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Web Site Designs for the Retail Market by ET Productions
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Our Answers to the Makeover Challenge
Screen capture of JustBorders.com Yahoo Store after makeover
After Makeover of Yahoo Store
We revamped the page so that it now scales to fit any screen size from 800 x 600 up. Instead of showing sample strips of border (which look more like wrapping paper than wallpaper borders, we use room shots showing each major category of border, and tightened up the page so that two rows of these room images.
      For SEO we made sure that all headlines and link text were plain text styled in CSS, not text rendered as images. Rendered text is the Yahoo! Store default, search engines can't "read" images. We also gave each page its own unique TITLE tag, and META description and keywords.
      To attack the navigation problem, we set up top-level categories such as Borders, Bath Accessories, Wallpapers and Murals, etc. Rather than listing all the sub-categories in the left nav, we listed only the main categories of each heading; i.e., the main categories of Borders. For those categories that contained only items, the left navigation link shows in normal capitalization and leads straight to the section page full of items. But categories that contain further sub-category pages, such as ANIMALS, are shown in all caps. Clicking one of them expands out the menu to show all the sub-category pages within the ANIMALS category, and the menu remains expanded no matter where you navigate within the ANIMALS section. Only when you leave the section does the ANIMALS section expanded.
Context sensitive Expanding Navigation
 
The Makeover Challenge
The original site was designed to fit an 800 pixel screen width. About 15% of the Internet's users still surf at that low resolution. The vast majority use 1024 x 768 or above. So step one was to make the store scale to fill larger screens--not an easy task given the header.
JustBorders.com Yahoo! Store before makeover
Before Makeover

The original design was attractive enough, But it did little to brand the page. Research shows that Internet users decide within 1/20th of a second whether the page that just opened on their screen has what they are looking for. This screen shows as woman smiling and a shower curtain. Since the site sells nothing but wallpaper borders, the imaGERY tells visitors nothing of the site'd purpose.
      As usual, the site desperately needed SEO.
      Left navigation was both long and confusing. There was little rhyme or reason applied to the many links shown there. It needed something to better guide the eyes. We needed to make the navigation both complete and easy to take in.
      Visit the site and see how you think it compares with the old version (opens in new window). While you're there, click on ANIMALS or CHILDREN and see how the menus expand to show inner category detail.
 
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  Page URL: www.etproductions.com/portfolio/jusbor-yahoo-store-makeover.html
Copyright © ET! Productions & J. K. Hollomon, Jr., 2001.
Excerpts from original site, © 1998/99. All rights reserved.
Last revision: Saturday, 08-Jan-2005 14:07:42 PST		  
 

ET Productions
160 East Berkeley St, Suite 312
Boston, MA 02118
Phones:
Toll Free 800-448-6399
Boston Area 617-723-3339
Fax 617-723-7557

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