Carrie or Peter Jacobson on mon 5 feb 01
Hi Chris, Thank you for giving us all on ClayArt the chance to see your
work. It is beautiful. And so varied! I like that, the exhibition of change
in the pieces. The work as a whole has a continuity that keeps the variety
from being distracting, at least in my mind, to my eye - a certain elegance
of form and richness of color that threads through the various shapes and
decorations, unifying.
The web site is beautiful, too - but I see some ways it could be made
better, at least for my personal viewing ease.
Basically, the site hides your work to some extent - and I am not sure you
should be doing that, hiding stuff. Hiding variety, hiding prices, etc.
I am always interested - as a potter and a relatively impoverished but
occasionally acquisitive collector - about how much stuff costs. I had to
click through a whole bunch of pages before I found the page with the
prices.
First I had to find your home page. Then, I had to go to portfolio. There, I
decided I liked the stuff. But what if I wanted to buy it. Is it for sale?
Can I afford it? I had to go to the ordering page. There, I read about
ordering, and shipping and UPS and guarantees - all of which is fine
information - but still, I don't know the price of anything. Then, finally,
I found the little box to click on for price. Whew! Four pages. Four clicks.
A less dedicated shopper would have gone somewhere else already.
On those price pages, I found oodles of pieces that weren't on the main page
- and weren't even hinted at from the main page. Well, maybe they were, as
pieces included were like work in the major photos, but really, I had no
idea that there were more pictures, more pieces available - for viewing or
for buying.
It might feel or seem crass or commercial, but I would think about starting
not with "Portfolio," but with "showcase" or something like that, and
sending the viewer immediately to the page with the many photos and prices.
On this page, I do think I would try to make the photos clickable, so that I
can see those mugs big if I want. I don't have a large screen, I don't have
particularly good eyesight, and I really would like to see what those
handles look like.
The placement on the page of the prices seems far from the description of
the pots, going from left to right. I'm not sure I'd move them closer,
because it would possibly disturb the clean lines of the page, but I might
trail a line from the description to the price? Or put the list in a block
with one block (background color) slightly lighter than the ones above and
below? Something to help my eye follow from left to right, and end up on the
correct line.
If I were you, I'd put your name and logo on that Portfolio page, make that
your home page, do away with the cover page you now have, and send people
directly from the new home page to the ordering place. Put "showcase" or
whatever you end up calling it as the far-left button on the overline.
I mean, I guess it all depends in the end on what you want to do with this
home page of yours, this beautiful display of your work. If you want it just
to be a window into your studio, then don't change things. But if you want
to sell pottery from this site, you have to make it easy - EASY! - to show
me what's for sale and how I can buy it.
Best,
Carrie Jacobson
Bolster's Mills, Maine
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