Navigation. There are three navigation systems on the homepage. There is the left bar (with the biggest fonts!) that gives you what you expect from a clothing-merchant website. In the same navigation bar, to the bottom in less big fonts are company-info links. The list expands to show the categories within each sex/age group. The top one is reserved for account/shopping bag related things. 
After you click buy, you will need to use this navigation. Lastly, to the bottom of the browser, there technical items most of which are related to legal thingies. 
This grouping, makes sense to say the least. It certainly isn't confusing. The hierarchy of the navigation is mainly displayed through font size (although the bottom bar is also in gray which meshies closely enough with the black to fade in the background (presumably, the least important of the three navigation groups. This hierarchy makes sense as the site such as these should have the priority as following: showing products, selling the products, and other company-relevant information, in that order. None of these three major groups of navigation disappears throughout the entirety of the website (well except the investor relations page, which makes sense). Once you get into specific clothing item pages, additional navigation bars appear which includes sorting tools (pants size 30, 32, 33, 34, etc.) and page buttons since they have a lot of products for sale throughout the site! You can tell these are navigations becuase 1) why else would they be there 2) because it is in white fonts just like the expanded navigation once you enter specific sex/age category. Although there is a roll over state, there's no after-link state that tells you that you clicked on a spefic button. There is a nice little breadcrumb, though, at toward the top of the body section. You can also always get back to the homepage by clicking on the bigass logo in the middle of the page>>> TRUE RELIGIONS JEANS.Architecture. The site, compared to the other sites I've reviewed, have a decent depth. There are not only gazillion products for sale (it's a huge brand), but they multiple views with a lot of sorting functions. The look, because of that, looks cluttered, but of course clutter and chunkiness is the brand aesthetics. So it fits. You can access most of the pages from the home page, but you can't get to the size 30 sorted men's jeans page with a specific wash from home page. But then again, making it so DIRECT would defeat the purpose of "browsing" (which leads to more temptations and presumably more sales), and not serve the company well.
Content/Typography. Typographical hierachy, as mentioned before, is mostly done through font sizes. Category headings are also in all caps, different color, heavier weight, and bigger font size than each items belonging to any one of hte category. I really don't think the distinction could be any clearer. And the navigation is crystal clear. I know when I click on kids, I am getting kids' clothes.
Grid/Structure. As mentioned before, the three navigational groups stay stationary. Only part that changes is the body area (which I expect them to) as I navigate through different pages of the site. It looks consistent and when I want to buy something, there is no hassle in trying to find things that are shifted everywhere. Unfortunately, the site name is TOO prominent--making it the focal point of EVERY PAGE--and kind of distracts the surfers from paying attention to the clothes that they are trying to sell.
Iconography/Imagery. All kind so country-style iconographies/symbols are used throughout the site to match the western-theme which is the dominating aesthetics of the brand. I would personally want less iconographies so I can focus on the pictures, but it is their brand-recognition thing. I don't know if I would recommend reducing iconographies as a marketing person. The images used, because they fit easily into the western-theme, are easy to understand the purpose.
Color Palette. Wood color (brown), red, yellow, blinking signs, white, black, gray--basically all kinds of colors are used on top of colorful photographs to visually clutter--again this IS their design aesthetics--the site. Typographically, as mentioned before, the colors are used strategically to indicate the hierachy. These colors were probably chosen because when used to together, they do invoke some kind of western-bar feeling (not that I have been into any).
Site Focus. The objective of the site is CLEAR. SELL THE CLOTHES. It does allow me to search for something, but I have an easier time finding specific items through browsing because I often don't know the name or the codes assigned to specific pair of jeans. The most useful feature is probably the sorting function. I don't have to start liking some design only to find out that the pair is permantly discontinued in my size. I don't think there is anything particularly CONFUSING, per se, about the site.
No comments:
Post a Comment