However, it remains unclear how these variations impact e-commerce site usability. On-going identification of design practices on the Web is important to help designers make more intelligent design decisions and for providing a baseline for future studies on the relationship between de facto standards and site usability.