Newegg is an online computer and electronics retailer. The home page opens with marquee showcasing sales and little reminders of why you might need to buy from them. Below it there are daily sales, and below that rave review of the website itself. This is an interesting design choice, as it lets the customer first get drawn in with the products before actively selling itself, i.e. “you need this, and here’s why you should buy from us”. At the top of the page are three drop down menus leading to various parts of the site. The first breaks the items available into categories for easy navigation. The second showcases more deals, and the third is a list of hyperlinks to their various sellers.
The “all products” tab is where I first began looking for a product. As Newegg is a computer-centric website, computing parts is at the top of the list with alternatives listed in descending order of relevance. I went to a tab labeled “electronics”, and a tab opened to the side, further breaking down down the category. I wasn’t going in with any particular plan, so I instead just clicked on the electronics tab to be brought to a page version of the break down tab.
The use of the breakdown tab is a great piece of web design, as it not only offers a quick way to see if a hyperlink will be useful before clicking over, but also serving to de-clutter navigation. It’s a simple, but effective tool to help keep consumers oriented.
The electronics page was a blown up version of the tab. With a specific goal in mind navigating would be easy. Just scrolling down the website felt packed, but not necessarily crowded. Almost every inch of screen real estate is used, with just enough buffer room between sections to keep it from being overwhelming.
Clicking on a product generalization, in my case HDMI cables, the following screen is a lot cleaner. It’s less pushing options and more just presenting products. Below each products if the price, and in a neat twist, the shipping as well. If there’s anything that makes this website stand out, it’s just that cool little feature. The design itself is comparable to Amazon, but how cleanly the shipping is presented is a massive, massive thumbs up in my book.
I selected my HDMI to HDMI mini cable and added it to my cart. On one side of the page there were suggestions for other, similar products, while on the other a picture of my cable and an option to finish the sale or continue shopping. I chose to continue shopping, which led me back to the page I selected a cable from. That little detail is also noteworthy, as if it just went back to the home screen navigating back could be a pain, but getting back to the home screen from there is a simple click away.
Overall, Newegg is not a particularly spectacular website, with its design being comparable to Amazon or similar retailers, but it has a couple of neat tricks to keep things decluttered and make navigation easy. It’s clear and concise, especially if you’ve grown up using similar websites.
http://www.newegg.com/