[smclean06]

I'm curious as to what everyone sees as a successful site design.

What are some of your favorite websites in terms of actual layout, not content?

 

[mads]

Mine is definitely Ugmonk. Everything is laid out clearly, the navigation is easy to understand, all the shirts are on the front page (gives him a huge amount of extra sales right there, I would imagine).

It boils down to this: I do not have to think about where to find stuff. The navigation is ridiculously simple, and I don't have to drill down into categories in the shop itself before I am presented with a selection of T-shirts. Everyone should do this. Most T-shirt sites out there suck. I don't know why.

 

[bornover]

I think Fox Racing's Foxhead site is pretty slick.

 

[PixStar]

Mine is definitely Ugmonk. Everything is laid out clearly, the navigation is easy to understand, all the shirts are on the front page (gives him a huge amount of extra sales right there, I would imagine)....

Have to agree 100% with you. Great site, simple yet slick, neat with clever colour scheme.

 

[tone1tees]

i think johnnycupcakes is good and furfaceboy and four-t's

 

[smclean06]

Mine is definitely Ugmonk. Everything is laid out clearly, the navigation is easy to understand, all the shirts are on the front page (gives him a huge amount of extra sales right there, I would imagine).

It boils down to this: I do not have to think about where to find stuff. The navigation is ridiculously simple, and I don't have to drill down into categories in the shop itself before I am presented with a selection of T-shirts. Everyone should do this. Most T-shirt sites out there suck. I don't know why.

I agree with that 100%. Probably because most people are trying to get their designs up quickly and start making some money without putting any thought into what their potential customer is looking for.

Hopefully by seeing sites people like it'll help people with their own sites

 

[mads]

Hopefully by seeing sites people like it'll help people with their own sites

I sure hope so. What people don't understand is that if you're not careful with the layout and usability on your storefront, people will not buy your shirts, no matter how good they look in pictures.

You have to tailor the whole shopping experience to your brand. If your T-shirts are all made with a distinct style but your site doesn't support that style, it's an instant turn-off.

Just like you don't go into a brick and mortar shop if it looks like crap, you usually don't buy products from a site that looks unprofessional. The T-shirts are only half the job. The experience around the shirts is the other half.

 

[smclean06]

i think johnnycupcakes is good and furfaceboy and four-t's

Oddly enough, for being the supposed t-shirt king, I think Johnny Cupcake's site kinda falls short. Mostly because he has the blog as his homepage...if you didn't already know he sold t-shirts and you were looking for t-shirts you'd probably leave pretty quickly.
He gets away with it because he's marketing mostly to people who already know his brand, not to new customers.

 

[mads]

Oddly enough, for being the supposed t-shirt king, I think Johnny Cupcake's site kinda falls short. Mostly because he has the blog as his homepage...if you didn't already know he sold t-shirts and you were looking for t-shirts you'd probably leave pretty quickly.
He gets away with it because he's marketing mostly to people who already know his brand, not to new customers.

I think you're absolutely right. I wonder how many more tees he would sell if he made a large call-to-action on the home page / blog. A good ground-rule for all T-shirt sites should be: Display your shirts on the home page!

And the amount of people who get it wrong is amazing.