I am developing a new e-commerce website in java. My index page has links such as Login etc. I had gone through other e-commerce sites such as ebay where they have option of My Account. My question is before signing in to the account ,why do they need this link My Account. what is the significance of this. can any web designer let me know the answer?

With this link you can go to the dashboard of your account after loggin in. On the dashboard you have, for example an overview of the recent ordered products, recent tags, recent reviews etc. This is the case for instance with Magento (You can see a demo on the Magento website).

Ow yes, this way you can go the dashboard to when you are not logged id ofcourse. Through the login link, let's say from a productpage you can stay on the current page after logging in.

WebSonic can you be clear on second comment.i did not undestand the following lines. "Through the login link, let's say from a productpage you can stay on the current page after logging in."

Sure, what I mean is: You as a visitor are on a product page but not logged in. You click on the login button and you login with your username and password. After login you go back to the productpage were you came from.

Then you can add the product to your own wishlist, add tags or reviews, etc. When you are doing something with discounts or other options specific for people who have an account this could be helpfull or something like that.

By the way, I was mistaken with Magento, this works differently.

ok understood thanks.

Short of being a launcher for the "Login" button, there is no proscribed behavior of "My Account" label. If all it INITIALLY does is ask you to login first, then, clearly, it is superfluous at that stage, and ought to be greyed out (or equivalent). It is probably there for UI consistency reasons, so that admin area of the screen looks the same no matter what stage of the interaction process the user is in.

WebSonic.nl "this way you can go the dashboard to when you are not logged in of course."

I don't see the logic[k] in it. If one is not logged in, what purpose would [pressing "My Account"] serve to let the user see the dashboard, or even a subset of it? You are either a valued logged-in returning customer, in which case you get to play with your purchase history, etc; or you're a Stranger, at best a future customer, which means you get to see product pages ONLY. Log in, and only then you gain access to the goodies.

One more thing about the cookies: when logged in, a new-session cookie presumably is set (and then immediately read back to verify its presence at the remote end). However, where mission-critical ops are concerned, you can not rely on cookies alone. You need to double check the session-ID through your own server logs, and abide by some time-limit rule, after which user is asked to confirm the ID again [that's why Amazon and several other big e-commerce sites have no logout option – they do it automatically after preset time].

Having the "My account" link always visible is a way to reduce support costs. Otherwise, users whose cookie has expired get frustrated because they can't find their usual link to "My account".

Of course, if their cookie has expired they will need to log in first before they actually get to their "My account" page.

Roger, in a scenario with expired cookies, any action that requires validated ID should automagically bring up the log-in dialog, preferably with a preamble "Please login again for added security" or some such. I.e. the server has to be proactive in this case, and throw up the dialog unasked.

Already-frustrated users can not be expected to successfully analyze the failure, and look for some "My Account" item (perchance next to "Login" one), so having that present on screen at all times does not in itself lead to any smoother usage.

Ianf Purpose could be that you can check your wishlist to buy a product or change other information like an adress etc.

So finally does anybody know what is it's usage for? a quick short to my account page.