I get paid to support constant development and creation cycles year after year at a major online bank. So occasionally I will stick my two cents in about website design issues and ideas I see out there in ePublisher land. So this being a new year I wanted to give mention to some good things I see happening on ePublisher websites and mention some bad. Let’s start with the Front Page…
Loose Id is the winner for a minimalistic front page website design that loads quickly and gets right to the point. Selling eBooks! They are in fact almost too minimalist in some ways lacking in certain basics like OK “Do they have a newsletter?”. BUT… I love the fact they are working diligently and being extremely smart here with a less is more attitude especially for the iPhone type customer facilitated with the narrow middle screen design and it does leave room for them to adjust things. They can always add another page somewhere to give more information about something but it takes real thought about what they want to present and sell front and center to keep a focus like this.
Honorable mention goes to Liquid Silver Books. Unfortunately I think they are trying to stick too much on the left hand margin here when the left hand margin should only be used for website navigation purposes. Facebook and Twitter are not site navigation and they should cut down on the other parts in this margin. What is with the cutesy names? What does Molten Silver mean? What does Sterling Silver mean? What does Zodiac Series mean? Leave that crap on the book pages or series pages or branded on the covers of the books or whatever. Cutesy names and branding like that should be for “your loyal customers” not for the general public trying to shop on your website looking for Gay Paranormal Romance or Western Romance. Stick to the basics.
Samhain Publishing needs a rethink/overhaul. First the site navigation on the left has too much button driven junk. I HATE THAT WELCOME TO SAMHAIN CRAP! You know the paragraph you stuck below your header? Why? That’s what the ABOUT PAGE is for, not the front page. Now let’s look at the right hand margin.
Now using Graphic Buttons like this cuts down on visual garbage. BUT! What is that button labeled? Samhellion? Should it be Samhellion Newsletter or something so people who are sight impaired who depend on graphic alternate labels on images of books and graphic alternate labels on buttons can tell what you are doing? As far as the rest of your right hand margin it looks like you are filling up all available space with the information that should be found in the newsletter. There is no prudent use of “White Space” on the Samhain Front Page because you have no “White Space” left.
Even though I am getting on Samhain I had to show how things could be worse…
eXcessica
Where do I begin? The nineties called they want their frames back. Those graphics are mangled and do not even look like books which is what I am guessing they are. Half your webpage is over sized fonts so maybe you are selling fonts. AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Tags: ePublisher, Web Design
Chris wrote,
Liquid Silver drives me nuts because of those labels. But what does that MEAN?
I remember being frustrated at Samhain (and maybe Liquid Silver? it’s blurring) because I couldn’t page through all their books. Sometimes I just wanna browse and see what catches my fancy and not pay attention to the books’ labels. Loose Id does a good job with that.
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 10:59 am
kirsten saell wrote,
I do like Loose Id’s new site–minimalist appeals to my often cluttered mental state, lol. But the white font on black background? Oy. Very hard on my eyes. I like the aesthetics of it, but I just can’t read it for long.
Despite any loyalty I have to Samhain as my publisher, their website really could use a facelift. I loved the revised design of their MBaM site (except for the conspicuous lack of a customer review feature) and wish they’d do the same with their publisher site. An updated color scheme would help as well, I think.
But dammit, at least I can navigate on it. Search by genre, author, keyword (the keyword thing is a big deal when the alternative is wading through 8000 m/m or m/m/f titles in the GLBT or Alternative section looking for something bi-female. And don’t even get me started on some of the haphazard keywords applied to some pub’s books–an f/f/m menage where one woman is straight and the other bi, and the only keyword that leads me to it is “lesbian”? Not good). I’m really glad LSB finally incorporated a search function, because last time I shopped there (granted it was a while ago), they didn’t have one. At least, not one that I could find.
All that said, I seriously dislike the graphics/aesthetics on a lot of publishers’ sites. There’s nothing wrong with black text in a simple font on a white background–without the bolding you see so often. I prefer Samhain’s light gray on dark gray to LI’s white on black, but both could be improved for customers who look at computers all day and don’t need one more thing to strain their eyes. When I redid my own website, the theme I chose had nice graphics, but the content is presented in black on white in a simple, easy to read font, because that’s what I like.
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 11:28 am
The Best ePublisher Website Designs 2009: Content Pages | The Naughty Bits wrote,
[...] to give mention to some good things I see happening on ePublisher websites and mention some bad. I already did Front Page designs so let’s hit the content [...]
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 11:28 am
Emilie wrote,
I like to see the new books right up front, but the thing I’m mostly looking for is how easy it is to search for books from the front page. Some publishers make that much tougher than other ones do. I’ll do a LJ post on that at some point. I have no idea what “Molten Silver,” “Sterling Silver,” “Quick Silver” and “Zodiac Series” mean. And what’s up with the Liquid Silver Coming Soon thing that’s a thread of some sort? I just want to see the covers, blurbs and excerpts of the books, not try to go through assorted threads concentrating on the most popular books coming. I don’t understand that at all.
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
MB (Leah) wrote,
I hate, hate, hate Liquid Silver’s site. There’s no search option, nor a separation of content like m/m, f/f, m/f. So you have wade through pages of stuff to maybe, MAYBE find a book with content you want. I also dislike the cutesy names. Just tell me what the content “really” is. I never go there unless there’s a specific book by a specific author that I want and even then, most likely I won’t because…
For some reason, and I tried to figure it out with tech help and couldn’t figure it out, Liquid Silver’s site bumps my computer off of my wifi and I have to reboot my computer or modem every time I get on one of their pages. Ugh.
I like Loose-Id’s site. They’ve really improved it a lot. However, the black background with white lettering… is just too annoying and painful to look at for more than a few seconds.
I love Samhain’s site. Easy to find the content I want and pages load up quickly. The only bitching I can do about them is that if I find a book I want from their site and click on buy, I’m directed to MBaM where I have to re-search for the very book and even re-sign in. I hate that. Why can’t I click on the book I want and the MBaM page for that book comes up? And why do I have to sign in again? Makes for a slightly PITA buying experience.
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 12:18 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
But the white font on black background? Oy. Very hard on my eyes.>
That’s a proven fact and why you notice Amazon and eBay and most of the major retailers use a white background with black letters and save their creativity for the cover art and Logos. The key there is if you need to use a white font on your website your background is way too dark.
I hate, hate, hate Liquid Silver’s site. There’s no search option, nor a separation of content like m/m, f/f, m/f. So you have wade through pages of stuff to maybe, MAYBE find a book with content you want. I also dislike the cutesy names.
I only wanted to point out their clean Front Page. I agree their website functionality and organization needs a ton of work. Unfortunately no one website has all the good ideas in one place YET. Hopefully all the major ePublishers are planning to make changes this year to spiff things up.
They all seem to need work somewhere and with eBooks becoming the big thing this year they need to be ready for the attention.
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 1:55 pm
MB (Leah) wrote,
‘I only wanted to point out their clean Front Page.”
Yeah, I know. I used your post as a chance to bitch. LOL Sorry. Clean front pages are very important. The front page’s ease on the eyes and aesthetic points are what grabs people. I guess for me though, the bottom line is, whether they have a beautiful front page or not, doesn’t matter if I can’t find the books I want. Pretty front pages mean nothing if the reader can’t find what they want or buy it easily.
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 2:48 pm
K. Z. Snow wrote,
I completely agree with your and Leah’s assessments of LSB, as much as I love that pub. But they do take suggestions to heart.
Samhain is junked up all to hell. Their front page makes my eyes do a jig.
I really wish EC would scrap that Egyptian-motif nonsense. Not only doesn’t it make sense (the actual Ellora Caves are in India), it looks damned cheesy.
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Emilie wrote,
I agree with MB (Leah) about My Bookstore and More. Having to sign in again, search for the book again, and sign in again feels like a little more hoop-jumping than is necessary. I find that if I go back to Samhain to look for more books, MBaM clears the shopping cart and I need to sign in again, and then search for the books again. Is there a way to go back and forth from Samhain to MBaM without losing the books you already had in the cart?
I find the left-hand buttons on the Samhain page make it pretty easy to search by romance genre or whatever. (I’m still trying to figure out exactly what distinguishes “genre” from the categories listed under “romance,” but I suppose there’s some kind of distinction) And I’m sure there’s some overlap there, but pushing the button takes you to pages with that type of book.
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 8:39 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
(I’m still trying to figure out exactly what distinguishes “genre” from the categories listed under “romance,” but I suppose there’s some kind of distinction)
Yeah, I am not against the romance sub-genre listings so much. I think that is handy. It’s still like there is way more “list” there than there is real selection that is for sale though. How about Romance and those sub-genre first since that’s the main attraction and then whatever “other” listed after that?
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 8:45 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Is there a way to go back and forth from Samhain to MBaM without losing the books you already had in the cart?
Well Loose Id has this right. You should be able to buy Books from the Samhain website without the whole MBAM deal. As a retailer MBAM is not a All Romance eBooks and no it’s not even a Fictionwise they need to work that out. The Shopping cart constantly loses session when you go to buy or even find another ebook to add and then you have to login and when you do it wipes the session so off you go to find the damn book one more time. Just the pits! I have stopped buying ebooks from them directly if I am able to because of that issue.
That whole two sites to do one thing was a bad idea. They needed to have one website that did it right to begin with.
Link | January 1st, 2010 at 8:50 pm