Although they are an important component of many websites and almost all online stores, very little appears to have been written about designing great category (also known as 'gallery') pages. This is despite the fact the Jared Spool calls them the hardest working pages on your site given the key role they play in directing users to the correct end content. A well designed gallery page can be critical in reducing e-commerce site abandonment by preventing users from 'pogo sticking' back and forth from category page to product page in a vain search for the item they are looking for. On large e-commerce websites in particular, gallery pages must present key information about a wide range of items in an easily scannable format so that users ca...

Article source: Smiley Cat: Christian Watson's Web Design Blog.