Using Interactive Elements to Improve the Shopping Experience

Welcome to Content Corner, where we share ideas, processes and features we’re working on. This is about getting creative, improving what we do and sharing the reasons behind why we do it.

This week our post will focus on interactive content, specifically a new implementation we’ve developed for use across our content called ‘Hot Spots’ and covering some in-market examples of how this form of content works.

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What is interactive content? 

‍Interactive content is a part of a webpage that prompts active engagement. This content urges the online shopper to interact with it, whether that is clicking elements, watching moving parts or reading along as the messaging changes. ‍

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Implementing Hot Spots

‍With this in mind, let’s talk about our new interactive call-out content called Hot Spots. Created as a way to differentiate and cut through the crowded market, Hot Spots are designed to provide a better user experience by creating a broader, interactive platform on individual products for the customer to understand what they’re buying.

Hot Spots allow us to overlay interactive buttons over a product image in order to call out points of interest or reasons to buy. Here is an example in action below, taken from Corsair’s M55 Gaming Mouse. As you can see, we’ve called out specific elements like the plug-and-play and RGB lighting features. Addressing these key selling features gives a brand like Corsair more chances to impact the customers purchase decision while providing something different from the norm. Hot Spot’s excel in condensing a lot of information into one element, which can be drawn from if the customer wants to interact with it.‍

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Hot Spots in Action

‍For example, we can cover 6 features, within the space utilised to cover one and only show that feature when the user expresses interest in it. Otherwise, laying out those 6 features would only be possible in a long format implementation. Content real-estate is king, and the risk of losing the shopper is too great.

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Building New Content

‍So, where does Hot Spots fit among our brands? Implementation was designed to suit peripheral products such as mice and keyboards, but in practice we’ve learned that Hot Spots also match up well with devices that a customer will interface with regularly (ie. phones, laptops, monitors and headphones). We’ll continue to utilise this as a new feature across our future designs aiming to provide a unique shopping experience and as always, more reasons for consumers to keep browsing the page.‍

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Quick Read:

• In a crowded market, brands need ways to cut through the crowd.
• Interactive content provides a platform to differentiate and to sell more.
• Hot Spots are highlight icons that sit on top of product images. These icons can be interacted with to show specific features or reasons to buy.
• We’re implementing Hot Spots across our designs to effectively utilise on-screen real estate during the online shopping experience, and to help drive the purchase decision.
• This allows us to condense a lot of information into one element, called out only when the customer wants it. Most importantly, this avoids feature bloat or the customer feeling overwhelmed.

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