A few months ago I was introduced to a novel way of social bookmarking. A very visual and inspiring way of keeping track of things you would want to go back to for ideas and inspiration. It was an invite-only network and it was called Pinterest. I was instantly hooked. Very much like the multitude of exclusive design and social networks that are out there, Pinterest requires you to be initiated by someone. Once you sign up, you can start creating virtual boards and "pin" images on to those boards. It even creates a couple of standard boards for you like Travel, Food, Home, Fashion. You can browse boards created by other people, you can follow people who are pinning things you might like to see and you can Like and comment galore. 

The pin is a visual with a link back to the original website from where it was pinned. This is the crux of the Pinterest fad. The thing of beauty that really makes it work. Not only do you get to store on your own board, a thing of beauty, but you also have access to the original source whether it is a full fledged article or a link to buy that amazing letter pressed poster. No wonder I was hooked like the tens of millions who have jumped on to the Pinterest Wagon.

I have been away for almost a year. And I have been well, thank you! I have been blogging a lot about food on Cook Republic and have finally re-launched Stars We Love. But now I am back, so there! And to pledge my legion to my latest addiction, Pinterest; I have created a bevy of gorgeous sticker style Pinterest Social Icons that you can use to pimp up your websites and blogs. As always, they are free to use for both personal and commercial purposes.

Spread some Pinterest love and don’t forget to follow my awesome boards on Pinterest.

 Download Pinterest Social Sticker Icon Set

Sticker Mule prints stuff that sticks! Literally! Today we have a fantastic giveaway for all of you. We are giving 2 readers $100 worth of free custom stickers. Sticker Mule makes ordering custom stickers as simple as possible. Just upload your artwork, pick your size and shape, and they’ll send you a free online proof. They even provide free shipping within the US!

The Prize: $100 in store credit for at Stickermule.com

To Enter: Just comment on this post.

2 winners will be chosen at random.  Contest ends May 20, 2011; Eastern Australian Time.
 

**** WINNERS****

Brenden Hudson & Kerrie Anne Bennett

Congratulations Guys! Look out for an email from me and Sticker Mule.

1. Scott Pilgrim Kissing Mug

Have you watched Scott Pilgrim? The modern day epitome of geek oozes out from every part of the movie. These Scott Pilgrim kissing mugs for "him" and "her" would be perfect to pour some of that geekiness into your everyday life.

2. Mans Candle

A candle for the man! Nutmeg & Ginger with a splash of Motor Oil. Lemongrass & Thyme with a dash of Lady Luck …. very creative and geeky fragrance combinations. I wonder what they smell like!

3. I Love My Geek Tees

Spunky looking tees for him and her. Go on! Proclaim your geekiness!

4. 8-Bit Flower Bouquet

Someone recently raised a question about how much those cut flowers in vases cost? The ones that sit on a coffee table during a television chat show or interview. It is a legitimate question. How cool would it be to give your love some gorgeous flowers that didn’t need watering and also told them that you value your money and the environment?

5. i-heart Necklace

So cute and crafty, centimeters on the outside, inches on the inside.

6. Heart Logo Necklace

Modern, cool, this necklace looks like a paper aeroplane. But it also has the geometric shape of a heart, with two halves of a perfectly matched whole. This would most definitely excite the logo designer or origami nerd in your life!

7. The Ladies Of Star Wars Playing Cards

This one actually made me crack up! But you’d win brownie points if you gave this to your Star Wars crazy boyfriend/husband this Valentine’s!

8. I Love You In Binary – 8×10 Geek Print

A fun, bold print that says "I Love You" in Binary. Nothing else says I Love You Better!

9. LeWhif Breathable Chocolate

All the headiness and kick of chocolate without actually eating it? Brilliant!

10. Cute Lego Brick Rings

These are absolutely adorable! And so many vibrant colors to choose from! PRomise your love in true retro geek style.

11. Nerd in ASCII Binary Code Messenger Bag

Very stylish bag for the geek in your life!

12. Pac-Man Candy

Pac-man and the ghosts, full of sweet yummy candy. This Valentine’s Day share some arcade sweetness and also end up with some rare pac-man collector’s tins.

13. USB Mix Tape

You can’t have a lovey-dovey relationship without a mixed tape! So what if cassette players are defunct. Go the USB way!

14. ion Audio iPTUSB Potable USB Turntable

Give your guy or girl this swanky limited edition red turntable and watch them swoon all over you!

15. Pantone Covers For iPhone And iPad

You MUST buy this! How amazing are these Pantone covers to dress up your favorite gadgets?

16. Camera Armor

Lightweight silicone camera skins by Camera Armor would endear you even more to your photography mad other half! These are gorgeous and would make a lovely gift.

17. Lovers Name A Star

Name a star after your loved one and one for yourself and be immortalized in the night skies for the next 10 billion years or more! Romantic, profound and absolutely mad!

18. Skullcandy Hesh Paul Frank Headphones – Black Julius

I have one of these and they are amazing! They are bold, loud, stunning and perfect to accessorize your ipod or laptop.

19. His & Hers Wii-Motes (In US Only)

Nintendo will be releasing special edition remotes for him and her this Valentine’s Day in the US. Get you game face on!

20. I Love You – By Threadless

This tee sums it all up very nicely!

As for me. I am going gift-free this year. So is Nick! We are opting instead for a special lunch and dinner together where we will no doubt remniscise about past Valentine’s days and the surprises we sprung on each other and the juvenile gifts we exchanged. On that note, wish you all a very Happy Valentine’s Day.

It is the day and age of online readers, electronic books, pdf compendiums and Kindles. At the book store, I might buy a book on an impulse, but 9 out of 10 times, I come back home, get onto the internet and hunt for a bargain on various online bookstores. Such is the lure of online bookstores and the surprise price-busting deals that attracts book lovers worldwide, that  more and more publishers choose to sell exclusively on online book stores.

One of the first things to consider when designing an online bookstore is that there are similar physical entities [actual bookstores] present around us. By providing an online medium to buy the product, we are not only obliged to make it easier for the buyer but we are also expected to provide a very interactive and unique experience which might not beat the feeling of actually holding a book in their hands, but would come pretty close to it. Don’t you just hate it when you are browsing a bookstore online and you click on a book you like and it doesn’t give you any information besides the title and an author?

 

The Structure And Flow Of An Online Bookstore

Design Elements – Visual, Functional, Interactive And Updates

Visual – Creativity can be unleashed and ideas can be set free here. If a store is small and boutique, getting creative with the layout and navigation to stand out would be a great idea. If the store is huge and has scores of products, a minimal design, visually speaking is the best choice. When I say visually minimal design, I don’t mean a stunning artsy design floating amidst white space. I refer to a clean and structured design with repetitive use of similar design elements that create an illusion of minimalism without making the design appear cluttered.

Functional – As easy as picking a book off the shelf and sliding it back in, an online bookstore’s functionality is what will make or break it. The real world "Stacks" can be beautifully translated to the online "Grids". A grid-based design for display and browsing is perfect for the intricacies of an online book store because it maximizes space and creates the illusion of books lined up next to each other, the way we are used to it.

Interactive – Search is the lifeblood on a system like this. The more interactive it is, the better. Ask yourself what you or someone browsing for books in a store looks for. Name [alphabetically arranged], information about editions, types of copies available [large format, hardbound, softcover, Digital versions], whether it is part of a bigger pack etc.

When you are in a bookstore, you can feel the raised detailing on the cover, you can read the inset summary, you can flip it open [and you can smell the pages, which unfortunately just cannot be captured in an online bookstore] and bombard your senses with images, words and textures. How would you maximize that and capture that experience on a website would determine how much of a pleasurable buying experience your online store provides.

Make allowance for structured information display along with the product images. If you plan to have a member section, enhance interactivity by providing means for members to add information that you might not have. Envision lists, wishlists, favorites, bookmarks, ratings, detailed reviews, 10-word reviews, tagging, discussion boards, "ask the author" interfaces, book clubs, reading marathons, literary events and anything else you can think of that will enhance the interactivity and user experience.

Non-Design Elements – Supply/Stock/Movement

As designers, we have to be aware of how our design and the system we create would work to provide a smooth flow between the suppliers and the customers, with the store itself as a go between. So although we don’t have to worry about whether a book is in stock or not, we do have to make allowances for situations like that arising in a transaction from both perspectives [Store Administrators and Customers]. Factor in  notifications and flags with appropriate icons. Allow lists, wishlists and effective forms to input that information as well as display them efficiently.

I have never designed an online book store and thought that it would be a fantastic idea to deconstruct the design of a popular online book store and try to understand what goes into the design and development of one. I have dug into the aesthetics and workings of one such store from the designer as well as the end user’s perspective.

For our case study, I have chosen the Amazon.com book store.

A little bit about the history of the Amazon Online Book Store

Amazon.com was started by a man named Jeff Bezos in 1994 in his basement garage in Bellevue, Washington. Over the years with several of the initial fundings coming from people who believed in what Jeff was doing, Amazon has grown from the original online bookstore to America’s largest online retail giant.
 

What makes it Unique?

The sheer age of it means that when people first started buying books, it was there so it managed to capture a very wide consumer market based simply on its availability and the fact that it was one of the first of its kind.

Despite being part of a bigger network of products, it has a very comprehensive catalog catering to every kind of bookworm possible with books available in multiple formats and a massive community of book lovers who take advantage of the rating and reviewing system to provide an honest and valuable "buying advice" like no other.

Why It Works?

In a way Amazon is not just run by the guys at Amazon, it is heavily influenced by the customers who buy things off their online shelves. One of the very few online stores to provide  the "Look Inside" service where you can actually peek at a couple of pages before buying the book makes the book buying experience very close to the actual one. Ease of ordering, back-ordering, pre-ordering, returns and a wide variety of payment options including gift vouchers and a million other redemption facilities, make Amazon the best in its field.

What It Lacks?

As a customer, although I love the amazing selection on offer and ease of use, I feel it lacks color and jazz. As a designer I can understand their need for maximizing white space and drawing attention to the text on a white background. I also understand their need to keep their operation fast-loading and size optimized with crisp and minimal graphic elements, but with images going bigger on websites with faster connections, I really feel they need to inject a bit of color on their otherwise bland pages. Their "Book" home is every bit as bland as the internal pages with no clear demarcation of "Special Offers" or "New Releases". Because of the sheer amount of books they have tried to cram onto the home page, a subtly visual color coding separation of some kind would have been great.

Right from childhood, our brains are trained to seek out books on overcrowded library shelves and bookstores with books stacked from the floor to the ceiling in a never ending maze of aisles. Any other kind of product browsing online would call for wide open spaces, but book browsing needs a semblance of those tightly packed shelves, at least some of it. Amazon could do with more books displayed on a single page, rather than the sparse designer-wear showroom effect they seem to have in place.

 

DECONSTRUCTING

NAVIGATION

Amazon has a very basic top navigation. It is clean and functional but a bit lost amongst bigger text on the pages. The second-tier navigation on the left is very in depth and serves its purpose. When you click on one of these links and enter the third-tier, things start getting confusing. The second-tier navigation on the left completely disappears and is replaced by the third set of sub-navigation and you don’t realize anything has changed because it follows the same colors, sizes and linkage as the earlier two.

When you eventually click on an item of interest, you land on a very comprehensive item page. This page has no breadcrumbs at the top to follow the trail back to the 2-3 levels of links you have clicked, should you decide that the product you clicked on was not the right one. The breadcrumbs are right at the bottom, cleverly hidden or it may seem after all the product information, reviews and sponsored links.

LISTS AND PAGES

The List Pages of Amazon are again basic which for big online catalogs is a good thing. My grouch with their list display is the space being wasted on each listing as it is a horizontal one  and not a grid-style listing. A grid-style listing would probably enable them to list the same number of books with less vertical scroll or more number of books with the same vertical scroll as the present one. It would also enable them to increase their thumbnail images in size, making the entire design more appealing and colorful without introducing a new color or graphic element. It would also balance the layout with thumbnails now appearing on left and right instead of being banded in a vertical line on the left.

The individual "product" page or book listing is Amazon’s saving grace. It is one of the best ones I have seen on an online bookstore. Starting off with a couple of product images on top, information regarding pricing, discounts, stock availability and shipping, you are for certain products offered an option to actually browse some pages. With easy buying options hovering on your right, you are shown similar products and a plethora of tags and keywords relevant to the current book you are browsing.

 

Summary

PROS

1. It has virtually everything you would ever need to browse a book store online.
2. It is fast and efficient.
3. It has a good ordering and transaction processing system in place.
4. It utilizes interactive pdf readers to give you a limited glimpse at certain books.
5. It is an intelligent system and remembers your browsing history, makes the right product suggestions based on your searches and offers on the spot deals by pulling up two or more related products of interest to you.
6. It offers a wide variety of choices from buying "used" or "new" to saving you bucks by offering different kinds of shipping.
7. Icons and buttons to "buy" and show "discounts" are used effectively throughout the site.
8. Original price strike-throughs with new, discounted prices in bright and bold colors do their job.
9. The community section of the website with "book discussion threads", "ratings and reviews" and "book lists" are well integrated with the actual content, allowing intelligent and informed browsing.

CONS

1. The Home page doesn’t show you a list of "Current Topsellers" or "Newly Released Books" or "Pre-Order these Anticipated Books" straightaway or clearly, like you would see the moment you enter an actual book store.
2. "Recommended Reads" and "Special Deals" are not highlighted enough on any of the pages.
3. Typography is not used effectively. All fonts virtually appear to be of the same weight.
4. Too much information clutters the internal pages. Heavy content could have been broken up with effective use of more modern icons.
5. On bigger screens, the left half of the page bears the burden of the most content whereas the right half of the page is quite bare, leading to a visual imbalance.
6. Halfway down each page, every box seems like the footer and there are too many of those boxes.
7. The product sliders are not very prominent and can be easily missed.

In Parting

Visualizing, designing and building an online bookstore is a massive task and an evolutionary one as well. What we have looked at today in this article barely skims the surface of a project that big. But a voluntary exercise like this, where you deconstruct an existing website, allows you to think and learn about how you would begin to start designing one, what obstacles you would face, the design limitations that would arise due to size, speed and demographics of the  website and how you would go about tackling issues like that. I like to flex my thought process by assigning a random design and development exercise occasionally. You might not become an expert at it, but it is amazing how many new things you will learn. I hope you have enjoyed this little walk-about through the aisles of Amazon’s online bookstore.

Last year when I did What Designers Really Want For Christmas in 2009?, a lot of nice folks from the design community pitched in with their wishlists. This year, everyone seemed to be busier. Hence I have fewer people sharing their wishlists and rare stuff that has caught their fancy. I find that picking another designer’s brain on what he or she thinks might make a fabulous gift for Christmas is a nice way to discover fancier gadgets, classic display pieces fro your studio or that amazing present that will forever mark you as the person who bought that quirky gift to an office party. I wanted a Nano this year and I know for a fact that I am getting a cute little blue iPod Nano that will be perfect for my solo train journeys, my jog around the park, my endless dishwashing escapades and my torture sessions at the gym. Read on to see what some awesome designers out there are craving this Christmas!

David Airey | @davidairey

I’ve been eying-up this two metre wide canvas showing a map of the world. Might get it for my office wall. These light bulbs are also on my office hit-list.

Jacob Cass – Just Creative Design | @jacobcass

I actually just got this new shirt (hasn’t arrived just yet) but I found it cool.

Nick La – Web Designer Wall | @nickla

I would say iPhone or iPad.

Chris Spooner – Spoon Graphics | @chrisspooner

In last year’s ‘What designers really want for Christmas’ list I wrote about wanting to apply for a motorcycle license – I still haven’t got round to do so but it’s still near the top of my list. This year I’d love for Santa to treat me to a gift that would last the whole year, and that’s tickets to a bunch of design conferences. There’s some big events around the world, it would be awesome to make the trips and meet lots of fab people.

Louis Gubitosi – iBlend | @iblend

I’m looking forward to getting Apple TV.

Jeff Finley | @jeff_finley

Of course I want the latest iPod or Macbook or whatever, but here are some more unqiue things:

• At least a 10×10 sheet of linoleum to practicing bboying in my basement
• A surround sound system for my bedroom so I can listen to relaxing nature sounds at bedtime in the most realistic way possible
• I’ve been wanting but never purchased the Mike Leigh box set of films – there are 3 volumes. And the 7up Series box set.
• A wireless shower speaker with iPod dock
• This book Portable Grindhouse – the lost art of the VHS Box
• This Roc N Soc Drum Throne
• A pass to SXSW this year

Duane Kinsey – Logobird | @logobird

I would really like to get into photography more so a Canon EOS 550D DSLR is high on my wishlist. Apart from that a new 17" MacBook Pro will do just fine. I am planning to relocate to London next year and do quite a bit of overseas travel, so I need to upgrade my mobile hardware. And yes, I know I am being greedy!

Jeff Fisher – Logomotives | @logomotives

The Lego Architecture Landmark Series – especially the Space Needle and a book, The Poster Art of David Lance Goines: A 40-Year Retrospective.

Martin LeBlanc – Iconfinder | @iconfinder

On top of my list are these geeky pillows. Also the new book by Kevin Kelly, ‘What technology wants‘. It’s kind of like the movie ‘What women want’ but for technology.

What Do You Want For Christmas?

I hope you enjoyed this little wishlist. Why don’t you tell us what you want for Christmas this year and what are you buying for the designer/geek in  your life?

You might also find these lists very interesting if you are still looking for presents.

• 30 Designer Christmas Gifts To Give The Geek In 2010
• 30 Fun And Affordable Delicious Gifts For The Foodie In 2010