It has taken them at least 5 months, but Russell and Bromley have now launched their new website.
So is this site a full-featured, cutting-edge, commerce offering with the latest functionality to entice visitors to buy or visit the stores? No!
It is actually a very simple site with a basic design and layout that like minimal thought has been applied to its appearance and impact.
The product areas are animated sequences that just rotate between a few 'model with product’ images and a price for each in the bottom right hand corner. There’s no content or sizing information and they seem to have forgotten they also sell children’s shoes as well.
The ‘Contacts and Stores’ location section has a single page with a tightly-clustered alphabetised list of their stores with their telephone numbers (in a small italicised font). This shows no actual thought to the user who wants to know the address, let alone a link to a popular mapping tool for them to find the outlet.
However, it’s the ‘Career Applications’ main navigation item that probably took the least amount of thought. This is just link to PDF document that is over 250k in size and is obviously there to encourage psychic applicants as there are no instructions on what to do with the form (I guess you post it off to their headquarters in Bromley, but there’s no way of knowing who you should address it to).
Oh, there’s one final thing….. the site has been built entirely in Flash technology.
So there’s no possibility of viewing it on an iPhone (who’s owners might possibly be the trendy types to shop at the store) and is therefore not helping their accessibility or Search Engine Optimisation cause.
Just what were they thinking?
Monday, April 26, 2010
Russell and Bromley launch a new website
