UX heuristic analysis · Retail
Walmart.com: a UX heuristic analysis
For Walmart’s digital product team
- Assessed
- Published
- Examined
- 6 pages of walmart.com at desktop (1440 px) and phone (375 px)
- Method
- 6 pages, read by hand at two sizes (1440 × 900, 375 × 812) in Safari on 19 October 2026, after the site’s bot protection refused the crawl; reviewed from Toronto, Canada
Summary
Scott Shop Towels at $22.93 show a unit price of $2293.00 per 100, 200 times the true figure
The clearest fault is in the product data: Scott Shop Towels at $22.93 show a unit price of $2293.00 per 100. Smaller faults are tiny touch targets, menu names that change, and few ways to reach a person. axe found no WCAG A or AA failures on the product or help pages, a skip link comes first, focus is visible, dialogs close with Escape and return focus, and autosuggest, the phone filter sheet and the fee line beside the price work. Seen from Canada; anything that depends on a US address was left out.
Where to start
- Finding 3: Unit price on Scott Shop Towels reads $2293.00/100 ct for a $22.93 box Medium
- Finding 2: Colour swatches under results are 18x20px with 4px gaps on a phone Medium
- Finding 7: Footer links are 21px tall and tightly stacked, in one ungrouped run Medium
- Finding 6: The ‘Household Essentials’ menu item and its page carry three different names Low
- Finding 8: Desktop help lists about 270 links in 13 cards and offers chat as the only contact Low
| High | Medium | Low | Best practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
The 8 findings
Findings about the whole site first, then each page in the order examined, the most severe first within each. The levels, high, medium, low, best practice, are explained on the method page.
Finding 1Low
A ‘Spanish / Español’ bubble covers part of the ‘Dog Toys’ chip
Observation
At 1440px a dark bubble reading ‘Spanish / Español now available!’ is at the right of the header, over the end of the category chip row. It hides the end of ‘Dog Toys’, which shows as ‘Dog To’. It has a close button, and it was open when the page loaded.
Implication
A notice about a feature most visitors do not need covers the navigation under it. It can be dismissed, so the harm is small.
Recommendation
Place the bubble where it covers nothing, or leave room in the chip row. Remember a dismissal so it does not return. On phones the language control is in the menu; put it there on desktop too.
Measured
- Español bubble clips the 'Dog Toys' chip
Finding 2Medium
Colour swatches under results are 18x20px with 4px gaps on a phone
Observation
At 375px wide the colour swatches under a result are 18 by 20 px on a 22 px pitch. On the phone search page axe flags 89 target-size elements, most of them swatches. On desktop they are 22 by 22 px. Each swatch is a link to a product page.
Implication
Neighbouring dots are easy to mis-tap with a finger, and a wrong tap opens another variant page. WCAG 2.5.8 asks for 24px targets or enough space; the card’s main link may count as an equivalent route, so confirm.
Recommendation
Make each swatch at least 24px, or space them so each has a 24px clear circle. Or show one ‘More colours’ link and drop the dots from results. The large ‘Add’ and ‘Options’ buttons already meet the size.
Measured
- Swatches are 18x20px with 4px gaps
Finding 3Medium
Unit price on Scott Shop Towels reads $2293.00/100 ct for a $22.93 box
Observation
Scott Shop Towels Original, 200 towels per box, is $22.93. Beside it the unit price reads ‘$2293.00/100 ct’. The same figure shows in search on desktop and phone and on the product page. At 200 towels the true figure is about $11.47 per 100. On 26 October a second listing, Scott Shop Towels 55 ct at $3.99, read ‘$399.00/100 ct’, where about $7.25 is right.
Implication
Unit price is how people compare paper products. A figure about 200 times too high makes the cheapest option look the dearest, and teaches shoppers to skip the line.
Recommendation
Check the unit price against the pack count when a listing is saved, and hide it when the two disagree. Add an automated check that fails when unit price times count does not match the price. Send the bad figure back to whoever owns that listing data.
Measured
- Unit price reads $2293.00/100 ct
- Product page repeats the $2293.00/100 ct
- Phone search shows the same $2293.00/100 ct
- 26 Oct: still $2293.00/100 ct; the 55 ct box at $3.99 reads $399.00/100 ct
Finding 4Low
Sort has no unit-price option, and filter lists show no result counts
Observation
On the paper towels results, Sort offers Best Match, Price: Low to High, Price: High to Low, Best Seller, Highly Rated and New Arrivals, with no price per unit. The Brand list (‘Scott’, ‘Unbranded’, ‘Vanity Fair’ and more) shows no counts, so a shopper learns how many results a brand has only after ticking it.
Implication
For paper towels the useful comparison is price per sheet or roll. Without counts, a shopper cannot tell if a brand has one product or fifty before choosing it, and can land on items that cannot be bought.
Recommendation
Add a unit-price sort and show a count beside each filter value. Offer ‘In stock’ as a visible chip, or move unavailable items to the end. Keep the instant apply: it works, and the ‘Scott’ chip and ‘Clear all’ make the state clear.
Measured
- Sort options: no unit price
- Brand filter: no counts, applies on tick
Finding 5Best practice
On a phone, ‘Add to cart’ is 1005px down the product page and does not stick
Observation
At 375 by 812 the first screen shows the title, rating, a returns chip and the gallery. Price and ‘Shipping & Import fees from $23.01’ appear near y 690. ‘Add to cart’ (343 by 40 px) is at 1005 px and no bar holds it in view. The fee line is beside the price, where it should be.
Implication
Shoppers scroll past the gallery, delivery and seller blocks to buy. Many stores keep a buy bar in view on a phone; it is a convention, not a rule.
Recommendation
Test a sticky bar with price and ‘Add to cart’ once the buy box scrolls out of view. Keep the fee disclosure beside the price; showing a $23.01 import fee on a $22.93 item before checkout is the honest way.
Measured
- Phone: Add to cart is 1005px down
- Buy box shows price, fees and Add to cart
Finding 6Low
The ‘Household Essentials’ menu item and its page carry three different names
Observation
In the Departments menu, ‘Household Essentials’ has a child also called ‘Household Essentials’. It opens a page titled ‘Paper & Plastic Essentials for Your Home | Walmart’, whose h1 includes ‘| Walmart’ and ‘(1000+)’. The breadcrumb says ‘Paper & Plastic’. ‘All Household Essentials’ runs a keyword search.
Implication
A child named like its parent, and a page named differently from its link, make it hard to know where paper towels live. The h1 reads like a page title leaking into the heading.
Recommendation
Name the child after its page (‘Paper & Plastic’), make ‘All Household Essentials’ open the department page, and set the h1 to the plain category name with the count as separate text. The ‘Paper towels’ tile on that page is a good route; add it to the menu.
Measured
- Menu child named like its parent
- h1 includes '| Walmart' and a count
Finding 7Medium
Footer links are 21px tall and tightly stacked, in one ungrouped run
Observation
The footer is 24 links in three rows with no headings, from ‘All Departments’ to ‘Delete Account’, with ‘Help’ and ‘Accessibility’ among them. Each link is a 21px-high box and the rows sit 21px apart. axe flags the links for target size (WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.5.8, level AA), and the run is hard to scan and to tap.
Implication
Small, tightly stacked links are easy to mis-tap on a touch screen, and one undivided run hides Help and the privacy links among careers and recalls.
Recommendation
Group the links under short headings (Shop, Help, Company, Legal and privacy). Give each link at least 24px of height or spacing. Keep ‘Your Privacy Choices’, ‘Accessibility’ and ‘Manage cookie settings’; they are present and worth keeping.
Measured
- Footer: 24 ungrouped 21px-tall links
Finding 8Low
Desktop help lists about 270 links in 13 cards and offers chat as the only contact
Observation
Desktop /help has four shortcuts, a ‘Search help topics’ field, then 13 topic cards holding about 270 links, including long terms and conditions lists. ‘Chat with us’ is the only contact route; no phone number or email is shown. The phone page collapses topics into accordions and scans better.
Implication
A shopper with an order problem must wade through policy lists, or search, to find the step. People who cannot or will not chat have no route on this page.
Recommendation
Use the phone’s accordion pattern on desktop, or show the top ten order questions and fold the policy lists. State every contact option plainly, with hours, even if chat leads. Keep the four shortcuts and the help search; they work well.
Measured
- Help: chat is the only contact
- Help on a phone: topics collapsed
What was examined
No real users were observed. Only public pages were examined, signed out, on the date shown, at the sizes listed. A browser took the measurements; the numbers are in each finding.
Automated checks
| Accessibility rules failed (axe) | not measured: pages were read by hand |
|---|---|
| Tap targets under 24 pixels | 89 |
| Links that open a new tab | 11 |
| Console errors on load | 0 |
Counted by hand in the browser after the crawl was refused; no machine output was saved. An axe total was recorded too, but nothing saved backs the figure, so it is left out. The reviewer’s notes record no WCAG A or AA failures from axe on the product and help pages, and 89 elements flagged by axe’s target-size rule on the phone search page, most of them colour swatches. Axe has not been run on these pages yet: the site's bot protection refused automated capture. The axe results will be added from a capture made in a person's own browser.