Catalogue Design

Question

Please have a look at http://live.heritageartpapers.co.uk/catalogue.aspx and advise me on the following:

Currently customers are getting confused (judging by the one who clicking the same link 20 odd times yesterday) because each level of product is pretty much the same. I would like to differentiate each level of product. However there may be products available for customers to buy (i.e. actual physical products) on the middle and lower level. The customer is either viewing the list of ranges, or (on the middle level) the collections and designs (physical products with a code) within a range or (on the lower level) the designs within a collection within a range. You should be able to see the difference on going to the above link. The actual products have a code.

Please note, however, that there are not any purchasable products on the middle level since the ability to create these has only been developed today.

What I would like to do is to make it obvious that a range is a range, a collection is a collection and a "range-design" or "range-collection-design" is a purchasable product.

If anyone has any ideas on how I could differentiate these levels then please reply. Alternatively if you know of anywhere that may be able to help - any cool design sites or anything - then please also reply.

Any additional comments on the site (praise or criticism) is more than welcome - but please note that the version number has now been removed from the bottom left corner and the page name to the left of the breadcrumb has also been removed. Also I know that its not possible to actually purchase through the site - it is strictly wholesale only, so customers fax or 'phone to place an order.

Regards,

Richard

Answer 1

I would begin by not putting your "range" at the top of the "range-design" list. In other words, when I click "Notables," the next menu lists "Notables" at the top of the menu with the same look and feel as the rest of the list. This makes someone feel like they should be able to click it and go somewhere else, when in fact it brings them back to the same page they are currently looking at. You have enough navigation elements at the top and side of the page that people can probably figure out where they are and how to get back to a higher level. You could either omit the "Notables" entry on the page entirely, or move it above where it is, to take up the entire width of the page above both the left-hand navigation area and the actual list of notables, so it becomes more like a header banner that tells them about the page they are on.