Lo-Fi image

Research and Low Fidelity Prototype

It’s an old adage that people don’t want to be sold something, but they have no problems buying something. In fact, people buy things that they don’t even need, and will seriously go into debt to do it. This is the fine line between selling something that is considered a luxury or hobby, and selling something that is a necessity. So, when selling camping supplies, the hardcore campers will evaluate the products, and they’re already sold. However, newer campers are sometimes intimidated by buying something expensive on a hobby that they may or may not be able to do, depending on weather, a couple times a year, depending on location. Everyone likes to step back from life and go back to nature, at least for just a weekend, and so it made sense in this instance to include a blog that shows the items in action and places that they can go to. The blog includes many people from across the US, and will feature items that can be purchased on the website, and they will give honest opinions on them, and just let us know about the beauty of their surroundings and their experience.

Originally, I was thinking of including an area that users would be able to book campsites, but the maintenance and logistics are really out of the scope of selling camping supplies. Not to mention, that most KOAs and national and state parks have websites that are well maintained. We sell camping supplies across the nation, so including campsite information across a broad range of most states would not be easy to manage and maintain, and would result in a headache for both us, and the users as well.

Hi-Fi image Hi-Fi Image

High Fidelity Designs

Adding color and images to navigation, the chaos and the fun really start to come into play. I was originally going to go to a large panoramic nature view on the top fold of the website, and then very limited navigation, but while this may work on a site like Natural Geographic, this site is trying to sell camping supplies. One thing is very important, is that there should be people included in most of the imagery, or an image of a person really close. There really should be an immediacy of people interacting with nature, and a blatant invite at the top of the home page to join us out here.

When using color, it really shouldn’t bring attention to itself, unless you want it to. Meaning that there should be a lot of neutrals or pseudo neutrals, and then an accent color. The accent color used is a burnt orange, and most of the calls to action are in this color. Part of the business requirement is to try to have people create an account, and most of the buttons and iconography are in this color too so it’s really hard to miss.

Lessons Learned

An ecommerce site is a lot of building up front, but it also requires a lot of maintenance as well. Most ecommerce sites have items that are seasonal, and/or rotated out, so the work is never really completed, it’s just managed and maintained.

Choose a call to action color that really pops, because when it’s a neutral color, visitors to the site won’t know where to go after the fact. Yes, it goes against the adage previously mentioned, but the site is a business, and in order to stay operational, the site needs to generate money. It doesn’t go against any ethical rules, and it’s actually fairly common practice. This is another discussion, where people are pretty smart and know when they’re being sold, but at the same time, you want them to believe that the company is selling something that is authentic. Yes, it can be done by being up front an honest of who the business is, what they stand for, and what they have to offer.

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