Non-Line Blogging

I was asked this week to share some "inspirational" digital marketing experiences by Ian Jindal, and came up with a couple of sites that "did it for me", as it were....more of those in a moment.  But a while ago I blogged about the way that in some marketplaces all companies were migrating to similar web site design characteristics.  It seems that on-line retailing is heading the same way as Financial Services was a couple of years ago.  As somebody who likes un-cluttered web design I'm finding it delightful and I'd like to share what we can all learn from it.  But first - the fun bit.

I love the way that Hema, a Dutch retailer have decided not to take themselves too seriously and a couple of yeas ago pulled together a fantastic home page experience.  It relies on people waiting for the page to load and for them to wait a couple of seconds before whirring into life but it is worth it to enjoy the chaotic exuberance of the web experience!

http://producten.hema.nl

On an altogether more serious note, I recently heard a presentation from the web team at Finnish ceramics and homeware company Iittala.  They have spoken a couple of times on the Certificate in Digital Marketing course that I run on behalf of the Internet Advertising Bureau Finland and the Institute of Direct Marketing.  I think its time the site shared a wider audience because it is so elegant.

It is everything that some of the lifestyle e-commerce players in the UK are trying to be, except this does it with even more elegance...IMHO.  They even drop a bit of the old social stuff on the home page.  And they carry it through with some great “non-line” integration and will soon have a single customer view via the MyIittala concept. And they tell stories...is the return of the “narrative structure” the next big thing in web marketing?

Specifically the site ticks all the right design boxes because: 

• Brand personality is strong
• Consistent, classy fonts across the whole site
• Bleeding the Capital "L" on the home page into the border oozes typographic confidence (!)
• "Navigation" pages built for 1024 x 768 browser
• Breathtakingly elegant photography
• Beautiful product shots
• Confident, approachable, conversational tone of voice – sometimes hard for non-UK countries.

And they are even taking on Howies.co.uk with the "we're a retailer and we really care" angle:

And they use excellent copy to build the story - and the experience

So, from the cheeky fun of Hema or the classy sophistication of Iittala it appears that we can build strong brand experiences through web site design.  And with sites like John Lewis and Marks and Spencer setting the pace for clear, un-cluttered web experiences in mainstream markets will the messy ones with multiple fonts and poor design suffer as the bar is raised ever higher?