Ecommerce User Experience Vol. 11: Store Finders and Locators

Customers often need to visit physical locations of companies to complete transactions. Your website, and any mobile apps, should help them find the most convenient location that offers the services they need. This report features locators that find stores, offices, dealers, branches and ATMs, on desktop and mobile websites and applications.

This 197-page report contains 56 design recommendations based on our usability research. Discussions and 165 screenshot illustrations supplement the findings.

Article on mobile research findings: Maps and Location Finders on Mobile Devices

Topics covered

• How to present location information to reduce customer calls and to get people in your stores
  • Placement and naming of locator links
  • Global and utility navigation bar link
  • Parameters based on available services and products
• Behavioral patterns for finding locations
  • Search engine usage to find stores
  • Specific information people seek
  • Mobile and desktop considerations
• Directions and maps
  • Interactive locator tool versus location list
  • Integrating maps and directions
  • Forms for location information
  • Turn-by-turn directions
  • Map pan and zoom functionality
• Location listings that are easy to scan
  • Critical information people need to make decisions
  • International considerations
  • Layout of location listings
  • Visual design of location listings
• Enabling sharing and emailing directions

Research Method

The information in this report is based on four rounds of usability testing with representative users and 56 location-finder designs (including desktop and mobile websites and applications). The number of locations represented by each website or application ranged from fewer than a hundred to several thousand.