Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I`m starting to think about a website for my jewelry design...and I want something unique.  I do custom jewelry (wire and glass) - and even though I want to show a gallery of the items I have available, my main goal is to get orders for custom pieces over selling the pieces I already have done.

From all the feedback posts, I`ve seen that most everybody seems to go for the traditional upside down "L" shaped sites with the logo banner along the top and the navigation down the left side as your frame and then just changing the stuff in the "data" area....kind of like a spreadsheet.

That`s not my style but I don`t know what I want...I`ve looked over different web designers portfolios and they all look like variations of the same templates with nothing unique.  Any suggestions on how to find someone who can give me the "outside the box" web development I`m looking for?

Be careful about going too outside the box - those formats exist for a reason.  Many studies have been done to show how exactly people scan web pages, and you can find the "hot spots" where it`s best to put your advertisements and so on.  Sometimes the pattern is called an F-pattern because ethe farther down the screen you go, the less people scan from left to right.  Even if you choose not to go with this pattern for your first version of the site you`re likely to come back to it once you get to the "How do I get more people to click on my ads" phase of web business ;).






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Personal: http://www.morinfamily.com/blog
Geeky: http://duanesbrain.blogspot.com
Shakespeare: http://suchshakespearestuff.blogspot.com

I agree with BardStuff on this one.  When creating a website, you must ask yourself 2 important strategic questions.

1. How will the website serve my company`s needs?
2. How will the website serve my customers` needs?

I would guess that YOUR need is to promote and sell your jewelry.  And your CUSTOMERs` needs would be to find more info about your jewelry and buy it.  The "outside of the box" thinking would be best directed toward your products.  (and some good grassroots marketing)

There`s now been over 10 years of testing, experimentation, and examination of what works best for websites. (it even has a name, "usability")  Website visitors are accustomed to certain standards on a website (web conventions). 

Some common web conventions include:

• Logo in the top left corner that links back to the home page
• Navigation along the top or left.
• Blue underlined links (although many sites break this rule..including this one)

Think of a designing a car...would you want to put the steering wheel on the roof...and use buttons on the console for the brake and accelerator?  The car could get 100 miles to the gallon, have a full spectrum of comfort and safety features, but if it`s too unfamiliar to drive...it probably won`t sell.  Think of your website this way.

Now there definitely could..and will be..changes, upgrades, and adaptations to "web conventions" and what users expect to see.  The question is whether you want to attempt to create these yourself...or whether you should use the best conventions currently available to get your products sold.

You can use branding to differentiate your company, which does include look and feel.  However, in my opinion, the most important aspect of branding on a website is making it as EASY as possible for your visitors to "do what they came there to do".    I always refer back to some of the most successful e-commerce sites out there...Amazon.com, eBay.com, Overstock.com..

Look at how these sites present information and learn from them.  They`ve spent a lot of money testing how users behave on their websites.  Check out http://www.uie.com/ if you get a chance...they dedicate a whole site to what works best on websites.

Best of luck to you!

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Brian Cleveland,
Web Producer,
StartupNation

First, I`m not mass marketing custom jewelry.  I make it by hand and don`t want to get tons of hits to my site because I wouldn`t be able to keep up if too many people ordered.  My jewelry is marketed to a very specific niche group of people and I know for a fact they aren`t the type to react well to an "Amazon.com" looking site.

Second, I hate the way those sites you listed look and I only deal with them for the bargain prices I can get there.  My jewelry is custom made - hence, not bargain - so if I want my customers to pay the prices for custom jewelry, I don`t want a website that looks generic - a carbon copy of Ebay - if they want Ebay jewelry, they`ll go to Ebay.

Lastly, my question was how to find someone who can design something for me that`s outside the box, not should I do it.  Instead of trying to convince me (the customer in this situation) that what I want is wrong, why don`t you answer my question as to if you know of anyone or how I can find someone who will design outside the box?  If the only thing web designers know how to design is the "F" layout, then just say that and I`ll figure something else out.

LMC,

I came across a member here in the SUN Community that creates fantastic flash-based websites.  It looks to me as though they can certainly create something "outside the box"  for you - member name is "Ignite" and the website is http://www.i-gnite.com/ .

That being said, and realizing that you are creating premium items, there are user interface conventions that are utilized in almost all websites - ignore them at your peril!  Usability experts have studied folks "using" the Internet and interacting with thousands upon thousands of websites - and have created these conventions as a result of very hard work and study - just like the hard work and sacrifice that you put into your jewelry!!

PS - I can understand the pride that you take in your work - for a hobby, I hand-craft bamboo fly rods which sometimes take 60 - 80 hours of work each!!!

Good luck in your endeavors!


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John Incantalupo AnglerUniversity.com joninc@AnglerUniversity.com "Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." - Henry David Thoreau

LMC -

I do know what you mean in regards to the rather generic look of the vast majority of sales-oriented sites.  The "cookie-cutter" look just does not appeal to most creative types - and you don`t necessarily have to accept that type of site for the marketing and promotion of your own work.

I`d suggest doing a online search for the sites of other jewelry designers or artists to find what you do and don`t like.  On of my favorite artists has a site that still follows some of the conventional aspects mentioned by Brian - but is unique to the work of the artist - it`s the site of Daniel Ng.  Another site of a "creative type" that I like is that of Gloria Estefan`s make-up artist Sidney Jamila.  It was designed by my friend web designer/developer Jason Holland and it is far from a generic site.

Sites of artistic/creative individuals don`t necessarily fit into all the "standards" of the usual web design project.  My friend Ilise Benun has written a couple books related to the online efforts of creative individuals.  While primarily written for an audience of those in the graphic design industry, her books Self-Promotion Online and Designing Websites for Every Audience are great resources for any small business person - especially those in the creative fields.

As far a finding someone to help you with designing and developing the site you wish, don`t be shy about contacting artists whose sites you like to learn with whom they worked.  Ask local businesses for referrals.  Contact instructors at area art or design schools to see if there are web designers/developers they would recommend.

Best of luck - J.




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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

LMC,

So you are seeking to have a web site developed but you don`t know which type of layout you prefer? Well that is a question that I come across almost every week. As a web designer and developer the first thing I do before I start on the coding is plan (site architecture phase or the doodle stage as I call it) I take one thing into consideration.

Which is try not to use the conventional web design style or the so called "L" style you are mentioning. The "L" style is to old and customers are aware of this. Although, many critique this issue, standing out from the rest is your best bet.

Give your customer not only a well thought out web site but a nice shoping experience if you are going to use it to sell anything.
Here is what`s happening on the internet, Everyone wants to copy eachother, the same look, the same Navigation scheme, and the same corporate look.

 With this in mind, you are giving your customer confidence "He starts falling under the confidence gap category" the confidence gap is the buyers inability to judge whether any product or service is better, worse, or cheaper than others. The buyer doesn`t have the control, so they stall, think, compare, and will try to gather as much information as possible.

What you need to do is gather all that information and somewhere in your web site try to address every aspect or question your client may have.
It is not in the "LAYOUT" but in the content of your web site. Along with the content of your web site, comes another issue "A good HTML" Programmer,
Although WYSIWIG`s are good, there are times when a programmer needs to get his hands dirty in the code "My Style is I prefer hard coding".
Other things you may want to educate yourself with are web site standards, and compatibility, make sure the lay out you choose is going to display correctly in Safari for the Mac People, Mozilla, Netscape, and of course IE 6.0,
All these features need to be addressed in the lay out of your choice. need to know more about HTML and the standards visit http://www.w3c.org
This will give you an idea of what having a well thought out and coded web site needs to look like. It will explain to you the rules of HTML and the what not to do`s and it gives all developers the knowledge they need to output a clean web site.

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net