Why hiding the shopping cart icon when empty makes sense
In the world of e-commerce, every pixel on your website has the potential to impact the user experience. One design consideration that often escapes immediate attention is the shopping cart icon. While it's a staple of online shopping, have you ever thought about why you might want to hide it when the cart is empty? Let's delve into the rationale behind this subtle yet impactful design choice.
Aesthetics and Minimalism: An empty shopping cart icon can clutter the interface, detracting from the overall visual appeal. By hiding it when empty, you contribute to a cleaner and more minimalist design, enhancing the aesthetic charm of your website.
Focused Shopping Experience: A visible empty cart icon may inadvertently shift the user's focus towards the fact that there's nothing in their cart yet. By concealing the icon, you encourage visitors to explore your product offerings without distraction, potentially leading to more browsing and purchases.
Reducing Cognitive Load: Users appreciate simplicity. Hiding an empty cart icon reduces cognitive load by eliminating unnecessary visual elements, allowing users to concentrate on what truly matters – finding products and making informed decisions.
Contextual Relevance: A cart icon typically signifies an ongoing shopping session. An empty cart icon, in contrast, is contextually irrelevant until a user starts adding items. Hiding it until there's something in the cart makes it more meaningful and functional.
Encouraging Action: A hidden empty cart icon can act as a subtle prompt. Once users add items to their cart, revealing the cart icon signals progression and subtly encourages them to proceed to checkout, aligning with the natural flow of the shopping journey.
Mobile Responsiveness: On mobile devices, screen real estate is even more precious. Hiding the empty cart icon makes better use of limited space, allowing other critical elements to occupy the forefront, enhancing the mobile user experience.
Customization and User Control: Hiding the cart icon offers you the opportunity to create a more personalized experience. You can choose when and how the cart icon appears, allowing you to tailor it to user behavior and preferences.
Elegance in User Interaction: Design is about creating a seamless and delightful interaction. When the cart icon appears only when it's relevant, it adds a touch of elegance to your website, showcasing thoughtful design and attention to detail.
Emotional Impact: An empty cart icon can inadvertently evoke negative emotions associated with "emptiness." By showing the icon only when it serves a purpose, you create a more positive emotional experience for your users.
Emphasis on Meaningful Actions: Hiding the empty cart icon emphasizes meaningful interactions. It's a user-centric approach that ensures every element on your site has a role to play, enhancing engagement and, ultimately, conversion rates.
Conclusion
In the world of design, often, the most subtle changes can yield the most significant results. By choosing to hide the shopping cart icon when empty, you're demonstrating a commitment to crafting an exceptional user experience that's intuitive, elegant, and focused on user needs. Remember, every element on your website should serve a purpose, contributing to a seamless journey that guides users toward conversion. You can look at our other blog on How to hide shopping cart icon when cart is empty.
If you have any questions or need any help with your Squarespace website design, you can book a 1:1 consultation.
All work in this guide is provided ?“AS IS”. Other than as provided in this agreement, this guide makes no other warranties, express or implied, and hereby disclaims all implied warranties, including any warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.
If you require professional advice, we recommend that you purchase the services of a developer.
