Intro & session setup And we are back folks uh with yet another panel discussion in this day one of Prepathon 2025. The previous activity was was good. I mean I was expecting uh some tricky questions but I think you guys tackled it very well and you guys were fast as well. So congratulations on that. So now we have another panel discussion. The topic for which is uh yeah so the so the topic for which is for which is less is more minimal UX for better e-commerce results and for that I have two amazing guests with me. Uh the first one is Resis Res and then we have uh we have Bogdan. So thank you so much for for being here Resis and and Bogdan. Uh it’s a pleasure to have you both on Prepathon Why minimal UX beats cluttered flows this year. Uh and uh what do you think what what do you think about the Prepathon? How are you liking it? And how does it feel to be here? Oh uh hi everyone. Yeah, what I love is is I was joining and and looking at the at the what is happening in chat and uh I think that the fact that there is like real conversations going on and people are actively participating this this kind of shows that that the topics are really relevant and and people are really interested in in how to how to improve their products, how to make e-commerce work better. All right. Bogdan, you want to say a few words before we get into the questions and and the panel discussion? Hey, hey everyone. Thank you for uh for the invite. I’m glad to be here and talking to you guys. It’s uh it’s been quite quite fun to to to see this the event and also the the crosswords puzzle. I’m not good at it. I I didn’t guess anything. So yeah, maybe next time I’ll be better prepared. So yeah, thanks uh thanks for the invite and I’m I’m I I’m sure we will have a great discussion today. All right, I I I can see a lot of people are already hyped for this session. Uh Savv says that he loves WB bakery is your product. Uh Philip says that you know he loves uh he loved this the topic itself. Uh UX obviously is is such a stickler for many companies I think uh that that they work with. Uh and then Sandy B says you know they’re going to be glued for this session. So so a lot of people Fati says that he loves this topic and he’s been looking forward to this one since the beginning. So a lot of people are already hyped up for this session. So without any further ado let’s really get into it and start off with the with the question. So Rus and and Pogdan. So since this this topic and this session is about UX and how to get you know how to get more uh out of your out of your e-commerce stores. So my first question is how does a minimal UX directly impact conversion rates and checkout completions compared to feature heavy design? I mean we we come across e-commerce stores where where where Gen Z attention & visual cues over long text there are there are so many prompts and you know heavy menus and and you know busy product pages and then we see minimal stores with just you know a good product picture minimal on the on the text and then a very good compelling CDA. So, how does a minimal UX directly impact conversion rates? Bogdan, if you want to go first on this one. Uh, sure. Um, I think this part of minimal UIX will probably not apply to all to every store out there. Maybe some stores, maybe the Amazons of the world will need more than a minimal UIX. But for most stores right now that we as as designers and builders are doing, I think minimal UIX is very important to focus on the conversion path. Don’t add anything an extra button, an extra banner, sort some sorts of popups that will just make the users pause or question or maybe click away not knowing what to do. very simple hierarchy with a funnel focused on on on the checkout and the conversion path. It’s very simple, stripped away from the non-essentials. And I think this is this is what what people are are hoping to to find in a in a store. And um for for example, I’ve just ordered something a few days ago and between the product page where I clicked to add to cart and uh go to checkout, there was an extra page which kind of got on my nerves because it said something like uh are you sure you don’t want this other products that go well with your product? And that kind of annoyed me and I wanted to just click away and then not do anything because the the next button to go to the checkout to the effective checkout was kind of hidden and I I didn’t like that one and I thought did this page really Mobile-first must-haves do something for me or just annoy me. So u I think stuff like that that you try to upsell and you try to do is maybe useful in some cases but if your brand is something that needs a minimal design something very cool something typography based mostly and contrasty I think those types of distractions are not are not the way to go. Awesome rate uh your thoughts. Yeah. Well, first of all, I took my pen, you know, to to document what Bakup has to say because uh actually during the panels, it seems like we we are experts. We come to the panel, but uh during the discussion, you kind of uncover usually some some interesting things, interesting thoughts that you just write down. So, uh I I very agree with Bogdan on the distractions. So we are living in in in in society where there are really short those attention spans. You you need to grab attention within within you know few seconds and and keep that attention. So look at how how you know kids and young younger people using social media. Yeah. So it’s this habit of scrolling switching liking. Yeah. So uh the same rules basically apply to e-commerce. So if you kind of introduce a lot of elements, a lot of distraction, it takes the attention away from uh u the the main goal the conversion pass. Yes. And uh while you know there are cases also I think Bogdan mentioned Amazon. Yeah. Which is a bit different. But uh you usually when people think about e-commerce you initially start to think okay that’s Amazon that those kind of things but uh all the microtransactions all those uh services and and so on. So this is also e-commerce and there that grabbing the attention is extremely important to make sure that you know p people make that micro microtransaction to purchase some credits. So this is where that minimal UX is extremely important. Awesome. Uh moving on to the next question. It’s more about you know it’s it’s more about you know the less is more the topic. The topic itself I mean why is less is more such an effective Biggest friction points (discovery, checkout surprises, choice overload) principle in e-commerce UX especially for today’s generation of buyers? I mean if you talk about the Gen Z’s the younger people right this you mentioned it yourself in in your answer that you know they have a shorter attention span so apart from that why is why is less is more such an effective principle in e-commerce UX considering that that group of uh of buyers that are still young that that are still you know in that stage where they’re sort of earning uh their their buying power and you know moving up that stage maybe I can Yeah, continue uh as as you mentioned, excuse me. So, first of all, that’s that’s a habit of of young people and uh well, less is more is not really that new concept. It has been in UX for for a long time. Yeah. Uh I think I heard that somewhere around 15 years ago, people talking about it, but again, that’s when I heard it. Yeah. uh I think that if you are able to uh provide that user experience to the customers that uh basically allow them to quickly make a purchase instantly without any effort uh you secure that customer as as a loyal customer. So in fact uh if there is no uh any obstacles and everyone is happy at the end of the deal there is a way higher chance that uh that customer will come back and we are talking again about the product for the subscription services that’s a completely different story again you need to make sure that there it’s extremely easy to to purchase those things. Yeah. So and and extremely easy to use the product and so on. So uh make sure that people don’t churn because we all know that your customer uh cost per uh customer acquisition is is way higher comparing to keeping the existing customers. Yeah. And on top of that, I fully agree the these generations, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, you need to be careful not to annoy them with anything, not not add extra stuff that’s not useful because they are not used to this kind of distractions and maybe not like myself as a millennial, I’m used to maybe reading a bit more, maybe studying a bit more of some stuff. Nowadays with Tik Tok, you just scroll scroll. If you don’t find something in three seconds, it’s it’s gone. So basically the UX for e-commerce right now needs to be very smooth and make make the process super simple, not go overboard with text. Maybe use more uh visual cues, imagery, stuff like that that’s useful for them or video or some sorts of five seconds showing the product in in some way that completes the the details for them without having to read three paragraphs of text, you know. So with them, with these generations and maybe with us, we don’t have the the time anymore to study and to spend. We are all busy of course and making it simple without jumping through hoops is is something that I think every every website in general should have and especially with e-commerce where you need to just buy something quickly. Awesome. Uh let’s move on to the next question and it’s about mobile first, right? I mean in a mobile first world, what minimal UX elements are absolutely non-negotiable for e-commerce stores? Storytelling without the bloat (microcopy, badges, short video) I mean, you can or Yeah, I can I can go first because I’ve recently designed something for for an e-commerce shop and uh I think in mobile the the add to cart button needs to be I don’t know, maybe even sticky in in the product page. Let’s say when you scroll something with some something like the details, but maybe in the bottom you need the add toart button so you don’t need to find it again. These are these are stuff that maybe um increases your your conversions. Also, the search in the in the mobile app needs to probably be um visual. I I think I I’ve seen something recently with some um results when I’ve searched something showing the the actual thumbnails of the products and the small text instead of just text like lines of text where you maybe don’t know you kind of don’t tap right between only in the text maybe do it like a bigger stuff these are cues and UX and UI that’s really helpful with with e-commerce, make them bigger, make the products that are in the search more visible. Also, the navigation needs to be super simple with mobile. The the hamburger menu doesn’t need to have like super uh involved categories or stuff like that. Maybe four or five items like home, shop, cart, and the count, something like that, you know. And of course, as usual, large clickable CTAs, so you can just go there. So I I think these are some of the the the elements that should be very very optimized for uh for e-commerce in in mobile mobile first world. Awesome. Right. You would like to share your thoughts on this one? Uh if we are yeah like very very specific. I would maybe even add like voice control. It’s like something like uh a crazy idea because uh we see that people start to use that more often. Yeah, we will probably touch somewhere the the elephant in the room, the AI. Metrics & testing (TtC, CSAT, Hotjar/Clarity, A/B ideas) Yeah, but uh yeah, voice control gets bigger. And uh I would maybe even rephrase the question is it’s not about like you know like the you need to build up the elements that uh you must have. It’s vice versa. Yes. Uh I think this was the quote that uh uh the good uh user interface is not when you uh add more things but when there is nothing that you can take away. Yes, that’s it. you’re left with the very basics and I think for the mobile first we are talking about the you need to have only the very basics because as Bogdan said things need to be big and they need to be big for you know better better experience so it’s easier to click the very basic information with an easy option of course to you know go as deep as you want and discover things but very basic functions yes so that’s that’s a fast. So, and this is this is where we talked that mobile first is definitely like minimalistic user experience. Mhm. Got it. Very insightful. And uh before I move on to my next question, I just want to jump into the comments and see what people have said and asked so far. So, let’s let’s see what they have to say. So, Sor is sort of sharing his love for atheist. Uh he he uses uh WP bakery for his website. Thank you so much for sharing that thought. uh sort of uh Amelia has a question. So, does this helps the user achieve the primary goal? If I remove it, what happens? Uh Amelia, if you can be more specific about about your question, I mean, you can obviously follow up on this one in the comment section and obviously we can we can take it then and answer it more properly. Curtis has a question. So, the UX is substantially affected by the images seen along the UX. Do you have a tool or sources on where we might obtain images that can be used during the UX? Uh, Reus, if you want to take this or Bogdan, if you want to cater to this one. I’m not sure what Curtis is uh referring to, but um maybe he um refers to not overloading the the user experience with with too many images, but as a tool or sources, I’m I’m not sure about this. It’s I think with the images, it’s uh it’s definitely you need to use the images only if you really need them. Yeah. So uh you don’t really solve uh user experience things with with images. Yeah. So in in especially in minimalistic images are and e-commerce Q&A: Images in minimal UX they are serving specific uh thing. Yes. So basically to showcase the product in most of the cases those are the only images that you have everything rest of course like we we use pictograms uh icons those kind of things but they are to complement usually text so yeah what what I maybe I’d say here even though maybe it’s not about this question is not about it sometimes when you need to say something regarding your product maybe you can use an image for example what I’ve seen in recently or is for quite some time. Instead of saying this product has been uh ecologically sourced materials or something like that, you might use a badge of some sort of eco-friendly in green or something like that without having to write a paragraph of text saying this was eosourced. you know, maybe add a badge, maybe add something visual that in in a few um in an inch of of real estate space, it it kind of conveys the the purpose of your of your idea. So, this might also mean a minimal UX and uh and people will will notice it, but will not have to read a paragraph of text. So maybe this some this is an idea with images that can can go and help the UX Q&A: Tabbed checkout (how many steps is “too many”?) without being overwhelming or yeah something like that. Awesome. Thank you Curtis for that question. Uh obviously if if you think that this has been answered you can uh if if you think that this hasn’t been answered yet I mean you can obviously follow up on the question and ask it again in the comment section. Thank you so much for for the answer on this one and and writers. Let’s let’s go back to our panel questions and I just want to touch on the point of friction points. I mean where do you see the most friction points in today’s e-commerce stores and how do you think the minimal uh the minimal UX concept can solve them? I I think the the the friction point is either in product discovery, maybe it’s hard to find the product, maybe your search is not good enough, maybe the the structure of your categories maybe are too deep. I I think two levels maximum of hierarchy like a main category and a subcategory and that’s it. If you go, of course, there are websites that need to go deeper and I think that’s not our discussion here, but for most stores, not going too far with the with with the structure of your website and stuff like that might mean an easier product discovery, which is is is good and stops this friction point. And also I think that the the cart and checkout uh um page needs to be very clear and and maybe you you don’t want to see unexpected costs like extra shipping taxes or VAT here in Europe or stuff Key takeaways & close like that versus what you’ve seen in the in the product page. that creates a friction and and the and the negative idea that I’ve kind of been tricked into going here and buying stuff and this part of uh I think full full pricing transparency should be should be the key here and it reduces the friction between I think in my mind this is very important to what you see is what you will pay. So yeah. Yeah, I agree with with Bogdan and basically Bogdan started from the top and and slowly down the funnel. So uh um the transparency the transparency is definitely in many cases an issue. So what what Bogdan mentioned about the prices? Yes. So people check check an average the data of an average e-commerce website. you will see that there are a lot of people just leaving the website at the check off process. Yeah. And there are basically two things usually the reason for that is basically uh the the pro the transparency with the pricing. So different taxes being added and and and different other costs. Yeah. Or or very uh how to say pushy upselling. Yeah. This is this is also this creates uh negativity. Yeah. uh we in the European Union for example being transparent with the with the prices is a bit tricky because we need to calculate that and and basically before we that’s a chicken and egg problem. So you don’t want you you cannot uh provide a final price before you uh you kind of know where the user is from. So but to know where user is from you should kind of ask the user to register. Of course you can determinate you know by IP and and so on but uh that’s not 100% precise. Yeah. There are especially now that you know we are a lot of us are the digital nomads. Yes. So you you never know where you’re coming from where what payment method you’re using and so on. And the second is is is the payment process itself. So this is where the problem uh also usually comes to the light. So you basically need to make sure that is extremely easy for uh people to pay. Mhm. Yeah. I’m already giving you money. So make sure that it’s not a problem for me to give you money. Yeah. And also on on this one, I have a small example that kind of shocked me when I’ve seen it. And uh we we’ve built a store for um for a partner of ours and they wanted four shipping uh four shipping methods in their um or providers very similar but four different ones for some reason. They they wanted that and we built it and we’ve seen that many people didn’t know what to do there and kind of stumbled between the differences. the pricing with shipping wasn’t that that much and it it didn’t really make sense to have four of them when they were super similar. And we’ve seen some friction there and we said let’s just put one or two maximum two and that was sped up the the the checkout quite significantly and we thought we never thought of that but uh because sometimes too many choices when they are very similar makes um how is it called? It’s a it’s a problem when you don’t know what to choose basically. It’s Yeah, it’s a analysis paralysis or something like that. Choice paralysis. You don’t know what to choose and you you close the the tab and you go away. So that’s quite tricky. Too many too many options. So that that might be a friction point. and just be certain that you have two or maybe one if it’s the the greatest option you you want for your users and just put put the the option for sure for shipping there there is this usability uh standard not the standard but recommendation I think it was u correct me if I’m wrong something like seven items like that’s that’s what people are ready to accept yeah so yeah seven it’s it’s the choice you know the color choice or or or variation the menu for example as well. Yeah, the categories if it’s more it’s it’s harder. Mhm. Awesome. Uh I want to sort of also touch on the fact that a lot of e-commerce stores tend to have this uh this storytelling that might get compromised when they when they implement uh the minimal UX principle. How can they tackle that? How can they make sure that they that they keep on implementing this minimal UX strategy for their e-commerce stores while they also keep intact that branding element and that and that storytelling element within their e-commerce store as well so that there is no tradeoff. Well, I think that uh your brand needs to grow with the technologies and with the time. So you it can be the case when hey we developed you know our story and brand like you know 10 years ago and keep on telling it the same way. Yes it’s the same story but uh you know people carved things on stone. Yes. Then they discovered paper. Uh now we are watching movies. Yes. So this the same thing happens here. So new technologies, new methodologies, frameworks, ideas that also transforms the way how you deliver your message. Mhm. You need to adjust it. Yeah. So make sure that you have a specific brand directions describe for for your e-commerce platform. Yeah. And talking about storytelling, storytelling shouldn’t be a 500 word paragraph in you might do that with an image or with a short video, you know. So basically brands need to adapt to this very visual and uh sped up world that we’re living. So maybe just do something uh for for your users uh that’s minimalistic and conveys the the idea. also maybe use microcopy which could be like a line of text based on your um on your brand identity and stuff like that. And uh I think this is very powerful when you when you personalize it towards the the user. For example, I had some while ago a very cool um uh email from uh from um jeans brand that I I wanted to buy some jeans for example and I put them in the in the shopping cart and left them there for a few days and suddenly the an email came back and said uh you’ve got great taste book then you but you’ve left the jeans in the bag and some some sort of that but that that line where it said, “You’ve got great taste, Bogdan.” Of course, I I knew it was something generic and every product of theirs were was something cool that it says about me that I have great taste. I immediately understood what they did there and they personalized it with my name in there in the email, but I liked it and I said, “Yeah, maybe I’ll click this one because you guys did a great job with the microcopy and it got my attention. You’ve got great taste book then.” super simple, but instead they could have written a twoline paragraph that you forgot this item that is still in your shopping bag for five hours or so. I wouldn’t have clicked on that, you know. So it it makes all the difference how you how you do this microcopy and personalization and storytelling like the the brand was this type of of out there and more more uh I don’t know friendly and not super corporate and it it fit their brand perfectly that line you’ve got great come and get your jeans or something like that super nice and I think this is minimalistical approach quite works quite nice and the big brands are doing that for years. Yeah, just do it. Yes. Yeah, that’s that’s an excellent example. So yeah, really really nice point work done on on the microcopy and then the example was was very nice. I think I think that is something that we can we can take away we can really take away from from this session is that you know using microcopying using those little tiny sentences and it actually worked because I bought those that pair of jeans there is this joke which probably reflects what Bogdan just said it’s like user interface is like a joke if you cannot if you have to explain it it’s not that good so the same basically uh refers to your uh brand story. If you’re not able to tell your brand story in a short way, well, maybe you are doing it in a bit wrong way. So, you try to reconsider basically. Mhm. Awesome. U so let’s move on to matrix, right? I mean, how do you what’s your approach to testing minimal UX decisions and are there metrics beyond bounce rate and conversions that actually matter? I I think conversion is the the most important one. You need to keep keep an eye on conversions and uh then and maybe on the on the speed of the user journey like from when they got to your website to how much time they are spending which is not not necessarily bad if they are spending a lot of time but if they’re spending a lot of time and not going to the checkout and completion that’s a problem. time to completion. If it’s fast, the lower the better. The minimal UIX will will help with that for sure. And uh, of course, the website speed needs to be fast. Everything in there should be working perfectly, not missing uh clicks on buttons or stuff like that with of course. But I think this time time to time to check out time to completion from where they get to the landing page or the product page or whatever even homepage to the the final one should be interesting to to go and and find how you can improve that that stuff you know on the with user experience is usually yeah it’s it feels hey it’s a bit hard to measure uh on the emotional side what uh what I see that many brands are not really using is uh customer satisfaction rate so with customer satisfaction rate instantly people think okay well should I use it only at the end of the conversion not necessarily it’s like the idea of the customer satisfaction right is that uh you apply it to a certain pass and then at the end you ask user like how satisfied you are how quickly easy it was to complete that certain task and this is the this is the way how you can basically measure c certain pass within your e-commerce process. So that would be that would give a bit of of if we’re talking that uh time to conversion what we basically named all those are quantitative metrics. Yeah. So with uh customer satisfaction rate we are talking a bit of uh you know quality metrics a bit different and of course uh such things as as you know manual uh screen analysis we have plenty of tools like hot jar. Yes. Or or Microsoft had that clarity thing. Yeah. So that’s that’s also the way how to basically measure things. Yep. Yeah. Exactly. Awesome. Uh let’s let’s again dive into the comments and see and see if people have any questions for for Bogdan and and and write it. So Marvin Marvin here asks that is tab based checkout like cart address and then check out is it a good minimal UX practice? I mean it’s is it something that you guys would would recommend? No. I’m I’m not a fan of tabs to be honest. Um m maybe if by tabs you are referring to something that’s on the screen and you will get to them via next next. Yeah, that that that’s probably a good thing to let the user know that there are a couple more steps into this process. That’s very good. Um and I think it helps. But don’t go into the idea that you’ll need five steps to to complete this. Just make it as simple as possible. If it doesn’t require three steps, do it in two. Do it in one. Why not? You don’t need extra steps just because it looks nice in a in a UI sort of style, minimalistic style just to have three steps. Why? Why the three steps? I’ve seen the best cards that I’ve seen are just one step and mostly click click. I’ve I’ve set it up. they they already know my um my account and I’m I’m off. Not necessarily. Just log in, then go into the shipping, then go into the billing address, then into the whatever. Don’t go that way. Maybe it’s more information in a single page, but do it in a way that just doesn’t require five steps. That’s that’s my opinion at least. Yeah. Uh so the question is probably also like what do you have in those steps? Yes, it’s also important. Uh it can be it can be one step, it can be uh three steps, five steps at any number of steps. You can definitely go wrong how you display information within those steps. So that’s that’s something to consider. Uh but uh I’m maybe not that strict about the steps. Of course, I I think if I would see like plenty of steps, that would scare me a bit. But if you still want to use steps and and you have it because of some some specific reasons, then uh making that clear how many steps there are is is probably very very important because uh that’s that’s one of the probably what what we skipped on the frictions is uncertainty. Yeah. So will I end that process now? Yes. So uh how fast how what’s happen next? What is going to happen when I click this button? Am I going to the next step or are my card being charged or what? Yeah. And also this could be AB tested like trying a few a few weeks a few months with with the address in between because I’ve I’ve actually just seen Marvin’s question which was cart address and checkout which makes sense maybe the address is not an not a mandatory step which could be maybe included in the checkout part. The cart is obviously something that needs to be to be its own separate stuff, but maybe you could try without the address step in the in the middle. Just include it maybe in the checkout and do it simpler like that. It’s I I don’t think it’s a problem necessarily, but it adds a bit of a a bit of clicks. But as uh as writer said, if you make it clear and it’s obvious that this is you’re at step this step and you only have another step, that’s perfect. As long as you know that the journey is two or maybe three steps. Awesome. Uh thank you so much and Bogdan. With that we can conclude this this panel discussion. I think it was it was really insightful. I think this was one of the best sessions that we have that we have had today. I think a lot of people in in the chat uh will share that opinion as well because they were already looking forward to to this session because of the topic and obviously because of of the guest speakers that we had that we had today in this panel discussion. So thank you thank you raises for your time. Thank you Bogdan for for being here uh and being part of the prepon. Before I before I let you guys go, just wanted to know your few words on how do you think about the propathon, about this event. Uh and if you have any if you have any few words to say about this online event. Well, first of all, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Uh I I love the energy that is that is happening around. I also want to thank Bogdan. So uh well first of all we look alike a little bit to be fair. Yes that’s that’s the fact number one and and and I think yeah I I really enjoyed the discussion you know uh love the ideas that that Bogan shared and I truly hope that you know the few things that that we managed to share in this time uh may help some of the people to improve their websites. I think that’s that’s the main goal. Yeah. Yeah. Congrats on the event. It’s it’s a great idea, an amazing idea and yeah should everyone should take take a look at the sessions and the panels. It’s it’s quite nice and I think this discussions about web in general and stuff like that just brings ideas and then works for people that want to build more and know more and find out other people’s ideas and where are we going? Where is it? Even with this minimal stuff, with the AI, probably with everything that’s going in the world, there’s so much noise, there’s so much so many opinions. Sometimes the opinions in the I don’t know in the social media might be a bit uh skewed towards some people’s interest or stuff like that. I think here at this event, it’s quite nice. You can hear people’s actual thoughts about stuff and products and experiences and and the web. So you guys are doing a great job and thank you everyone for listening to to us for for more than half an hour. Thanks. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you Bdan for for those kind of words and obviously for for being here and being part of our online event. Uh uh as as for the audience who are watching don’t go away because in the next session we are going to be auditing online stores live on stage. So uh at the start of the day we asked a few people to send over their online stores if they wanted to be audited and we got a few and we are going to be auditing them in the next session with a UX expert from Digital Ocean. So, make sure to stick around especially those who submitted your online stores who submitted their online stores in the comment section because you would want to know uh if you have any improvements in your online store if you want if you have any any things that you can that you can work on to make it more successful and more profitable. So, stick around. We will be back in just a few minutes.