Much like Etsy, but for musicians, Reverb.com is an online marketplace that allows individuals to buy and sell new, used, and even homemade musical instruments and accessories for just about anything one might want to (or can) play.
From the start, the webpage is well organized and easy to navigate: In the header of the page next to their logo is the search bar and links for their blog, login, and if I’d like to sell something; the header stays at the top of the page as you scroll, making it easy to search for something if you remember what you want at a time when it’s not convenient to click on another link. The top of the home page is dusted with a few ads for different parts of the site such as deals, sales, and interesting products they have to offer. Scrolling down a bit, one finds a grid of various products that they have to offer, lined to the side with a category box narrowing down the types of items they carry (guitars, amps, drums, folk instruments, etc…); followed by a list of brands throughout the site for those looking for something more specific, and another which filters the year the product(s) were made, for the more enthusiast types.
I’m in the market for a delay pedal, but aren’t too sure of any brand or type, so I scroll down to the categories box and select “Effects & Pedals” knowing that’s where I want to start looking. I’m then redirected to page similar to that of the home page, but with the grid to the side focusing solely on pedals, and the different kinds listed beneath my initial selection in the categories panel. I click on “Delay” and am taken to another gridded page showing the different delay pedals they offer; I click on a Boss DD-7 as it’s one of the first on the page (and one I’ve been looking into), and am taken to a page that shows me pictures of the product the seller has posted, details about it that I might be interested in knowing, and options to buy, make an offer, contact seller, and so on. I click “Add to Cart” and am redirected to a page that gives me the option to either finalize my purchase, or continue on shopping; I click on the logo in the header and return to the home screen.
As described in the reading for a functional and well-designed site, navigating Reverb.com was effortless and near thoughtless. Everything was organized in such a way that getting to where I wanted to go was literally just a few clicks away. There weren’t any confusing hard to understand headings, series of listings that had nothing to do with what I wanted, just straightforward and to the point navigation.