Page 1 of 1

displaying EVERY color of a product on the category level

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:08 pm
by Luke
I'm building a site that sells bags. My boss insists on showing every single color of every product at the category level. I personally have never seen a site that does this. Usually there is one photo shown and then swatches of the other colors at the category level. Like this:

http://www.ebags.com/backpacks/backpack ... OUNT&Nso=1

He thinks that it is a better user experience to show every color of every product as a (clickable) thumbnail. I don't like this because usually it means that there is 10 photos of the same product (10 diff colors) on one page instead of 10 different products. What do you think? It definitely makes everything much more difficult for me. :evil:

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:50 pm
by guitarlvr
could you show one pictures with the different colors and when you click on the different colors it changes the picture to show that specific color?

Wayne

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:54 pm
by Luke
That's a good idea. I'll see what he thinks about that.

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:55 pm
by d3ad1ysp0rk
guitarlvr wrote:could you show one pictures with the different colors and when you click on the different colors it changes the picture to show that specific color?

Wayne
Like the link he posted?

I feel that is the best way (the way ebags.com does it). List all the items in the category/search result, etc, and then when you click an item, bring up details and a larger picture. When you select a color from the dropdown, change the larger picture to represent the new color, and if needed, have the larger picture be clickable to an even more enlarged photo of said product in that color.

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:56 pm
by Luke
I think he means that you should be able to click the color swatch at the category level and have the color switch out, which is not what eBags does (at least not on the page I posted)

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 1:58 pm
by guitarlvr
This is what i mean:

ibanez.com

the middle of that page on the right says colors. when you click on a color (or swatch in your case), it changes the big picture.

EDIT: it seems when you go to a bag page (as i did with the guitar page) it will change the color there. But you could apply the same logic to the categories page, wherever you want really.

Wayne

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 2:58 pm
by thiscatis
another example that I like:


http://www.dobi.nu/fullbleed/

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 4:28 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Take a page out of the automotive industry playbook. Do they show every color combination of a vehicle from their vehicle model select list? No. They show one vehicle in some standard color (like black, or blue or red). Then, when you click to that model, they have that same picture with color swatches near it so you can select a swatch and watch the vehicle change to that color.

That seems to be the best, most user friendly way of doing it. At least to me it does.

Re: displaying EVERY color of a product on the category leve

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 5:10 pm
by Christopher
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:He thinks that it is a better user experience to show every color of every product as a (clickable) thumbnail. I don't like this because usually it means that there is 10 photos of the same product (10 diff colors) on one page instead of 10 different products. What do you think? It definitely makes everything much more difficult for me. :evil:
I think they are just different, not better than each other. And I don't see how one is more difficult than the other. The only difference between colorswatch_red.jpg and sku001_red.jpg is the prefix. Just do $basesku . "_" . $color . ".jpg" or whatever.