Personalization, Accessibility, and Trends: The Challenge of Designing E-commerce Experiences for Everyone

By Julia Morer | LinkedIn

If you still think an e-commerce site simply works as a product showcase, you’ve been left behind in the evolution of the digital experience. Today, an e-commerce platform is an interactive system that must attract, guide, support, persuade, and make the experience easy for all users.

In this context, we must keep three essential pillars in mind to design efficient and inclusive digital experiences: personalization, accessibility, and the adoption of the latest UX/UI trends. However, the challenge arises when we seek the right balance among these without compromising platform performance or losing business scalability.

The Importance of Personalization in UX/UI for e-commerce

When people feel comfortable in a space, their likelihood of loyalty and conversion increases more easily. To create a comfortable experience, we must first understand our users; only then can we build a personalized product without an excessive information overload that feels heavy and complex.

Personalization strategies in e-commerce:

• Data-based personalization: by studying browsing behavior and purchase history, we can identify habits and patterns that can be enhanced through the right features. For example: functions to quickly repeat orders.

• Interface personalization: although this is also data-driven, it involves breaking from the platform’s main structure to favor content presentation according to the user. For example: modifying page organization to show first the product categories a given customer is most likely to buy, or highlighting within a product list those items they have purchased before.

• Communication personalization: everything from content and tone to the timing of messages can be adjusted to the user to achieve greater success. For example: different messages if the user is signed in, content related to products they have previously purchased, or items aligned with their interests.

We can look at a practical example our design team at Aktios has faced. For our TOL product, when designing the interface for Product Listing Pages (PLP) with their various product widgets, we decided to develop different modules—or puzzle pieces—so that each client can easily configure their PLP in a way that is personalized both to their business needs and to their audience. All combinations meet communication needs as well as various usability and accessibility principles.

Accessibility:  More Than an Obligation, a Competitive Advantage

With the entry into force of Law 11/2023 transposing European Union directives on accessibility, discussions about accessibility often seem limited to complying with regulations and avoiding penalties. The reality is that an accessible platform is not only legally compliant; it is also more efficient, more usable, and capable of reaching a broader audience.

The design team at Aktios understands that accessibility is essential, and we always ensure that both our standard and the recommendations we provide to our clients follow accessibility criteria.

Why is digital accessibility so essential?

• Regulatory compliance. Today, meeting WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) criteria is not optional—it’s a necessity. To do so, we must have people dedicated to ensuring our product follows accessibility recommendations established by these international criteria, such as guidelines on alternative text, operability with input devices, contrast in the presentation of elements, etc.

• Improved user experience. Working on a product’s accessibility intrinsically means working on its usability, yielding products optimized for all users. For example, when we address the color-contrast visibility criterion, ensuring the minimum contrast recommended benefits people with visual difficulties as well as any other user by improving overall element visibility.

• Greater reach and SEO. Accessible websites are more likely to be easier for search engines to index, achieving a more positive impact. For instance, if we implement alternative text for images, that is content Google can crawl more easily, boosting search ranking.

At Aktios, the focus on accessibility is present in both the design and development teams. We always work in a coordinated manner to ensure product accessibility, providing all necessary guidance for the implementation and go-live of the designs.

UX/UI Trends in E-commerce: What’s Ahead in the Coming Years?

Digital experience design is not static, nor will it wait for you to catch up; it’s important to stay current to enjoy a modern, attractive, and functional platform. Predicting long-term trends is an art, but in the short term we can already sketch a few:

1. Frictionless experiences. We know customers want immediacy, and every extra click or unnecessary form increases the likelihood of abandonment. Let’s make it easy: one-step checkouts, simplified payment systems, or more accurate search predictions.

2. Seamlessly integrated omnichannel experiences. Customers expect continuity between physical and digital channels, as well as across devices. We should therefore design experiences that consider the entire service and its touchpoints. For example: how a user can activate grocery discount coupons on their phone and have them apply directly to their online purchases from a computer or their in-store purchases.

3. Applied artificial intelligence. AI is proving truly effective in personalizing the experience in areas such as advanced search and recommendation engines, or virtual assistants with greater power and answer quality.

4. Digital sustainability. Web performance optimization is no longer just a technical issue; it’s also a matter of sustainability, since lower weight implies greater efficiency and fewer resources. Some practices we can adopt include: optimized images and videos, more energy-efficient servers, and lighter designs to improve load times.

We have already incorporated these trends at Aktios, where we have faced the integration of search engines capable of understanding natural language without placing barriers or restrictions on the search terms users employ. These engines interpret the user’s real need and offer relevant products without requiring investment in synonym configuration.

In a real case, this search engine allows a user planning a barbecue with family to find not only products that contain “barbecue” in their name or description (such as barbecue sauces or barbecue kits), but also related and recommended items for their need (such as drinks to accompany the barbecue, different meats, fish or vegetables, snacks, etc.).

The Challenge: Designing Balanced and Scalable Experiences

The real challenge lies in finding balance without harming efficiency or scalability. It’s not about implementing every trend at once, nor about focusing solely on accessibility without looking beyond. It’s about building a solid, adaptable foundation that can evolve over time. At Aktios, we aim to make a difference by facilitating the development and maintenance of our digital platform so that experience-design challenges do not become obstacles.

Committing to our platform with models that combine personalization, accessibility, and trends is a long-term strategy. Would you like us to help you improve your digital channel with these key points?