By just reading the first chapter of\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t Make Me Think\u201d, my knowledge of the<\/p>\n
different elements that mostly all eCommerce sites use has already grown<\/p>\n
tremendously.<\/p>\n
For my first site review, I decided to actually do some shopping for myself. I needed<\/p>\n
a new pair of shoes, so I used one of the most popular sites to do so, which is<\/p>\n
Eastbay. Eastbay primarily sells shoes, but is also a redistributor of clothes.<\/p>\n
On first glance of the homepage, everything is setup very clean and modern. They<\/p>\n
stick to a nice dark grey, almost black navigation with white text and off white<\/p>\n
background with black text for their color scheme, and those colors remain the same<\/p>\n
the whole way through even in the checkout process. This is a very simple color<\/p>\n
scheme, something I would expect out of a stock template for like a Squaresapce or<\/p>\n
Shopify sort of deal, but nonetheless it is effective because of how simple it is to the<\/p>\n
eye.<\/p>\n
Now onto the navigation, which is the biggest issue I have with the site. At first<\/p>\n
glance, the navigation bar looks great. It\u2019s split into three categories, Shop, Releases,<\/p>\n
and Community. Now what happens next is initially I tried to just hover over top of<\/p>\n
the Shop category, expecting that it would activate some sort of drop-down menu,<\/p>\n
but it didn\u2019t. This was very confusing to me, and I thought maybe the page didn\u2019t<\/p>\n
load properly. It wasn\u2019t until I actually clicked on the Shop category that the drop-<\/p>\n
down navigation appeared, and when it did, it was very cluttered. They lay out<\/p>\n
everything right in the navigation down to specific sub categories as specific as<\/p>\n
\u201cWrestling Shoes\u201d. I guess in some ways this is a good thing because right from the<\/p>\n
home page you are able to find exactly what you want, and even shop by your shoe<\/p>\n
size, but it just seems like too much in a navigation for me.<\/p>\n
Let me explain a little further. So the main navigation bar is a horizontal one right at<\/p>\n
the top with the Shop category in it, and when you click Shop it brings down not one<\/p>\n
but two more horizontal navigations. The first one that comes down has nine<\/p>\n
options to click on, from Men, Women, and all the way to Sale, and Team. Depending<\/p>\n
on which one you click, it changes the second dropped down navigation with the in<\/p>\n
depth parts. It\u2019s just way too much for me right off the bat I think.<\/p>\n
So, I know roughly what kind of shoes I want, which are Nike Roshe\u2019s. So from the<\/p>\n
first drop down I click on \u201cBrands\u201d, and from there the second drop down has logos<\/p>\n
for each of the brands.\u00a0 I am able to locate the Nike swoosh very easily and go off the<\/p>\n
homepage and into the actual process. This then goes to a huge list of Nike items,<\/p>\n
15,627 of them to be exact. However, it does come with a vertical navigation bar to<\/p>\n
refine your search some more, which is always a nice feature. So I limit mine to<\/p>\n
Shoes, for Men, Shoes, Size 13.0, and Red color. From there I am still having trouble<\/p>\n
finding them, and it\u2019s not until the 7th row of shoes on the search in their site until I<\/p>\n
find the type of pair I\u2019m interested in. This was a big let down for me. I then realize<\/p>\n
that there is a search bar in the top right corner, and I could\u2019ve just typed in Nike<\/p>\n
Roshe, but I didn\u2019t figure that out until after all of these clicks and wasted time.<\/p>\n
Once I\u2019m finally on the specific product page, it is very easy to add to cart, which sort<\/p>\n
of redeems the site a bit. It already remembered the size I wanted from the vertical<\/p>\n
drop down earlier and already selected it for me. The add to cart button is in black<\/p>\n
and gold and is very hard to miss. Once clicked, another navigation drops down<\/p>\n
automatically from the main navigation bar, this time showing the product I just<\/p>\n
added and asking on a big button if I would like to review cart or checkout. This<\/p>\n
navigation was actually very nice and avoided an extra step for me, because I am<\/p>\n
just ordering shoes and that\u2019s it, probably like most people are on the site. So having<\/p>\n
the ability to get to the checkout fast is a plus. I choose to pay with PayPal, an option<\/p>\n
that redirects me to login and approve it on PayPal\u2019s site, which is very simple to do<\/p>\n
as well. From there all I need to do is verify my billing info and then hit the Place<\/p>\n
Order button at the bottom.<\/p>\n
So even though it got confusing at the beginning a little and their navigation of the<\/p>\n
site is massive, overall I think the other positives make this an above average site to<\/p>\n
me. Looking back on it, it\u2019s kind of hard to do anything differently, because Eastbay\u2019s<\/p>\n
inventory is so massive that by default it also takes a massive navigation to<\/p>\n
accomplish, and rather jumping from page to page refining that search they are able<\/p>\n
to limit it to the homepage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By just reading the first chapter of\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t Make Me Think\u201d, my knowledge of the different elements that mostly all eCommerce sites use has already grown tremendously. For my first site review, I decided to actually do some shopping for myself. I needed a new pair of shoes, so I used one of the most … <\/p>\n