New Versions vs. Incremental Updates

Just over a week ago, I announced on this blog a new version of Compare Book. I indicated that this was not a major "point release", or a complete rewrite of the site. For those of you at home who are keeping track, we internally migrated the site from version 2.0 to version 2.1.

Keeping track of a web site's version can be a tricky task. Unlike traditional software, which is released into the wild, and then for the most part, left to fend for itself, websites are constantly being adjusted. Not a day goes by without a tweak here, and a rewrite there. Earlier this week, our entire ajax link conversion system was completely replaced. That's a major piece of our functionality; without it you wouldn't see all the cool page slides and effects. However, this change did not result in a "new version" of the site- not even a minor one.

So today's muse is how one determines when a new version of a website has been released, and when a change is just part of the regular process.

Major version changes are easy to gauge - if the site looks completely different than it did before, it's a totally new version. I think most people would agree with that. But often times, a new version of a website will include more than just a new skin. When we rolled out version 2 of Compare Book, it included a completely rewritten front and back-end. Not only did the user interface look and work differently, but the behind the scene functionality of collecting prices from bookstores was brand new as well.

Minor versions are much trickier. We decided to deem this most recent roll out a new minor version because it included a grab-bag of changes and updates. A lot of what appears to be new functionality actually already existed inside our Bookshelf tool; we were just bringing it to the forefront. More on that in a later post.

The good news is that, as referenced above, these version numbers are almost exclusively internal numbers. If we arbitrarily decide to deem our site at version 7.5, it wouldn't make much difference.

But maybe it would give me something to blog about.

Small Change, Big Effect

Today I want to feature one of the smallest change we have made to Compare Book. I'm doing this, not because I don't have any big changes to show off (because believe me- I do), but because it demonstrates something I want to chat about later-on.

The change has to do with how we display the lowest new and used prices for a given book. Unlike any other price comparison site that I know of, we made the conscience decision to display only the lowest new and used price. Other sites display every single price they find in a large table. While this does present the user with a plethora of options, our research demonstrated that this was just clutter to the user, and did not result in much value. As the old saying goes: "less is more".

Before:


Above you can see the old version of the price summary display. It starts by identifying the book's condition (new or used) in a nice, big, red font. This is followed by the book's price and shipping cost, which is then totaled in an even bigger, red font. We then show the user the percent they are saving. Finally, we display the bookstore who is offering this low price, and give the user a buy button.

Seems pretty straight forward... and for the most part, it is. All the important information a user needs to make a buying decision is presented in a clean and simple format. We didn't have too many problems with this design, which is why (as you will notice below), we didn't change much.

After:


And here is the "after" design (the design you will see if you visit Compare Book right now). Can you spot the difference? It's subtle. We removed the larger font from the new/used text, and placed it on the book price text. This effectively down plays the book's condition, and focuses on the book's price.

I told you it was a small change.

So, now on to the "why's". Initially we left the book price small, because we reasoned the real price a visitor needed to see was the total price. After all, the total price is the amount which will show up on their credit card statement. That is the price that really makes one book cheaper than another. It seemed to make sense.

However, reality is not often a big fan of what we reason. Our usability studies taught us that we need to place the book's price, before shipping and handling, front and center. Why? Because the book's price is what the user will see as soon as they click on the buy button. Most bookstores do not display the total price until after you have added the book into your cart. If a user leaves our site expecting to see $14.10, but ends up with a price of $13.13, they will feel confused. True, they will see a lower price, and one might be tempted to think this lower price will just fill the user with happiness, and ensure their purchase. However, our research has demonstrated the opposite. When the user becomes confused by a different price - even a lower price - they will then doubt our service, and take their business elsewhere.

And that is bad.

Which is why we fixed it.