Comments on: Short and sweet

Question: Short and sweet

Leon — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 07:46:42 -0800

Site design: what are, in your opinion, the best-designed ecommerce sites out there? Either from a graphic design or a usability viewpoint.

By: xammerboy

xammerboy — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 07:54:13 -0800

Amazon and Dell.

By: spock

spock — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:05:28 -0800

Panic.com has the slickest little shopping cart that I've ever seen:
http://www.panic.com/goods/

By: Leon

Leon — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:18:13 -0800

xammerboy: my fault, I should have been more specific. Amazon is the opposite of what I'm after - it's product range is unfocused and the interface is cluttered and unpretty. I'm after "does one thing fantastically", rather than "does a bunch of stuff well enough to get by". (All IMO, of course).

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:28:46 -0800

I like LL Bean. Compared to their main competitor, Land's End, I find LL bean to have a pretty good UI.

I like some of the small touches, like being able to see each garment in every colour in which it's available. Plus it updates your select colour every time you preview a different colour, so when you finally decide you want to red sweater, red is already selected as the colour for the item to add to your cart. Which seems logical, until you go to other e-com sites that don't do it.

I think of them as doing "one thing", as unlike Amazon, they just sell clothes (mostly). But they do have a very large catalogue of items, so in a strict sense they don't just sell "one thing". I don't know if I've ever seen a single-item e-com site, other than beggarware.

By: rolypolyman

rolypolyman — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:52:03 -0800

I dispute that the "big boys" site are the best models... with them you have to juggle usernames and passwords, and it typically takes 5 pages to check out. I rarely have time for all that. The closer a site is to a one-page checkout, the happer I am. Usually it's the small-potatoes guys who are in that corner (cigar shops, RC parts, etc).

But I do like the Amazon product review feature; it's definitely its strong suit.

My other pet peeves are
* Poor product images (click to enlarge and you get a 200 x 150 px graphic)
* Product searches that incorrectly return nothing
* Sites that don't return me to the area I was looking in after I've added something to the cart

I guess it's hard to explain what to do right when I only remember the annoyances.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:59:12 -0800

Without question, McMaster-Carr. It seems simplistic at first - just a list of the many categories of hardware product they sell - but try the order builder, the product finder, the bookmarking system. They've got the "contact us" information right under the logo, phone number and all. The product pages have lots of extra informations - here's one at random.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 09:00:29 -0800

As far as a site that is focused on its core mission, I like ModernPostcard's site. Although you actually have to go through the order prep process to experience it, it's pretty slick and painless. In addition, they offer all sorts of aids to help you design your own art (including ICC profiles for their presses, for proper color management)

By: mark7570

mark7570 — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 09:38:13 -0800

For a site that sells something that's generally hard to shop for, check out Blue Nile (for diamond rings). Really good experience.

Also see some resources for more thinking about online experience...

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:40:56 -0800

I disagree with those saying Amazon ain't all that. It is. Its somewhat ugly and unintuitive, but it does so much you can really just browse around that site like a bookstore (via the '... also bought...') links and find some intresting stuff, and I'm willing to be that feature drives more sales too. But software like that isn't really practical for most people...

By: of strange foe

of strange foe — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:16:22 -0800

One coworker of mine is a big fan of Upton Tea.

By: filmgeek

filmgeek — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:54:28 -0800

I do find Apple's site easy to navigate and winning awards.

By: Leon

Leon — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 13:02:35 -0800

strange foe: your coworker should check out Mighty Leaf, too.

Thanks to all who replied, by the way - all your answers are very much appreciated.

By: blag

blag — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:35:12 -0800

Gap's new ajax site is getting a lot of press at the moment. I really like the 'outfit builder' functionality.

By: waxpancake

waxpancake — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:55:52 -0800

Threadless.