How do I set the order of my attributes?
By default, attributes will be sorted alphabetically. However, you can format the attribute names so that the order can be set manually.
NOTE: If your site displays the automatically generated "Brand" attribute, it will generally be at the bottom of the list. The placement of this automatically created attribute can't be changed. You can disable the automatically created "Brand", create your own "Brand" attribute in Attribute Manager, and order it however you prefer.
Should I Sort Attributes in a Non-Alphabetic Way?
This question comes up a lot and from a usability perspective, sorting attributes usually makes your site harder for users to use.
Why would that be?
The human brain is an amazing thing. It operates subconsciously doing things that we don’t often consider. One of the traits our brains are trained for is to find patterns in things. The brain sees patterns in faces, shapes, etc. That’s the reason you can see a car and feel like it has a ‘face’.
When it comes to lists of things, such as attributes, the brain immediately and subconsciously looks for the pattern to the list. Several studies have been done that indicate if a list doesn’t have a perceptible pattern, the brain will essentially go into a deep analysis trying to figure out the order. During this period, users typically feel a time of confusion and frustration. This is not a good thing for a website and it turns people off and encourages them to go elsewhere.
What we see often is that in trying to help users by generating an attribute list ordered by the "most important" items, what often happens is that as far as users are concerned, the list just becomes randomly ordered. Just because you consider an attribute to be the "most" important, not all users will agree. Since the list is now in an arbitrary order, most users will not instinctively know how to find what they are looking for. Now, instead of being able to quickly see the pattern and jump to the attribute they want, they have to study it, and manually look at every attribute. This is not only unhelpful but very frustrating to users.
If you absolutely feel you must reorder items, don’t re-sort the whole list. Place one or two items at the top (at the most) and let the rest sort alphabetically. Your users will thank you.
Sorting lists manually, counter to what many think, doesn’t usually help the user, but actually gives them a poor experience that is very frustrating.
What Can I Do Instead?
Using the WebAlliance Category Headers tool, you can display up to 4 "featured" filters on the Category listing page. If your users need quick access to "Size", for example, set that filter as "featured" in the Category Header for the relevant category. You can draw the user's eye to the filter they should use first, in order to find the correct item for their needs. Have a look at the screenshot below for an example, using the 4 most important filters for a "Drills" category. Of course, if your category needs fewer than 4 "featured" filters, you can list only those.
Two Types of Sorting
Alphabetically Sorted - Default
In attribute manager, we'll create the following attributes:
- Color
- Size
- Model
- Type
On the web, those will be sorted alphabetically, so you'll end up with:
- Color
- Model
- Size
- Type
Manually sorted
But what if you have a certain order of attributes in mind? WebAlliance can detect when attribute names are formatted in a certain way, and your website will display the attributes in that order. So, we'll create the same attributes but name them this way:
- A.) Color
- B.) Size
- C.) Model
- D.) Type
NOTE: The format is: 'A' - period - closing parenthesis - space - [attribute name]
On the web, those attributes will display only the "true" name, and they'll be sorted in the way that they're sorted in Attribute Manager:
- Color
- Size
- Model
- Type