Navigation. Gilt.com works pretty strangely. At least for someone who is unfamiliar with what it's supposed to be, it's a bizarre idea. You have to be invited by someone who is already a member to be able to even ACCESS what the site is about. But once you are invited, you receive an email about how things work on the site, including how the sale opens at 12 PM almost everyday (different brands of course), last 2 days, and those sales are GONE FOREVER. So if you think you want something, you better just go with it. A great marketing strategy!
Once you login, the homepage is pretty straightforward in its navigation system.
At the very top is the what some sites have at the very bottom of their page. Support, my account, etc. They do have the bottom navigation as well, for about them, careers, sizing, etc. But what makes the top different from the bottom is that top is designated for technical stuff that is useful for me to actually BUY something on the site, whereas the bottom has a little to do with making purchases. The main navigation, however, as is evident from the gold coloring, is sales, womens, mens, children. After all, the point of the site is make the sales happen. Fold-out menues are usually no longer than 5 items as there are usually far less than 5 sales going on at any given time under each category. You see, the way it works is that very much like a sample sale, the site would have sales that lasts about 2 days. Luxury brands will be selected these sales, it will be available for purchases for 2 days (with limited quantity). You can also click on the pictures in the body part to enter the specific brand sale. And when you enter the second-deepest level (it's only 3 layers deep: home>specfic sale brand>specific sale item), you still see all the navigations. It's nice that way. Although their is no breadcrumbs to tell you where you are, because of the simplicity of the web-design structure, it's hard to get confused as to where you are in the site. And the nice gilt-groupe logo to the top-right acts as a homepage link.
Architecture. As noted above, the architecture is only 3 layers deep. I think the basic-ness of the architecture coupled with a very chic look is highly effective for the kind of thing they are doing. It's luxury brand sale that still makes you feel exclusive. If the site was complex, the idea of it being a "sample sale" where things come in with super limited quantity and people make impulse purchases under the pressure of someone else stealing the item they had their eyes on first would not work as well.
Content/Typography. The hierarchy of typography could not be more apparent without being a little bit obnoxious/paternalistic. Organized from the most important bars to the least, the most import navigation is gold and bolded, the second most not bolded but still of one size bigger font size the third most important, etc. In other words, color, bolding, and font size were skillfully used to distinguish the different navigation. I really don't foresee how I could improve the typography without going overboard. And of course, each label is very clear. Men button would lead to men's apparel sales, "Bamford & Sons" will lead to Bamford and Sons' sale INSIDE the male apparel page.
Grid/Structure. Structure, as we all know from Dreamweaver mess, needs to stay consistent for the sake of coherence AND for the sake of reducing the amount of hair one might lose from building a website. Strucuture on Gilt.com stays very consisten where top two three bars stay consisten in place, and the body changes from blocks of "ads" to items once you start navigating through the site. The consistency makes the focus of the site clear--for SALE--and when I do want to do something, I don't have to go looking for different parts of the page. That's nice. And of course, the focal point in any given page is the "ads" with pictures of the brand apparel items and their brand names. Beautiful pictures and bolded gold letters will make sure that your eye falls right there, and that is precisely the point--for you to get distracted and click on the brand to start SHOPPING.
Iconography/Imagery. Photos are possibly one of the most important aspects of the site;
after all, you can't sell clothes by describing them to me. However, I do like the fact that photo/imagery is only used to show items they are selling as opposed to having all kinds of pictures everywhere on the site. It keeps it clean, but also I don't get distracted by things they are NOT selling. On the home page, I do also appreciate the calendar picture on the left bottom. It's consistent with how the information is displayed on that specific page, and definitely very intuitive. Also, other than super straightforward arrows here and there, ther are no icons/symbols used to confuse me.Color Pallette. Black, gold, gray, and white are the colors used, and without the pictures, that's pretty much ALL the color there is (no shades) on the site. It makes for a very slick, clean website. Colors are mainly used to distinguish the typographic layers as mentioned before. To specifically categorize what the colors are designated for, gold takes precedents while white are pretty explanatory. Gray are secondary informations, while black is used exclusively for the background. Color choices are chose to match their "luxury" feel, and I do have to agree that they did a fantastic job making the site not look like an outlet site.
Site Focus. As mentioned previously, the point is make the sale happen fast. It doesn't have a search function within the site only because there are only a handful of sales going on at any given time, and since you can't buy anything that is not currently on sale, what is the point of having a gigantic catalogue of what has come before? The straightforwardness, if that can be a "feature" is the most impressive part of the site. I want to see awesome products, purchase, and NOT DWELL. There's nothing worse than buyer's remorse...And because of this straightforwardness, the site doesn't illicit much confusion. ESPECIALLY if you understand how this timed sale works (which they easily explain in their email).
GO SHOP!
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