Bench 09: Site search and navigation
Visitors who cannot find the product cannot buy it. Menus, filters, search results and the zero-results page, treated as selling surfaces.
The bench guide
Working guides on this bench
Site search and navigation Autocomplete and Suggestions: Steering Without Trapping Autocomplete should finish the shopper thought, not force the store agenda. Suggest real products, categories and popular phrases in shopper language, handle empty suggestions honestly, and make keyboard and touch use easy. Site search and navigation Breadcrumbs and Wayfinding on Deep Catalogues Breadcrumbs are a map, not decoration. Show the real path through the catalogue, keep it consistent with menus and categories, and support the other wayfinding cues visitors use to know where they are. Site search and navigation Category Pages That Help Visitors Choose A category page is not a shelf dump. It should explain the choice in plain terms, surface the differences that matter, and let a visitor narrow or compare without opening every product in a new tab. Site search and navigation Filters and Facets: Enough to Narrow, Not Enough to Bury Filters should match the decisions shoppers actually make, show only options that return products, and stay usable on a phone. More facets is not better; the right few, in shopper language, are. Site search and navigation Menus Written in Shopper Language, Not Org Charts A menu should answer where a shopper would look, not how the business is organised. Name categories by product, use, person or occasion in the words shoppers use, and keep the top level short enough to scan. Site search and navigation Mobile Navigation: Drawers, Bars and the Back Button Mobile navigation has to fit a small screen, one thumb and an impatient visitor. Keep search findable, categories reachable in a drawer that behaves, key routes in reach, and the back button safe to use. Site search and navigation Reading Site Search Logs: The Cheapest Research You Own Site search logs record what visitors wanted, in their words, and whether the store answered. Group queries by intent, track zero results and follow-on searches, and turn the list into fixes for search, data and range. Site search and navigation Related Products and Recommendations That Actually Relate Recommendations help when the relationship is real: completes the job, fits the item, replaces it, or serves the same need. Random or purely promotional suggestions teach visitors to ignore the whole system. Site search and navigation Site Search That Understands How Shoppers Describe Things Shoppers describe products by use, problem, colour, person and occasion, rarely by catalogue name. Site search converts when it handles synonyms, descriptions and mistakes, and ranks useful results first. Site search and navigation Why Searchers Convert Differently, and What to Do About It Visitors who search usually arrive with a clearer need than browsers, so their behaviour and conversion pattern differ. Read searcher results on their own terms, serve their intent, and do not let a higher rate hide weak results. Site search and navigation Zero-Results Pages: The Dead End That Can Still Sell A zero-results page is not the end of a visit unless you design it as one. Show why nothing matched, offer the closest useful routes, and keep a ready buyer inside the store without pretending a match exists.