Web Design Trends 2008 Series (Part 2)
June 28, 2008 – 1:51 am
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Following up on my DMA Webinar last week and Part 1 of this series, today we’ll look at three more sites that I like, and discuss why from a high-level. I suggest that you browse through each site on your own, to get the full experience of what I believe makes them some of the standards for great web design in 2008. After several more posts where I will present 3-5 quality sites in the same way, I’ll start delving in deeper, dissecting one site at a time, in a more in-depth website audit.
On this note, before moving forward, I want to ask you - when is the last time you performed a website audit? Do you see the value in hiring someone from outside your company to come in and provide a professional analysis of what would make your site function better? I am curious to hear back from readers about this.
So let’s look at some great sites, which were included in the 25 sites across four different categories which I presented for the DMA - (1) Ecommerce: Consumer, (2) Informational/Blogs, (3) B2B, (4) Social Networks.
What we like about it?
- Best of breed e-commerce navigation.
- Granular, rotating product image views.
You just have to see it to believe it. Check out the price range slider and other product sorting controls in the left panel. It looks like they are using AJAX to drive the real-time updating of the products. This is truly a best-in-class B2C e-commerce website.
What we like about it?
- The ability to shop and learn while watching video.
- User-friendly and intuitive navigation.
- Vertical navigation bars as powerful element in design theme, consistent throughout the site.
- Intelligent shopping cart and checkout process.
- Solid flash intro with a unique preloader.
This site should give a lot of people ideas on how to use video intelligently without disrupting the shopping process. The site is built in Flex, a popular new flash-friendly development framework from Adobe.
What we like about it?
- 4-stores in one navigation with joint shopping cart and flat rate shipping (GREAT IDEA!)
- Cross promoting products between partner sites.
- Simple navigation.
- Calls to Action featuring Membership Benefits (a very good retention feature).
How would you like to shop for the Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Piperlime all in one checkout experience? This is really a great idea, and the way they pulled off the navigation gives us something to learn from.
Congratulations and kudos to the marketing strategists, UI architects, programmers and web designers that pulled off these three sites! This is first class stuff. Building great websites is hard work, but with the right vision, a realistic budget and a quality team, it is within reach.
In case you missed Part 1 of this series - Web Design Trends 2008 - A Snapshot from our DMA Seminar
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3 Responses to “Web Design Trends 2008 Series (Part 2)”
endless.com is an incredible looking site. it really sets a new standard. did blueliner build this site?
By Chris Bennett (SF, CA) on Jun 28, 2008
Yeah, endless.com is done really well. I like how easy it is to navigate through the site like when you want to find a good pair of shoes on the side you can search for it based on the size, width, color, and even the price range you want.
By Bijan Mohazab on Jul 2, 2008