Web Design That Works - Interview with Jimi Wikman

Design is not how a page looks, design is how a page makes you feel and react. Someone who has worked extensively with design that makes a difference is Jimi Wikman, who helps e-retailers develop their stores through design. We have an in-depth interview with Jimi filled with practical tips.

Jimi Wikman has worked with a wide range of major brands, from Stadium and Assa Abloy to Pricerunner and Inkclub. The first time I encountered Jimi online was many years ago, and even then he was one of the few who worked with design and actually talked about the function of design. Today, he has positioned himself as one of the leading designers pushing the issue of design as function—design that does something, not just looks good. Design that makes you feel, buy, register, or find exactly what you’re looking for.

For smaller e-retailers, Jimi always has great advice. Typically, this type of work is reserved for the really big players, as tackling your design seriously is a big task. Today, we’ve also got a really comprehensive interview with him here, and at the end, 13 practical tips for e-retailers.

Can you tell us about your view on design?

“For me, the concept of design today is so much broader than it was 20 years ago when I first started with design. Design is no longer just graphic design; it’s about an understanding that goes far beyond the graphical. A skilled designer must understand user behavior, front-end development, as well as the technical limitations of platforms and the complexity of systems in order to create a good design solution. Disciplines like psychology are becoming increasingly important, especially for e-commerce, where conversion optimization has long since left behind simple solutions like logical flows and color choices. Structure, text balance, and content management are crucial in design today, as well as an understanding of the importance of the mobile evolution and the changes happening in the thought processes of younger generations.

Unfortunately, very few design agencies have that level of competence today, and that’s also why we see such a huge need for conversion experts and a rise in A/B testing and eye-tracking, to name just a few techniques. We know that in many cases, the design is not optimal, but there are very few people who understand why.”

Can you describe your work?

“My job is very varied, and I work with several different disciplines depending on the project and my role. It includes everything from pure graphic design, UX, conversion optimization, testing, front-end development, and lately, mostly project management and requirements handling. The advantage of working this way is that I get a broader overall perspective of the projects because I have worked with almost every part of the project lifecycle. This means that when I sit down to design a new or existing e-commerce site, for example, I already have the puzzle pieces from a business perspective, a platform perspective, and especially from an e-commerce perspective. This gives me a significant advantage over, for example, pure design agencies that often lack several puzzle pieces.”

How does it work?

“A typical design project for me starts with the client, where I hold one or more workshops. The purpose of these is to capture and understand business needs from various areas such as marketing and IT. Since I often work with larger e-commerce clients, it is important to invite the right people to these meetings, as part of my job is also to capture internal dependencies that may not always be expressed in words but can be observed implicitly during the workshops. Common exercises during these workshops include card sorting to find the right information structure, reviewing collected data in the form of personas if available, and otherwise, Analytics data to see customer journeys and any obstacles in the flow.

Based on this, I look at the technical requirements of the platform to ensure that I am not designing something that will be too expensive to develop (unless I have free rein, which almost never happens). In most cases, I work with Intershop or SAP Hybris, but sometimes it may be an Episerver or Magento solution that I am designing for.

The final step before the design phase is to go through UX and flows to identify where the main focus should be placed. This almost always means that the focus is divided into two main areas: marketing and checkout. By marketing, I mean all components intended to drive traffic through the site. This can range from product sliders to CMS blocks and various types of satellite pages.

Then, I do the actual design, which always starts with the homepage, even though it is the least interesting page on the site, technically speaking. The reason is that the homepage is a good page to showcase the framework, i.e., the header and footer, and it often has several components. This makes it quite easy to get a good overview of the site’s tone, i.e., the site’s “feel” and communication.

After the initial design, several iterations are made with adjustments, where different stakeholders (people with interests such as marketing or SEO) provide feedback until the design is finalized and the work with requirements and implementation can begin.”

What result do you want to achieve to be satisfied?

“For me, there are only two results that interest me: the design must satisfy the client, and it must satisfy the user. This means that I can create a design that gives the client the flexibility they need and the tone that suits their business plan and branding. For the user, it means that the UI and UX are simple and properly adapted so that the graphical experience and functionality are as good as possible.”

How much time do you think one should spend on conversion and design in relation to other aspects of the store?

“It depends a lot on where you are in your business cycle.

If you are just about to start your e-commerce business, I would say to spend a little extra time on design because it will pay off in the long run. It doesn’t have to be anything major, but focus on trust-building elements like trust factors, clear contact information, and spend some time anticipating what customers will ask about the products and answer those questions before you go live. Have good product images and consider things like the left-hand principle and structure according to Gestalt laws. If possible, get help from an SEO consultant and a copywriter so that you get text that works well for SEO and increases conversion. Spend a couple of extra days on design with a conversion expert, and it will pay off in the long term, but you can also do this later if the budget doesn’t allow it at the startup stage.

If you are somewhere in the middle where you are still spending a lot of time positioning yourself as an e-commerce business and setting up your strategies for SEO and marketing, I would say the need for optimization is not very high unless there are big problems that need to be addressed to avoid losing sales. In this phase, I would say work on solving problems rather than optimizing, and spend time and money on positioning yourself and getting your strategies in place. If you have the budget, spend a day or two per month on optimization to identify problems and make small optimizations.

If you are at the later stage of your cycle, where you have had your store, your SEO and marketing strategies are in place, and you have established yourself as an e-commerce business, then conversion optimization is the way to go, especially on mobile if that’s your target audience. Spend as much of your budget as you can on optimization because every percentage point you can increase in sales means your strategies become even more profitable.

I often give a presentation on ROI (return on investment) where I compare conversion optimization and buying traffic. It’s clear that buying traffic for a month is cheaper than buying conversion optimization for a month, but in the long run, conversion optimization gives a 1200% better ROI over a year. So don’t be stingy about where you put your money, make sure you spend it where it’s most beneficial for you.

Generally, I would say that it rarely comes down to graphic design on a site when talking about conversion optimization, but that’s often where people spend their money. Almost all conversion problems are related to UX and copy, with a big exception for trust factors, which shouldn’t be underestimated. The checkout in most projects gets far too little attention when it comes to design, and I also see that this is where a lot of optimization work remains, both in the Nordic countries and internationally.”

What is the first thing you look at when you see a homepage/category page/product page?

“No matter which page I’m looking at, I focus on structure, balance, and focal points.

Structure is crucial for the brain, so a disorganized design, weak header or footer, or uneven listings can disturb the brain’s need for order and structure.

Balance means that the page should be proportionate in terms of content, and the page should be clean without feeling empty, while still containing the necessary information to make the user feel safe and secure.

Focal point means that every page should contain a function that we want the user to perform, and the design should guide the user there through its layout.

The homepage is not really that interesting from a conversion perspective, except for how it functions as an entry point. Here, I focus on navigation and structure, ensuring that trust factors are present, and that the user can easily reach the most important areas of the site.

For category pages and, by extension, search result pages, I focus on presentation and balance. The most relevant items should be displayed early, and the ability to sort and filter should work in an easy and understandable way. The right copy and information should make the product cards focused while still providing enough relevant information for the visitor to proceed with a purchase.

For product pages, presentation and focal point are the most important. Since product pages often serve as landing pages, navigation and understanding where the page fits within the information structure also become significant. The right copy, good product images (preferably with content guidance when hovering over them on desktop), and a clear focus on the purchase action are essential. Don’t overwhelm the user with too much information upfront, but let the visitor access additional details themselves through frontend techniques like hide/show or tabs. The product page has two main purposes: to remove any doubts about whether the product is right for the visitor and to offer them the opportunity to buy the product.”

Can you give some practical advice to e-merchants who are seriously starting to think about what their design does?

1. There are two stakeholders on an e-commerce site: the e-merchant themselves and the visitor. Of these two, it is the visitor who is absolutely the most important, so my first piece of advice is to get to know your visitor. Too many e-merchants think their target audience is everyone between the ages of 15 and 95, but it’s impossible to work towards such a broad audience. Set up and review your analytics tools so they track the most important things on your site, namely customer journeys and especially search. Based on the analysis data, identify the audience you actually have and the problem areas you have in your current design. From that, you can make a plan on how to improve the shopping experience for your visitors, and I recommend you do the exercise of creating a number of so-called personas.

2. Don’t skimp on UX or checkout development. Most drop-offs happen because of lack of clarity or poor UX.

3. Make sure you have good product images. Bad product images create associations that the products are equally bad.

4. Put extra care into the text on your pages. It often has a large impact on both sales and SEO. Anticipate questions that visitors may have and answer them in advance – this reduces bounce rates and customer service inquiries.

5. Although color and tone are important, the structure of the page has an even greater impact. Make sure the page is structurally balanced and that the design is logically grouped. A strong footer and header are a good start and fairly simple to achieve, just like ensuring there is clear spacing between different sections on the page.

6. Make sure to have trust factors clearly visible and highlight who is behind the site and how to contact the company. This builds trust, which in turn increases sales.

7. Control the placement of your products on the pages. If you can control your product placement, try putting the products you want to sell the most on the far left of the product listing. The left-hand principle suggests that visitors choose products furthest to the left, especially on the first and second rows in the list.

8. Take customer service seriously. An angry customer who can be turned around with the right treatment is worth more than any marketing you can do, especially if it’s done publicly. It shows engagement and care, and you’ll get an ambassador who will sell for you as a bonus.

9. The brain is sensitive to time and the risk of missing something. You can use this creatively on your site with good results. Display the number of remaining units of top-selling products or offer free shipping within X minutes, for example, which are relatively simple to implement and have a good impact.

10. Content management can be used in many ways, including through images. A simple mouseover effect, where the person in the image first looks straight ahead to establish contact and then looks towards the focal point (e.g., ‘Add to Cart’) when the mouse hovers over it, helps guide the visitor’s brain in the desired direction.

11. Be clear with the purpose of the pages and make the focal point clear, using color, font size, and highlights. On mobile, it may be beneficial to repeat or lock the focal point on long pages.

12. Experiment. Don’t get stuck on best practices or what everyone else is doing. Experiment as much as you can to find what works for your specific e-commerce.

13. Take advantage of free evaluations. Many companies offer a free evaluation, which may be quite generic since they want you to buy their services later, but it can still provide useful tips, and you’ll have a contact for the future. Some events also offer opportunities to test your site in various ways, so take that opportunity if it’s offered for the same reason.