: Web design for retail / e-commerce site - essential elements? I'm developing a Rails site for my company that's going to be a web store for our entire inventory. I don't really have a lot

@Rivera951

A good method, I find, is to go to a few people who are used to using the internet and buying things off of it.

Ask them some questions like: "You want to make a search on a website, where do you look?" and "If you want to find out a phone number for the site, where do you look?" (the answers to these tend to be "top left" and "in the footer", in my experience). Also, as Mateus has said, don't go over the top in functionality. It's a lot easier to find the thing you need when there's less on a page.

In other words, stick to convention. I believe this has drawbacks (see this blog post of mine on the subject, if you like) but for now it's certainly the best way of doing things.

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@Vandalay110

I have two good bookmarks on delicious you really have to check out www.delicious.com/mateusnroll/ecommerce
But, just remember: BE SIMPLE. Don't clutter the interface with all kind with elements. I recommend everyone that's starting to read Save The Pixel book. It have good insights.
www.savethepixel.org/

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