Poor Design: Diesel Online
Diesel makes the best shoes I’ve ever owned. I bought my second pair this weekend, because my white pair went grey the way white shoes are prone to. I’ve never put anything more comfortable on my feet, and they’re surprisingly durable. I put my old pair through all kinds of weather, and they show little sign of wear other than being a little dirty. So shouldn’t their website be as wonderful as their shoes?
I was disappointed to find it was Flash based, I like Flash but I feel it’s mostly inappropriate for a shopping oriented website. I have to sit through a load screen to wait for a splash page of two girls writhing in their jeans, exposing their underwear. Is this supposed to say Diesel jeans are so great I’ll just want to take them off? Who knows. The navigation I’m presented with isn’t very intuitive, how should I know if shoes are considered an accessory or part of a seasonal collection?
I have to wait through three load screens just to get to the shoes. I’m not told how much they cost. When I click to find out where to buy them I’m given an 800 number, and to get back to shoes I have to go through all the loading screens all over again. If your site is Flash based, I can’t bookmark the product I like and come back to it later or show a friend. The text isn’t able to be highlighted (which could be remedied with a few clicks from any able Flash developer), so if I want to go to a store in search of this shoe I have to go to a lot of trouble. I either go find a pen and write down its name, or do a screen capture to print it out, because as soon as I move my cursor everything starts jumping around again.
To navigate the shoes I’m presented with a scrollbar, in theory I can drag the slider to go through the shoes, or click some arrows. When I click the arrows though, enlarged views of a shoe display, and when I let go of the slider it snaps back. When I click a shoe for more details, it takes me to the wrong shoe; the previous one in the sequence. Did anyone proof this thing? If I made one product point to another on my company’s website, let alone all of the products, I’d probably face some harsh consequences. I can’t even find any way to contact Diesel to tell them about these problems.
Ultimately, the site doesn’t make it easy for me to find the product I want, and it doesn’t help me buy that product when I do find it. I’d hoped for a little more from a company who makes such high quality merchandise.
I agree with all your points. I once tried to find the same info on their site but became very frustrated.
BTW http://www.zappos.com did stock their shoes but it appears they only have a few older models now and aren’t restocking. Or maybe Diesel doesn’t make shoes anymore?
Ebay is a great place to get discount designer stuff too, although some are counterfeit. I’ve bought several men’s Diesel jeans there.
Ben, Diesel does still make shoes. I actually just got a response from them. When I was on their site I found a contact form on the children’s area and said I was experiencing technical difficulties. I alerted them to the bugs, and we’ll see if they’re able to get them fixed.
Ebay is a great place to buy that stuff a lot cheaper! Most of my friends get their Diesel jeans that way. I should do more shoe shopping on Ebay.
[…] Last week I posted about how Diesel’s website sucks. There wasn’t any contact information available on the page, so I rummaged around some of their other sites, and found a generic form on a Diesel children’s page. Diesel makes stuff for kids? Anyway, I explained I was having difficulty using their main site and could someone please email me regarding this. […]
Weird, apparently I am pinging myself?
That pitiful website design must reflect in poor sales or conversions from visitors to their site. The two girls with the jeans scene seems
unecessary. Maybe they are trying to do some kind of subliminal
suggestion there. Do they think we were all born yesterday?
Shoes are shoes and I don’t remember the last time my shoes landed me a hit woman?
My 2 Cents
George
I also think that flash based websites are not appropriate for e-commerce sites as it takes a lot of time to load the pages keeping in mind that a viewer needs to go through a number of pages in order to choose the right product and to place an order. In my opinion, flash is not the best thing for shopping sites.
and Yea! I like most of the products offered by Diesel.
I also think Diesel site need to be recontructed, it is hard to look and check the details of the Jeans.
They should do something like Rock Republic or True Religion. Have very details pictures and information of everything single items.
Maybe they don’t have any money to hire a real designer. Actually, the problem is, they are trying to meet two groups of people on one site. The brand people, and the buyers. Sure, they need a site that furthers their image, but maybe they should separate it from people like us who just want to click the Buy now button. Even true religion and sites like them are a little frustrating for me cause of too much flash. slow…..If I wanted to see a movie, I’d go to the movie theater, not a website
Sorry the site sucks so bad at Diesel. Have you been back and seen whether they have updated it? I can’t imagine that a site like that would be so poor at service. Especially since they offer such a premium product. I agree with Ben, that you can find some good stuff at Ebay, and the site is better to navigate. Just make sure you read the seller’s feedback.
You’re certainly right about flash being inappropriate for an online retailer. They need a good CMS like Joomla or Drupal for a base and then maybe use a pretty flash banner to spice it up. Then they get the flash AND the user friendliness all at the same time!
Oh yes I agree with one of the other commenters about checking Ebay for diesel stuff. My sister is a big shoe fanatic and she got a pair and just loves them. Personally I don’t have enough money to pay my bills let alone buy a new pair of shoes or anything new for that matter. But I also agree with you when you say flash is just not for a shopping site.
Diesle are great, but you have to try on a pair of Geox shoes. They are the most comfortable I’ve worn in awhile.
This website is a prime example of a flash based site that works incorrectly. Using flash animation and splash pages is visually stunning to watch but not functional, as it needs a good platform to offer effective usability. An e-commerce shop should not feature flash as it unnecessary and will slow the customer down when trying to browse through products. This in effect could have an negative impact on the user; thus making them leave the site altogether. My advice is to keep it simple. Make sure your imagery is strong and relevant to the product in hand.