OUGD504 - Studio Brief 2 - Existing Digital Examples

Existing Examples relevant to subject or system

 Ebay

'eBay Inc. is a multinational e-commerce corporation, facilitating online consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales' 

- Ebay is a site that allows people to buy and sell goods, mainly second hand, however it is not limited to this. The site is used by 168 million people worldwide making it one of the largest places to buy and sell a huge range of goods. 

- The site has a huge range of goods and items to buy making it important to categorise things to help people find what they are looking for. To help search for things items are categorised into relevant groups such as Fashion, Home. Hovering over these shows further subcategories to refine the search, showing top categories allows people to quickly find commonly looked for items. The categories allow for focussed browsing for people who perhaps aren't quite sure what they are looking for. Having the categories at the top of the home page makes it visible and easy to search for things. 

- Once a category is chosen this clicks through to the main page for that category which provides more topic specific content to enable more focussed searching. Further subcategories are placed down the side of the page to allow the full title of the categories to be read, which would not fit into a search bar like the one on the homepage. 

- The search bar allows people to quickly find a specific item that they are looking for straight from the homepage, as a quick find tool. The search bar also comes up with predictive searches to help you find similar or the same item in different ways. To make a search the search button can be clicked to the right of the search bar or the enter button on the keyboard can be pressed for a shortcut.   

- When a search has been made however there are still thousands of results, so to further refine a search there are tick boxes to minimise results such as colour, condition, price etc.

- Clicking the logo allows the user to return to the homepage quickly and easily.

- Images of items are a fixed size to create some cohesiveness between all the different products, creating a better sense of order with the mix of products. 

- The site provides the option to either 'Buy it Now' or buy the item through an Auction which usually lasts for a week. This allows people the opportunity to sell the item quickly by having a low starting point for the auction to tempt bids. The 'Buy it Now' option is longer however people set the price they want to sell the item for. This is often used for people who are selling multiples of items at competitive prices. 

- When clicking on a item the 'Buy it Now' and 'Submit a Bid' options are highlighted by adding a coloured box around them to make them more noticeable.

- The use of a neutral coloured background means that the mixture of content and styles does not clash with it.

- Does the consumer actually use categories for searching? Perhaps there are too many subcategories? Do people not just search for what they are looking for? Are the browsing categories just to tempt people to buy more than they need?

Etsy

- Etsy is an online marketplace for  people to buy and sell handcrafted goods and craft supplies 

- The main user groups of buyers and sellers have an experience that is tailored to them with different areas with a different set of features and functions 

- Placing the search bar at the top of the site allows for easy searching and navigation around the site and encourages people to search for specific items.

- The greyed text within the search bar suggests what can be searched for allowing the user to better understand how they can use the feature. The use of the grey suggests that the text is not permanent and can be typed over.

- Having a bright search button emphasises the feature making it clear it needs to be pressed to use the function whilst also drawing attention to the search bar encouraging exploration.

- Both the search bar and category bar are available wherever you are in the site allowing for easy navigation between sections

- Large listing images allow for visual understanding , whilst text is kept quite small.

- When a listing page is viewed there are extensive filter categories down one side allowing the user to refine their search to find the correct product for them. 

- The use of changing features on the homepage creates a sense of dynamism and allows the site to show the user different themes quickly and in limited space.

- The site uses a light off white coloured background to create contrast between this and the mix of imagery on the site allowing the listings to stand out.

- The ability to scroll through listings means that more listings can be fit on a page, whilst the gridded structure of the images means that every listing has the same amount of space with no bias towards particular listings.

Freecycle

'The Freecycle Network is a nonprofit organization registered in Arizona and as a charity in the United Kingdom. TFN coordinates a worldwide network of "gifting" groups to divert reusable goods from landfills.'

- Freecycle has over 9,138,164 members around the world and has 5,310 groups.The site is a grassroots and non profit organisation that aims to provide a platform for people to give and get stuff for free in their local community.

- When entering the site the first thing it asks for is your location as a way of directing you to the listings near you as the items are for collection only. 

- There is a bar at the top of the page with categories and drop down bars with various information about the project.

- The use of green within the design makes the link to environmentalism  

- Once the location has been entered the list of items that are available are shown. The use of  green and red differentiates between Wanted items and things that are being Offered. The bar at the top allows the listings to be filtered to just show Offers or Wanted items making it easier to find the relevant information.  

Gumtree

- The first page uses mixture of images in a similar way to Ebay however there is less curation of the images which makes the site look less appealing in comparison to Ebay, despite the colourful branding. 

- The categories within the site are quite broad with some subjects contrasting quite heavily making Gum Tree a source for both physical items, services, jobs and property. 

- The interface uses both categories and a search bar in a similar way to ebay. Having the search bar allows users to quickly find what they are looking for, whilst the categories bar allows for the browsing of items. Gumtree is a collection only site so entering the postcode also allows you to refine the search to local listings . 

- When the listings appear there are also a lot of ads and sponsored links which can make it confusing to see which are the actual listings initially.

- Once something has been searched the result can be filtered by location and category to narrow the result.

- Each listing allows for multiple images to be uploaded in a slideshow format to allow users to better visualise the product.

Materia

- The use of high quality, close up imagery makes the materials the main focus of the website. Having multiple product views allows the products uses to be shown clearly and visually engaging.  

- When looking for materials the search bar is effective for specific searches such as the name of  product however is not so good for more general searches for materials e.g. wood.

- The use of a neutral background colour allows contrast to be created between this and the imagery.

- Materials have a 'fact file' on their properties allowing users to know what the material is good for.