So finally the on-line shopping course has ended. It was an interesting experience, I had a very good time with the students and I think they have learned some valuable content which I hope it’ll be useful for them in the future.
The first lectures were about web usability. I took “Don’t make me think” as reference, and watching several presentations on the subject at slideshare, plus providing my own conclusions after reading the book, I managed to did my own presentation, nothing special though. Among the presentations I saw I recommend these two: 10 things CEOs need to know abotu design, What I’ve learned in the 21st century.
After the presentation on UX, I did an usability test taking www.portosdegalicia.es as an example (download the test). Most of the things examined refer to the “the trunk test”, explained by Steve Krug in the book. Later the students picked several real on-line shops at Shopify and use them for an usability test.
On the second lecture, we tried to apply most of the knowdlege about UX  and built a very simple on-line shop (just 5 main options) using Wix. The students liked it a lot, I was also impressed by the many things you can do with this tool, and since you get immediate results of what you’re doing working with Wix is very engaging. With some more experience, it can be a very useful tool not only for designing your own website, but also for rapid sketching, or to communicate with a designer what are the things you want. After that, the students devoted some time in class to design and pimp up their own shops.
The last lecture was about Prestashop. Prestashop is a wide topic, and I got only 3 lessons of 1.5 hours for it. Definitively not enough. I learned the tool before and wrote down my own guide, covering the options and aspects which I consider basic. Due to the lack of time, I rushed a bit the last day, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to cover all. I’m impressed by Prestashop, it’s growing at a fast pace (it’s deployed now in more than 50.000 on-line shops), and the next upcoming version, 1.4, is going to be a big improvement. During the couse, I also discovered BigCommerce which reminded very much to Prestashop. Unfortunately I couldn’t show it to the students.
So that’s all. Here’s the Prestashop Guide (in Spanish), hope it can serve as a good introduction for others.