I’m not sure how pertinent to our discussion this is—but it is undeniably the coolest navigational scheme I’ve ever seen or dreamed of. Etsy is kind of an online craft store where people can buy and sell things to each other; on the surface it sounds a lot like eBay, I suppose. But this site is all crafted around the user experience and is very community oriented—I actually kind felt like I was spying as I skimmed their forum boards.
The home page may look much like any other e-commerce site at first glance, but take a look at the options at the top of the left-hand menu column, and try the one called “Colors.” There is a help button if you can’t figure it out, but I found it to be quite user friendly, and brilliantly executed (it worked flawlessly on my dial-up connection at home)—not to mention that it’s fun to play with. I’m not sure of its ultimate practicality without a few more filter options (such as, only bring up jewelry, or accent furniture, etc.), but I think that with the creative community they’ve so carefully fostered, they’ve found a way to cater to their specific audience in an elegant and user friendly way. (There are 2 other alternate navigational paths, Time Machine & Time Machine 2, but I couldn't use them from my slow connection. I have little doubt that they are equally cool.)
In such a user-focused environment, I did find it rather jarring to see this in their FAQ section:
"Can I use HTML formatting in my Bio?
We do not allow any user-created HTML formatting anywhere on the site. We have designed Etsy to provide a consistent visual experience and this would interrupt that."
Interesting… and I bet people who are becoming more used to the Web 2.0 experience of customizing their spaces (like MySpace.com) were a bit frustrated with that bit. Other than this bit, which reflects, I’m sure, the frustration of designers trying to cope with Web 2.0, I think this site’s innovative approach should be an inspiration to us as web experience designers to think outside the box and try to give our users another way of accessing our information. (Sorry about the cliché!)
1 comment:
I must admit, I didn't spend too much time on this site, but I do like it. Somehow, the little "boxes" that come up with the interesting items and various angles are so attractive. The way that items are framed insided these "boxes" must be some kind of a photographic or artistic technique that I can't remember, or never learned. I will go back here and explore further before too long from now; heck, I might even buy something!
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