Practical eCommerce

tcraw1010 · **Date:** Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:00 am **Subject:** Sweating the Small Stuff

Just putting the question topic out there for discussion . . .

How many of you have hit the proverbial "wall" when it came/comes to designing your website in terms of some of the smaller details - such as a top horizontal navigation bar, your bottom footer information, or even where to put static links to the shopping cart/checkout ??

What did you do to get past your design block?

TOM

Brendang · **Date:** Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:56 pm **Subject:**

Tom,

As I mentioned in my other post, I'm new to 'opening' an e-store, but I'm quite the old timer in knowing what I like in design. I have grown partial to 'above the fold' design. I've seen a few pure versions and a few real close versions. I guess if you sell half a million items, it may not be practical, but not having to scroll too far down is just a pleasurable thing.

Horizontal Top Nav 'feels real good, but again, it doesn't make sense if you're categories go on and on... Here are two nice sites. They are both from good sized companies, so they can certainly afford fantastic design. But they both capture the feel of their brand, pretty much remain above the fold and offer eye-catching nav and product displays.

http://www.lifeisgood.com
https://www.smartwool.com

(and yes I get that the smartwool site is flash and a SEO disaster. I offer it only for visual design purposes.

Brendan G.
OTP

bgetting · **Date:** Wed Jan 24, 2007 7:01 pm **Subject:** Hey, Smartwool!!!

I just have to stick my head in here and say how proud I am to see the SmartWool website represented here. They are a local Steamboat Springs, Colorado company that is doing great, and makes a hell of a pair of socks!

Having just moved from Steamboat, it's great to see them pop up on this site. However, I should repeat that the site is an SEO nightmare partly due to it being a Flash site. Considering most of the functionality can be created with JavaScript, I would probably have that on my priority list if I were them. On that note, I love the way that it looks.

Euan · **Date:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:03 am **Subject:**

I am busy working on the design of my new site and as I am not a graphics designer or a programmer by trade I often hit a brick wall.

However, I generally find that by trial and error I will eventually get something that I am happy with. It's something I enjoy. I soon get into the design process and with some NHL on tv hours just fly by!

dean0088 · **Date:** Fri Feb 02, 2007 5:32 pm **Subject:** Designing and e-commerce

I'm a designer and just started an e-commerce business and have to say that I have struggled designing for SEO, I feel like I'm handcuffed always thinking ahead to what Google is going to think of my site.

My concern on the issue of Javascript, Flash, and Graphics and Google being so picky is that in order for a site to look professional it needs to have good graphic design. when I look at a site like BestBuy.com, they are well ranked in the search engines but yet they use Flash, lots of graphics and javascript but how are they so successful in the search engines? Is it because they are the biggest consumer electronic retailer in the world?

Dean
www.studiosix.ws
www.monsterjeepparts.com

bgetting · **Date:** Sat Feb 03, 2007 2:56 pm **Subject:** Deep Pockets

Best Buy has a combination of things that keep them at the top. For one, as you mentioned, they are a huge company. Therefor they get a lot more traffic because they are much more visible. After all, their website is an extension of an already successful brick-and-mortar channel.

In addition, they probably throw a huge budget at their online marketing considering the sales that they can generate. They have also been around for a long time so their website has credibility with the search engines. A quick look at the source code of their site shows you that while it is messy, and could be cleaned quite a bit, it's pretty search engine friendly.

My two cents on this is that there should be no thought into search engine optimization when it comes to the design phase. In the workflow that I go through, anyway, a PDF of the layout is done long before the coding begins. Taking that layout and creating a compliant layout is step 2. After that, many of the things that people use Flash for can be done using JavaScript, which would be step 3.

I am planning some video tutorials on this (eventually) as kind of a primer to "web 2.0" development. I am curious if anyone has a layout that they are having difficulty presenting using CSS. Perhaps I could help out, and maybe even use it for a tutorial.

PamelaHazelton · **Date:** Sat Feb 03, 2007 5:03 pm **Subject:**

Keep in mind that when you design for your store there will always be compromise - your #1 goal should be a site/store that will both attract and maintain shoppers. With that, the navigation and usability of a site is more important than stellar design.

VSPNET · **Date:** Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:14 am **Subject:** My solution to writers block

My solution to writers block is quite simple and effective.

So your sitting there tearing your hair out, feeling weary and tired because you cant seem to find the inspiration or motivation to finalize some details.

The answer is simple.

I open a bottle of wine, Play some heavy metal and get stuck in.
To this day i havent reached a point where this method doesnt work for me. check out the results.

http://www.vspnet.co.uk
http://www.vspnet.co.uk/reviews/
http://www.paradeofshops.com

donok · **Date:** Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:38 am **Subject:** Don't forget browsing

There's nothing more dangerous than someone with one year of medical school - which where I am in the web design world. So, when I get stuck I start browsing and finding cool ideas on other sites. I then view the code and css styles, snip it out and play.

I'm not talking about stealing images or copying verbatim - it's just a great way to learn - see how it works first, then take it apart and put it back together again.

-- Don

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