Created by Susan Parker (Unlicensed), last modified on Mar 06, 2012
Original comments from Laddawn on Corey's 2/27 revised designs, Corey's responses in purple, resulting action items in red.


Hi team – thank you for your feedback! We greatly appreciate hearing your thoughts in detail. For any questions or responses to your feedback from Corey – we have added text in Laddawn Purple below.


General:

  • Overall, we like the changes including the semantic use of color, and we think you have addressed many of the concerns we discussed in our previous meeting.
    • We are very glad to hear that you are happy with many of the changes, and are glad to have addressed the concerns we discussed in the last round.

 

  • We liked the subtle way in which some shapes were made to mirror the Laddawn logo (3 rounded corners and 1 square corner). We are a little curious as to whether that should carry through to additional shapes (e.g. the column heads, the footer, bottom of results, etc.) or would that be overkill? Was it intentional not to use this shape in all instances?
    • We are happy to try and use this shape in the column headers for the Search Results and Cart pages as we discussed during our call. However, we do feel that this amount of detail has the potential to make the design look busy, which is why we did not repeat this shape in every instance. We recommend trying the shape in the column headers so we can all take a look, and from there evaluate whether we want to keep this treatment and apply it to more shapes, or revert to the simpler, uniform rounded rectangle treatment used previously.
    • Please note: we have additional information on the display of rounded corners within the site as told to us by our front-end developer, Sherri. Please see our note on page 5 for this information.
    • Chris: Let's discuss which shapes to change. -SP, 3/6


Top banner:

  • Where would you put navigation to our marketing content? (Somewhere in the banner seems like a logical place.)
    • We agree that the marketing content should appear in or near the page header. We are anticipating that the user avatar & user login/account links will not appear on the marketing site, and this will open up a space for the main nav to potentially appear. We feel that we will need to work with the design to determine the best possible place for the main nav on the marketing site, but do feel that we have plenty of places for this menu that will work well with the current design.
    • Will wait and see what Corey does with pre-login home page. -SP, 3/6

 

  • Although it seems to be an overall improvement, the white space between the logo on the left, and the "Welcome [user]!" box on the right, seems relatively large. Is that intentional? Or are you reserving this space for another use, such as navigation to marketing content? Although we agree that the photograph that Laddawn had placed there was probably too distracting, and we're not opposed to white space per se,this space feels empty or unfinished.
    • Our intention was to keep the design of the page header simple, easy to navigate, and uncluttered. However, if you find the white space between the Laddawn information and user information distracting, we can provide an alternative layout option for this area, and present the alternative option to you in the next round of design.
    • Will wait and see what Corey does with pre-login home page. -SP, 3/6

 

  • On a related note, it seems as though the Laddawn logo could be 15-20% larger. We can play around with that but do you have thoughts?
    • We believe that making the Laddawn logo much larger will throw it out of proportion with other elements on the page. We definitely want the logo to be clear and prominent, however, we don't want it to take too much attention away from the interactive components, or disrupt the hierarchy of calls-to-action on the site.
    • Chris: Please make Laddawn logo 20% larger on all pages.  -SP, 3/6

 

  • Some of us felt the phone number and hours beneath the logo sent a mixed message (encouraging people to call when what we want them to do is transact business online; emphasizing that we're on the east coast, at the same time we're trying to convey a national presence). Some thought that Laddawn's new tagline (if/when we have one?), or "We are Laddawn" belongs here. Others felt indifferent or positive about the inclusion of the phone number and hours here. Everyone agreed though that the contact information should be easy to find, whether via the banner or footer or both. [Need to decide if we're just sharing this feedback, or if we want them to act on it in some way.]
    • We understand your concern about making too strong a connection between Laddawn's contact information and the logo, and how it may encourage people to call rather than use the website, or reduce emphasis Laddawn's national presence. However, when we think about this from a customer's perspective, we also agree with your point that having the information we need right at our hands at all times will contribute to a great overall experience. If we do want to remove this contact information from beneath the logo, we still recommend including it in the header, so it will be immediately and easily accessible.
    • Chris: Please replace hours/phone no. with current Laddawn tagline (to be replaced eventually w/new tagline); "America's easiest way to buy bags."  -SP, 3/6


Tabbed application navigation (Shop, Saved Carts, Tagged Items, Order History, Cart).

  • In your first slide it is shown in a collapsed state – is this intentional, and if so, what is the thought process that led to this? We believe search should be shown in its expanded state on the default application page (a change we can make ourselves), but we're open to your thoughts on this if you have any.
    • We feel it would be helpful to explain our thinking here in a little more detail. On the first side of the presentation, we are showing the default view for when the first user logs in, with the search tab selected in the main tab navigation. The search tab consists of three main states – a) search default; b) refine search, and; c) search results. The refine search state will only pop-up when an item from the description drop-down menu is selected, and the content of the refine search module will vary depending on which item is selected. Because of this, we think that showing the refine search module on page load may cause confusion, as the user needs to begin their search process through the drop-down menu to see this module. In this sense, we view the search default state and refine search state as sequential steps, rather than collapsed/expanded states, and we recommend showing the first step in the search process rather than the second on page load.
    • Chris: Owen requested you to mockup his idea (3/5); I had come up with some additional ideas last Fri, will let you know if any other mockups requested. SP, 3/5

 

  • We are not sure why the expanded version of search is presented in two blocks; what is the thinking behind this? [Note, I have additional questions about placement of zip code near 'search by item #' logged in the FR for search, answers to which could have bearing on ths.]
    • Our thinking is that separating the search default and refine search modules will help to clarify their relationship. In order to see the refine search module, a user will need to choose a menu option from the description drop-down. And, if a user changes their selected menu item, the content of the refine search module will repopulate based on their selected choice. We feel the visual separation will help indicate that actions in the upper module influence the content in the lower module. However, if you would prefer to remove the space here, we can look into alternative treatments for visually separating these two modules. If your questions on the zip code still apply after our response, please let us know.

 

  • We agree with the general principles you articulated regarding the semantic use of the two purples (reddish and bluish) and change of value from dark to light as you navigate them. But we debated amongst ourselves which tabs really belonged together and which deserved to stand alone. To some of us, it's the cart that stands apart; while all of the others are about finding and picking products, and in the end, generate specific search results (product listings), the cart is about closing the deal. To others, the separation of search from the rest felt right, as search is the core of the application, and could almost stand on its own. What are your thoughts?
    • We understand your thinking on how these tabs should be grouped, and after reconsidering the grouping based on this feedback, we recommend treating the Tagged Items and Order History tabs in Laddawn Purple (so they will align with the Search tab) and keeping Cart and Saved Carts in the indigo color option. We agree that Tagged Items and Order History will also involve finding and picking products, but also think that saved carts would be more in line with "closing the deal." With this change, we also think it would be best to move saved carts to the left so it will be the fourth tab from the left, next to the Cart tab.
    • Chris, please make changes recommended by Corey. SP, 3/6



Narrative thread:

  • We are very pleased with the changes you made here.
    • Glad to hear that you are liking the changes!

 

  • What do you envision the user seeing when they click:
    • Users?
    • This link only pertains to users who are administrators within their organization, and allows the administrators to view and manage their team's accounts. In Chris's case it would be a way for him to see who is in his company network, manage his team's individual permissions, etc. If Chris was not an administrator, this link would not appear.

 

    • Post to… (down arrow)?
    • This allows users to choose who to share their message with. Clicking the down arrow will trigger a drop-down menu, and from there users can target their message to the group of their choice. Options for this menu could be the user's company team, the entire Laddawn team, or the user's Laddawn Sales Rep.

 

    • All posts (down arrow)?
    • This is also a drop-down menu that would allow users to refine the types of posts that show up in their Message Thread. For example, the user could choose to view only message and comments from their team members, shared items from their team, shared items from their sales rep, system update messages about their orders, charity updates, etc.
    • We also just want to mention that more detailed explanations on how these elements will behave can be found in the latest wireframe document – please let us know if you'd like us to resend the wireframes for your review.


(We have our own ideas, but wanted to know what you were thinking.)
User preferences:

  • Again, we liked your semantic use of color, in particular orange for user-specific design elements. To strengthen this relationship, we feel that the "My Account" link in the banner should be orange, or have an orange star or icon next to it, to tie it in with the other orange user-specific, and the user preferences page in particular. We can make this change, but do you have any thoughts to add?
    • We think this is a great idea. We feel that an orange treatment for the My Account button will work very well and help reinforce the user-specific color treatment system, making the behavior of the site clearer to users.
    • Chris: Please make "My account" orange from here on out. -SP, 3/6

 

  • On the user preferences page itself, we think it might make sense for the tabbed shopping application navigation to go away. In this context, it seems out of place or to be competing with what should be the focus of this page. And yet –users should probably have some way to navigate back to the shopping application (besides the back button), such as a smaller "Return to shopping" link or button. Thoughts? In any case, if you agree about the shopping application, then should the orange buttons (profile, password, etc.), instead be tabs, using the same shape, gradient treatment, etc. as used in the tabbed shopping application?
    • We have re-considered including the main tab navigation on this page based on your feedback, and agree that it would be clearer to replace it with a "back to shopping" button on this page as you suggested. It will allow for a clearer hierarchy of information, and will make the user's position within the site as a whole much more apparent. And, with this change, we also agree with your recommendation on using tabs rather than buttons for the sections of the preferences page.
    • Chris: Please make make the changes described. Thoughts on how to navigate back to the application? -SP, 3/6



Finally, in the future if and when Laddawn has an active social media presence, where would you place social media icons within this design?

  • In general, we recommend including social media icons in the page header or near the top of the page. Similarly to the contact information, we feel that users will expect to find social media information in this location, and that it would be to Laddawn's benefit to make this information easily accessible.



FRONT END DEVELOPMENT NOTES:
In addition, we'd like to mention that we have been in communication with Sherri, our front end developer, this week, and she has been reviewing the latest designs. Through her review, Sherri has identified two potential issues with the current design:

  • Sherri has notified us that the rounded corner design featured on the site requires the use of CSS3, which is unfortunately not compatible with IE7 and IE8. As a result, in both IE7&8, any instance of a rounded corner would appear as a right-angle corner, and any user avatar within a circle would change to a square. She presented us with two options to address this issue:
    • Option A:We can keep the rounded corner design, and allow the design to gracefully degrade in IE7/IE8. In other words, we can anticipate how the square corner design would look in these two browsers, and expect it to look slightly different than the rounded-corner design that would appear in all other browsers.
    • Option B:We can use a non-rounded corner solution, knowing that the appearance of corners and user avatars would be uniform across all browsers.

Sherri did say that in a lot of cases, her clients will opt for the gracefully-degrading solution and include the CSS3 effects, knowing that they will not display the same way in browsers like IE 7/8. Please let us know your thoughts on this display, and whether you would like to proceed with the designs using Option A or Option B.

  • Sherri has also recommended that we use a unified treatment for tables between the Search Results and Cart pages. We feel that this change will not compromise the site design as a whole, and can create a simpler experience between these two states overall. We have incorporated these changes into the design and will have them ready to review in our next presentation.