Our latest Design Lab was all about tough love for better design. We analyzed a handful of major retail sites, breaking down all of the design don’ts, functionality fails, and Fastr Frontend fixes that make for better UX and stunning homepages, product listing pages, and product detail pages.

What were the most crucial dos and dont's discussed in our Design Lab Roast? Jump down to the summary for the key takeaways.

What brands were in the line of fire? What impressive content did we toast? What not-so-hot examples did we roast? Watch the workshop recording below. 

Homepage Dos & Don'ts

DON'T:

• Clutter your nav bar: Keep it clean and simple to guide, not overwhelm.
  

• Assume bigger is better: Giant images = longer scrolls = lost attention.

DO:

• Maximize "above the fold" space: Let your best content shine.
  

• Use a sticky nav bar: Shoppers should be able to roam but never feel lost.

• Add a clear search bar: Let focused shoppers find what they want, fast.
  

• Inspire with lifestyle imagery: Make them want to shop. See the benefits of different image types
  

• Make images shoppable: Hotspots & CTAs like “Shop the Room” that open quick views = fewer clicks, faster buys.

💡 QUICK STAT: A/B test results show 3-7% more engagement on homepages with simplified, nonintrusive navigation bars and a 2-5% drop in bounce rate when mega-menus are condensed and have fewer, clearer buttons (ie category buckets).

Product Listing Page (PLP) Dos & Don'ts

DON'T:

• Bury key info: Badges like “Best Seller” or “On Sale” should pop.

• Make it dull: Your PLP shouldn’t feel like a monotonous spreadsheet.

DO:

• Show more than just a name: Think color swatches, promos, variations.

• Offer powerful filters: Product category, price, size, brand, color, etc. 
  

• • • Bonus Tip: Take filtering to the next level by injecting personalization and product education: you could also help shoppers filter with a quiz (ie “What’s your sleep style” for mattress or “Find your perfect fit” for jeans) Watch how to build quizzes without your devs
• Break the grid: Mix in interrupters such as banners, videos, quizzes, and bold imagery. See how to elevate your PLP layout & design

• Optimize pagination: “Load More” & “Back to Top” buttons keep the flow smooth.

• Keep PLPs dynamic: Your ads should land shoppers exactly where they expect. Watch how to optimize social ads with dynamic PLPs
  

• Enable quick add-to-cart functionality: Why send them to another page if they’re already sold? See the complete quick view guide

💡 QUICK STAT: Quick add-to-cart experiences (ie quick views) generate 5-15% more products being added to cart and a 2-10% increase in conversions.

Product Detail Page (PDP) Dos & Don'ts

DON'T:

• Oversimplify: This your last shot to sell them; make it count.

• Miss AOV boosters: Recommend similar or complementary products. Watch how to incorporate AOV-driving experiences

DO:

• Use a mix of images: Clean product shots, lifestyle, and pairings. See how to use various image types

• Make images interactive: Zoom and 360 product views make the shopping experience more interactive and life-like. 
  • • Bonus Tip: Combine engagement, interactivity, and product education by adding hotspots to a 360 product view that highlight specific details  

• Break the mold: Who says it has to be images on the left, details on the right? Experiment!

💡 QUICK STAT: 82% of shoppers engage with interactive images and content on product pages and spend an average of 20 seconds doing so.

Site-Wide Dos

• Optimize performance: Slow pages = fast exits. Get up to speed on core web vitals & site performance

• Test, test, test: Because you don't know until you try. 

• Prioritize accessibility & SEO: Make sure all users can navigate with ease and search engines can both crawl and rank your site. Watch how to manage ADA with just a few clicks
  
  • • Keep text live, not baked into images: Search engines & screen readers can’t read what they can’t see.
    • Use heading tags, alt text, and structured content: Better searchability, better accessibility.
• Think mobile-first: If it doesn’t work on a phone, it doesn’t work.

Want to make sure your site is roast-proof? Catch up on our Design Lab workshop series for actionable design tips, tricks, and creative strategy.