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Busse Design Desconstructs Polo.com
By Joy Busse, CEO & President - Busse Design USA
Reprinted from Internet World, March 15, 2001
Ralph Lauren knows a lot about the "user experience" when it comes to American fashion, but not when it comes to the Web.
Polo.com is chock full of bells-and-whistles features that, either by virtue of poor design or insufficient resources, do not live up to their potential. Until Polo.com redefines the site's user experience, they should stick to making stars-and-stripes T-shirts.
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Quantity over Quality?
The multiple features offered by Polo.com are worthless unless the experience is seamless. Features like Speed Shopping and Polo Radio are great marketing toolsăbut they do not deliver on their promise. You don't need a specialist to know that the consumer is going to be dissatisfied when they find out the Speed Shopping feature isn't any more speedy than the conventional way of shopping.
Virtual Store.
It looks like Polo.com thought better of this feature and removed it from the site. That was a good step, since the images were too small to be distinguishable, and the design didn't facilitate ease of use or encourage buying. Virtual stores require a lot of resources to live up to the full potential of the broadband experience. Allowing users to navigate a virtual retail space, zoom in on products that can be viewed in different colors, and view 3-D models that can be customized can create a huge opportunity for retailers to gain a bigger market share and incremental online salesăbut only if it's done correctly.
Ask Ralph.
In contrast to the Virtual Store, this feature contains useful tips regarding the products that the user is viewing. These sections actually convey to the user that these are quality products from a quality brand name.
Ralph, Ask Your Users.
Polo.com should resolve its major UI problems, such as requesting credit card information from the user in the initial registration and presenting unintuitive, poorly laid-out search results. Polo.com should also conduct a user survey to find out what its users really want online.
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