[Sigia-l] A different kind of shopping experience

[Jonathan Baker-Bates]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org 
> [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf Of Ziya Oz
> Sent: 21 November 2006 02:53
> To: SIGIA-L
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] A different kind of shopping experience
> 
> Paola Kathuria:
> 
> >  Just Because You Can (Do It), Doesn't Mean You Should
> 
> Harsh. Did you just diss Web 2.0? :-)
>  
> > it's the gimmicks which get the media attention
> 
> If the Los Angeles Times says: "Searching for items in a 
> text-based format is so 1999Š On Etsy you can search by color 
> with a color-picker, or by geographic area with a map." it 
> can't possibly be wrong, can it?

This is no gimmick - it's a great example of doing something right for a niche audience. I admit that my initial reaction to this was the same as Paola's - but then I remembered that Etsy is a shop selling small hand-made things to a certain type of people who value interesting stuff and see browsing through such stuff as entertainment in its own right.

Who do I know that fits that description? My wife!

So - I showed her Etsy. After using the standard browsing UI on the home page, she hit the colour browser. She instantly loved it. Her favourite colour is... She has a jacket that's ... Oh look! That bag is lovely - just the right colour for it... Japanese pattern wrapping paper in cerise, nice! 

And so on. Half an hour later she was browsing on the "time machine" and all sorts. Now she wants that UI on eBay.

Jonathan


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