IRWD 2012: E-commerce site lessons from the world of product design
22.05.12
Good design, he said, avoids anything superfluous. “Design should have integrity,” Blum said. “Everything in the design should relate to the problem you are trying to solve.” Quality also should be apparent in the design of products—or web sites. “The quality of the work should be evident,” he said. “We should not have to explain it.” In the end, good design provides such an effective yet simple solution to the problem it is seeking to solve that it strikes viewers as “exactly the way it should be,” he said.
Herman Miller applied those principles when creating a product configurator for office furniture on its site—a challenging proposition as the 85 products it chose to offer are all custom manufactured and represent more than 1 million possible combinations. Blum said Herman Miller designed the configurator to be as easy to use as possible, enabling shoppers to select options including swatches, detail enlargements, and instant imaging and pricing updates on a single product page. The page also includes an Add To Cart button—all in an uncluttered, spare presentation designed not to overwhelm the consumer.
Source: InternetRetailer.com