Website Launch – Green Child of Mine
This website was launched at the end of September 2008. Green Child of Mine is a start-up internet business selling organic baby clothes online.
Starting completely from scratch a new brand identity had to be created.
To see images and get a brief overview of this web design project please visit my online web design portfolio.
Below is a detailed discussion on the design and technical aspects of this site:
Design.
The client had some strong opinions on what the site should look like and what kind of customer she wished to attract to her niche products.
A white background was used to create a clutter-free environment. Big, bold, solid lettering for headers and titles; along with a large footer and subtle, rounded cornered boxes give a classy, modern, “Web 2.0-ish” feel to the website. This will reflect the homes and lives of the site’s target audience.
The flower logo and field footer used throughout the site convey the green, environmentally sound image and ethics of the company and products it sells. As does the repeated use of brown and green text. The other colours used are strong and bright, and indicate that the site is for children’s products. Finding a balance between appealing to the adult purchasers and the child recipients was of primary importance.
Layout & Structure.
The navigational structure is a key component of this site. As with all e-commerce sites, you want your customers to find what they are looking for. The client and I agreed that it would be best to cater for both the general browser and the focused searcher.
I chose to implement the mythical “three-click-rule”, by which all individual product pages can be reached in just three clicks from the home page. At the same time I wanted to give enough range on each category page to amuse and entice the casual shopper. This was achieved offering both broad and narrow categories, allowing for multiple routes to most products.
The decision was taken to have a site that was 950 pixels wide. The reasoning’s behind this were down to aesthetic, practical and technical factors:
Aesthetically, more space means a less cluttered look, and the ability to use larger images and elements.
Practically, more space meant more details and pictures could be put on each page, thus providing the customer with more information on the products.
And technically, a wider page caters for the bigger modern screen sizes, that the intended audience are very likely to be using.
The payment process is handled by a form on each product page. The resulting string of selections is processed using Mal’s E-commerce Shopping Cart (www.mals-e.com), where personal data is also collected. The actual credit card processing is securely handled by PayPal©.
Extras:
Other elements of the site include a Flash generated slide-show on the home page and some roll-over, image swapping effects. Purely aesthetic inclusions, but ones that people expect to see on web sites.
A news blog, and a form to sign up to an email newsletter add a social network element to the site. This extra level of interactivity with the website visitor is an important tool for modern websites.
Please visit the website of Green Child of Mine and let me know what you think by leaving a comment.
DA
