Usability Evaluation of Zara Website

by Lansu Dai

Introduction

Zara is a well-known fast-fashion brand noted for its trendy designs and affordable prices. Zara website is an example of an e-commerce website. A well-designed e-commerce website has a user-friendly interface that allows customers to easily explore products, search for items, and complete transactions. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and encourages repeat visits. However, the Zara website has frequently been criticized for its poor design and user experience. Complaints regarding poor usability, unconventional style, and accessibility issues have been raised against the Zara website. In this blog, In this blog, I examine the Zara website using Neilson’s Heuristic and provide suggestions for solving these problems.

User Experience Problem in Zara Website

1. Lack of User-friendly Product Categorization

Zara website has poor categorization on product categories, which makes it difficult for users to efficiently navigate between various product categories. The product category hierarchy on most e-commerce websites is well-designed. To meet users' expectations, user interface elements should behave consistently with other shopping websites. It is important to improve the category labels to make them more descriptive and to make sure that all product categories are easily accessible from the main page. This problem violates Neilson’s Heuristic 4 "Consistency and Standard".

Figure 1: Navigation menu on the Zara website, after clicking Woman 

Recommendation:

The product category hierarchy of Zara website should be redesigned so that it resembles the hierarchy style of other shopping websites. The website should clearly define the levels of category. For example, in the “Woman” section, a top-level category could be “TOPS” followed by its second-level categories, such as “All Tops”, “Hoodies”, “Sweaters”, “T-shirts”, and “Shirts”.

2. Lack of Breadcrumb Navigation System

The breadcrumb navigation system helps users to trace their navigation history and understand their position within the site. In Figure 2, it shows an example breadcrumb navigation system on the H&M website. Current Zara website lacks the breadcrumb navigation system, so that users cannot back more than one level and return to that location by one step. This problem violates Neilson’s Heuristic 1 "Visibility of System Status".

Figure 2: The yellow circled box shows the breadcrumb system in H&M website

Recommendation:

The breadcrumb system should be implemented at the top of the page, so users can easily see and navigate their path.

3. Limited Filtering and Sorting Options

When users select a category from the navigation menu, the Zara website directs them to the product listing page. Users struggle to find certain products on the product listing page due to insufficient filtering and sorting options. There are only three filtering options available on the website, which are color, size, and price. Besides, Zara website does not provide sorting options when browsing the products. Neilson's Heuristic 7 "Flexibility and Efficiency of Use" is violated by this problem. 

Figure 3: The left top under the Zara Logo is the filtering option provided by the Zara website

Recommendation: 

The filtering options can include more attributes, such as product type, fabric, and availability. Moreover, the website should provide users with sorting options to users in order to improve efficiency. Sorting options include popularity, low to high price, new arrival, and relevance.

4. Oversized Product Images Compared to Product Name

There is a noticeable design problem in the layout of the product listing page. The product name and price are too small compared to the product image. It is hard for users to read the product information and the oversized product images would attract users more attention. The functionality of the website must be guaranteed while it is being designed. This problem violates Neilson’s Heuristic 8 “Aesthetic and Minimalist Design”. 

Figure 4: A screenshot on the product listing page of the Zara website

Recommendation: 

My recommendation is to use a uniform grid system, in which the product images are large enough to be appealing while not dominating the entire screen and allowing multiple products to be viewed at the same time. Also standardize product listing layouts to ensure clear legibility of product names and prices by balancing the image and text size.

Conclusion

In this blog post, I have highlighted a number of user experience problems, including poor product categorization, lack of breadcrumb navigation, insufficient filtering and sorting options, and an imbalance between product images and text. If the issues are not resolved, they may continue to have an influence on the effectiveness and contentment of Zara's users. The company must constantly improve its online website all the time in order to meet user expectations in the dynamic e-commerce landscape.

Acknowledgement: 

I would like to acknowledge that I used Grammarly to improve my writing style, including sentence structure and grammar issues.