Research Lead, US
Ed is the team lead for UX research at Baymard and has been with Baymard since 2016. Ed oversees all UX research areas at Baymard. His specializations within e-commerce UX are Mobile, Checkout, Product Finding, Product Page, and Accounts and Self-Service. Ed has a PhD in technical communication and information design.
2024 E-Commerce Product Finding: Expanded and Updated Research Findings
Always Copy the Active Autocomplete Suggestion to the Search Field (58% Don’t)
Checkout Optimization: 5 Ways to Minimize Form Fields in Checkout
B2B Electronics Sites: 2 High-Level Takeaways from 2,500+ Hours Testing
2024 E-Commerce Checkout: Expanded and Updated Checkout Research Findings
Usability Testing of Inline Form Validation: 31% Don’t Have It, 4% Get It Wrong
Improve Validation Errors with Adaptive Messages (98% Don’t)
Have an Address Validator (47% Don’t)
Consider Promoting Important Filters (61% Don’t)
Generalizability of UX E-Commerce Research
Form Field Usability: Avoid Extensive Multicolumn Layouts (16% Make This Form Usability Mistake)
Always Collapse Completed Accordion Checkout Steps into Summaries
Save Account Creation for the Confirmation Step (42% Don’t)
Grocery UX: Dynamically Update the “Add to Cart” Button to a Quantity Selector after Item Added
Payment Method UX: Designing Payment Selection
Always Show the Number of User Ratings in List Items (5% Don’t)
Make All Color Swatches Available in Mobile List Items for Visually Driven Product Types (57% Don’t)
Avoid “Quick Views” for Spec-Driven Product Types (21% Don’t)
Include All Order-Fulfillment Options in the Fulfillment-Selector Interface (50% Don’t)
Always Provide a "Supplement Facts Label” Image in the Main Image Gallery of Vitamins & Supplements Sites
3 High-Level Takeaways from 1,800+ Hours Testing Vitamins & Supplements Sites
Checkout Usability: Autodetect “City” and “State” Inputs Based on the User’s Postal Code (28% of Mobile Sites Don’t)
Provide a "Fully Automatic Address Lookup" Feature (55% Don’t)
Always Have a Map on the “Tour Details” Page Indicating the Departure or Meeting Point for the Tour
Consider Providing “Intermediary Category Pages” (13% Don’t)
Always Link to Third-Party Sources of Reviews, Aggregate Ratings, Awards, and Endorsements on Tours and Experiences Sites
3 High-Level Takeaways from 1,700 Hours Testing Travel Tours and Experience Booking Sites
Provide a Hover Delay of 300–500 MS for Hover-Based Drop-Down Menus (60% Don’t)
Make Product Categories the Top-Level Navigation Items on Mobile Sites (33% Don’t)
Make “Guest Checkout” the Most Prominent Option (47% Don’t)
Use "Shipping Address" as "Billing Address" by Default (16% of Mobile Sites Have Implementation Issues)
Overcategorization of the Product Catalog Can Lead to Abandonment (Yet 75% Get It Wrong)
Allow Users to Choose the Frequency of Newsletter Emails (80% Don’t)
Consider Having a “Sales” or “Deals” Filter-Based Category (32% Don’t or Have Implementation Issues)
Avoid Unnecessarily Complex Password-Creation Requirements (82% Don’t)
Have a “View All” Option in the Main Navigation at Each Level of the Mobile Product Catalog (Only 24% Get It Right)
Mobile Apps: New UX Benchmark with Over 3,700 Performance Scores and 2,800+ Best Practice Examples
E-Commerce Accessibility: Specifying UI Elements Using “Roles”
European Sites: Updated UX Benchmark with over 4,950 Performance Scores and 4,100+ Best Practice Examples
4 Ways to Optimize the Comparison Feature for Scanning
Meal Kit Sites: New UX Benchmark with over 3,300 Performance Scores and 2,200 Best Practice Examples
Form Usability: Getting 'Address Line 2' Right
Use Buttons or Buttons Plus an Open Text Field for Updating Cart Quantity (61% Don’t)
E-Commerce Accessibility: Specifying UI Elements Using “Names”
DTC UX: Avoid Intermediary Category Pages
Make the Travel Accommodations “Booking” Search Feature the Primary Content on the Homepage (25% Don’t)
9 UX Best Practice Design Patterns for Autocomplete Suggestions (Only 19% Get Everything Right)
5 UX Best Practices for Apparel E-Commerce (94% Get One or More Wrong)
Accounts & Self-Service UX: Consider Having an “Icon-Based” Dashboard (81% Don’t)
83% of Apparel Sites Don’t Provide Sufficient Sizing Information — 10 Best Practices on Sizing
35% of SaaS Sites Fail to Make the Service’s UI Sufficiently Prominent to Prospects
Consumables Subscription Service Sites: New UX Benchmark with over 3,000 Performance Scores and 2,300 Best Practice Examples
Readability: The Optimal Line Length
Baymard Update: New UX Benchmark for Travel Accommodations Websites (OTAs, Hotels, Vacation Rentals)
Consumables Subscription Services Site UX: Avoid This Major CTA Pitfall
3 UX Best Practices for Consumables Subscription Services Websites — Based on 1,200+ Hours of UX Testing
3 High-Level UX Takeaways from 1100+ Hours of Testing Leading Food Delivery and Takeout Sites
3 High-Level UX Takeaways from 950+ Hours of Testing Leading Meal Kits Sites
Travel Accommodations UX: 3 High-Level UX Takeaways from 992 Hours of Testing Leading Travel Accommodations Sites
Online Grocery UX: 5 High-Level UX Takeaways from 1,100 Hours of Testing Leading Grocery Websites
The Current State of Checkout UX - 18 Common Pitfalls & Best Practices
Offer Relevant Autocomplete Suggestions for Closely Misspelled Search Terms and Queries (69% Don’t)
Always Provide the Full Scope for Links on Mobile Homepages (58% Don’t)
12 Common UX Pitfalls 'Online Grocery' E-Commerce Sites Suffer From
15 Common UX Pitfalls Luxury Retail E-Commerce Sites Suffer From
New Research Study on Direct-to-Consumer UX
New Research Study on “Digital Subscriptions” (SaaS) UX
Understanding Mobile E-Commerce UX: 5 Overarching Issues
Mobile UX: Avoid Using Subpages within the Product Details Page (26% Don't)
6 Important Aspects of Well-Performing Mobile Product Page Breadcrumbs
Allow Users to Upload Images with Their Review (34% of Sites Don’t)
Six ‘COVID-19’ Related E-Commerce UX Improvements to Make
25% of E-Commerce Sites Don't Have Product Images with Sufficient Resolution or Level of Zoom
Phone Number UX: Always Explain Why the ‘Phone Field’ Is Required
Filter List Design: Have Filters for All Displayed List Item Info (38% Don't)
Mobile E-Commerce UX: Deemphasize 'Install App' Ads or Avoid Them Entirely
5 ‘Order Review’ UX Implementations That Make Office Depot Best-in-Class
Self-Service UX: Integrate All Order Tracking Info and Events Within the E-Commerce Site Itself (56% Don't)
Self-Service UX: Distinguish Primary from Secondary Paths in the 'My Account' Drop-Down (71% Don't)
E-Commerce Search Needs to Support Users’ Non-Product Search Queries (15% Don't)
PDP UX: Provide an 'Included Accessories' Image and Clarify That Optional Accessories Are Extra (44% Don't)
Search UX: 6 Essential Elements for 'No Results' Pages
Product Page UX: Include Descriptive Text or Graphics for Some Product Images (52% Don't)
PDP UX: Core Product Content Is Overlooked in 'Horizontal Tabs' Layouts (Yet 28% of Sites Have This Layout)
E-Commerce Checkouts Need to Mark Both Required Fields and Optional Fields Explicitly (Only 14% Do So)
Self-Service UX: Promote In-Store Returns Alongside Mailed Return Options
Dashboard Design: Dashboard Cards Must Be Highly Consistent and Appropriately Styled
New Research Findings on ‘Accounts & Self-Service’ UX
Mobile Web: Scale Product Images Proportionally in Mobile Landscape Mode (52% of Sites Don't)
Structuring Product Page Descriptions by 'Highlights' Increases User Engagement (Yet 78% of Sites Don't)
Product Spec Sheets: 4 Ways to Make Spec Sheets More Scannable for Users (50% of Sites Get It Wrong)
E-Commerce UX: Post-Process Vendor-Supplied Product Data (52% Don't)
CAPTCHAs Have an 8% Failure Rate, and 29% if Case Sensitive
Consider Using Localized Input Masks for ‘Phone’ and Other Restricted Inputs (64% Aren’t Taking Advantage of Input Masking)
7 Product Page UX Implementations that Make REI Best-in-Class
Product Pages: ‘Free Shipping’ Should Not Only Be in a Site-Wide Banner (32% Get It Wrong)
Ratings Design UX Research: 5 Requirements for the ‘Ratings Distribution Summary’ (65% of Sites Get it Wrong)
Allow Users to Purchase Temporarily 'Out of Stock' Products by Increasing the Delivery Time (68% Don't)