I’m probably really late seeing the redesign of Moleskine.com, but the site is such a vast improvement over the old one that I had to write something about it.
Easy to use navigation is a key component of a well-designed website, so I get really excited when I see evidence that a company has put some thought into the categories they’ll group their products into. Task-based navigation asks the customer what they want to do, or how they plan to use the product, and then organizes the products based on the customer’s answers. You can see this at work in the screen shot below.
The Moleskine product line is extensive, and sometimes choosing the right notebook for the job can be challenging, especially if you’re not familiar with the product. By asking site visitors to think about their needs before making a selection, the designers have increased the likelihood that a customer will choose the right product the first time. Sure, when you’re selling something you might want to have your customers stick around a little longer to see what is available, but what’s more important – a quick transaction that results in return business, or a poor transaction that results in the loss of a sale? Besides, there are other ways you can keep site visitors engaged o an e-commerce site, and Moleskine offers additional content in the form of news releases, an events calendar, and a build-your-own page application that gives customers the ability to design custom pages that will be inserted into notebooks they purchase through the website.
One small quibble – I think they might need to rethink the headings on their news categories. To my mind, there’s little difference between News, Press Releases and In The News. It seems a little redundant to me.
While I’m rocking Field Notes more often than Moleskines these days (It’s a money thing) the attention to design and customer needs are so beautifully handled on this site that I’m shaking my piggy bank to scare up a couple of extra Twonies so I can buy a new notebook. Well done, Moleskine.