The category page is perhaps one of the most familiar pages for any user across the globe. It can be regarded as the modern version of the catalogues we used to get before the dawn of the internet. The e-commerce world has been significantly impacted by the rise of internet traffic, and many businesses have shifted their entire operations online. The unilateral understanding amongst e-commerce businesses is that the category page is what determines the attention span and interest of the visitor.
A structure built on a long and detailed list of the multiple products or services offered is the main architecture of a category page. Yet, there is a very grand scope of elevating the conventional category page design beyond the lists and details, which has become a permanent trend to attract more visitors and stay ahead of the competition.
Spreading out the content in uniquely is not the only way to achieve this though. As surprising as it may sound, there are many other important factors that nullify just the content aspect of the page on a larger spectrum. So, how do you create the best category page design? Let us design one in this article itself!
Immaculate Navigation
The main and subcategory pages must be immaculately designed for the users to conveniently navigate through. The website architecture plays a key role in determining in how fluent your webpages are for users to surf through and take away as much information presented on the webpages as possible. Consider these steps to ensure you have a brilliant website structure:
- The primary headings in your website should be the most important and relevant categories / products / services. These should reflect in the top of the navigation menu, and visible to the users always as the users search through the various pages of your website. It is imperative that the product or service that outsells any other in your categories gets its shine, regardless if it may feel at a bit of odds with the other categories. Space for prime navigation should be reserved to the most selling or requested product or service on your website.
- Do not have more than 7 categories in the root navigation menu. The remaining categories can be embedded in the prime categories, but studies have shown that categories with rigid authority assigned in the navigation boosts their SEO perspective, and also plays a crucial role in managing the short-term memory span of the users. For instance, if a user visiting your website can take away information and able to remember the services or products you offer, then they are more likely to purchase from you. Offering a multitude of categories right off the gate to the users can be very overwhelming for them and might not bring them the urge to explore so much in the little time they have.
- Subcategories are as crucial as primary categories. Listing subcategories in an “open menu” can prove to be very helpful for the users to easily access the desired information. This will also save the users the time to reach from Point A to their desired destination on the website in fewer clicks, thus making their navigation on the website much more seamless.
The Design Offers What You Offer
Capturing the brand image on your website is all a game of targeted designing. How your category pages look like is a testament to the services you are offering. Here are some tips to ensure that the design of your website is perfect:
- Making it clear from the get-go visually to the visitor that they have landed on what page is very imperative. Due to SEO optimization, the user may end up opening a category page directly due to the search engine results and miss out on the journey of going to the category page from the homepage. Providing visual cues to the visitor is, hence, an imperative part of the designing process, so they can know which page they are on. It also creates an engaging journey for visitors who started their exploration of the category page from the homepage itself.
- E-commerce websites use rows the most for their layout, with an average of 3-4 items per line. But it should not make you consider the “one size for all” narrative. You should always design the items on the layout on the category basis. This keeps the information presented concise, easy to take in, and more alluring.
Give Users Elaborate Filter Options
The sheer number of items present in category pages can be overwhelming for visitors, which is a universal problem. Time-poor or restless website visitors can quickly get frustrated and close the webpage. This is exactly the reason why filtering is such an important feature for category page design and development. But in recent research, it was found that a mere 16% of the big e-commerce websites offer a good filtering experience to the users. So, how do you get included in this 16% and not the remaining ones? Here are some tips on getting it right:
- If a visitor finds the UI of a website hard to use, they will immediately close it. Hence, playing to the norms here is very important. Left-hand navigation has been the standard practice for websites since their inception in the 90s. Therefore, keep the navigation tools of the website, including filters on the left side of your design.
- Always use Notable Filter Identification Design. Users can often get confused between the sorting and filtering options, which is why this step in the design process is very important. Tunnel vision of website visitors often compels them to focus mostly on the upper-center part of the webpage, which means they might not be using the filter option at all for trimming down the product list. For left-hand navigation, make sure that the filter option is recognizable to the user in an instant so that this does not happen.
Conclusion
Now that you’re aware of all the intrinsic steps you can take to ensure a perfect category page design, it’s time for your development team to bring in some creativity, and evolve on the tips and tricks presented in this article. Achieve your UX dreams on the website and categorize your success with intuitive and smart category page designs!
Vyshnavi Basuthkar is Digital Marketing Analyst at ParamInfo – Mobile App Development Company in Dubai . She is expertise in SEO, SMM and well-skilled in web designing. With huge interest and curiosity, she enjoys writing blogs for websites. Her service offering is independent and astonishing.
Page design stock photo by PureSolution/Shutterstock
