08 Feb 2007 0939H

In re Shopping Bag aka Bag v. Shopping Cart aka Cart, et al.

Flaunting nearly a decade of convention and training of millions of users to align around the term shopping cart, retailers among the fashion industry are now secretly trying to subvert this practice and replace the hard-won “cart” with the disparaged “shopping bag.” They cannot be allowed to succeed. Dispatch user experience agents into the field immediately to stop the advance of the Bag!

Though we had thought this issue vanquished like some ancient enemy, at the climax of the web wars fought during the end of the last century, the bag convention is gaining adherents for a number of reasons. To begin with, the shopping bag reflects and extends the more powerful and well-known brand usually associated with the fashion retailer, such as Bloomingdale’s famous Brown Bags, or the tiny blue Tiffany’s bag, and is now, mercifully, usually located in the top right along with the other user functions. This location, coupled with the generally larger type sizes and icons used in place of the cart, create affordances that generally overcome the problems associated with calling the cart a “bag.”

However, the mental model is still incorrect: one places things into a shopping bag only AFTER the shopping process is complete. To put items into a shopping bag during your shopping visit, saying you’ll eventually get around to paying for them, generally earns you a visit with the store’s loss prevention specialist.

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