Views > website review
A few
missing
The website for
tech specialist
pieces
Jigsaw Systems
s a budding amateur photographer selecting the “3D & Animation” category, for
has some gaps
and an Apple Mac enthusiast, I was instance, took me to Jigsaw 3D, a site dedicated
delighted to be asked to review to the CG industry, from games development to
to fi ll before
A
the Jigsaw Systems website CAD, which is packed with useful information,
(www.Jigsaw24.com). The fi rst reviews, and case studies. Each site appears to
impression didn’t disappoint. be focused on providing useful and appealing
it reaches its
Thanks to the strapline, “Technology for information to creative professionals while also
Creative Professionals”, the target market was featuring prominent links back to the Jigsaw24
potential
clear, and I was instantly drawn to the fantastic ecommerce site. The quantity and quality
offer on a MacBook Pro, putting to shame the of the content ranks high for search engine
current Apple Store price. After summoning all optimisation (SEO), and the URLs are human
my willpower to keep from clicking the offer readable, making all the sites appealing and
link, I returned to the home page to take a accessible.
closer look at the site. The page design of Jigsaw24 would defi nitely
be classed as more functional than sexy. The
Clean and comforting sexiness is in the products, which include
Intrigued by the “established in 1992” claim, almost everything a “creative professional”
I went straight to the “About Jigsaw” section, would want, from notebooks, cameras, and
which confi rmed that the company had been software to ink cartridges, cables, and even
in technology well before the dot-com era. guitar accessories—although when I got to
Reassuringly informative, the section gave a that point of the site (drilling down from
brief overview of Jigsaw24.com’s roots, ethos, “Pro Audio” to “Instruments and MIDI” to
and turnover and even included pictures “Guitars”), I was told that the “web gremlins
of its warehouse and physical operations, a strike again” and the “webmaster would be
comforting insight into the unknown between getting his web spanners out”, a quirky take on
that last click and the doorbell ringing. the standard error-message page.
My interest in the company now piqued, In terms of usability and from the
I was drawn to the “News, Reviews and perspective of the Disability Discrimination Act
Information” section on the right-hand side (DDA), images are generally well labelled. The
of the home page, which offered links to education sites have a text resize feature, which
information, advice, blogs, and forums on the main site would benefi t from as well.
education, CAD, architecture, animations, and Whilst there is a reasonable use of
more. Each of these links took me to a new site; merchandising spots on the home page, Jigsaw
seems to have missed the opportunity to
optimise the real estate of its category landing
pages by advertising specifi c products. Even on
the home page, the merchandising spots didn’t
change dynamically depending on what product
you viewed within a category, and the site failed
to use personalised promotions relevant to
categories and products being viewed.
The page design of
From the home page, I was given the option
the Jigsaw website is
of shopping by brand, by product category, or
functional rather than
by text search. Although the search function
sexy. For its target
returned items I would expect, it didn’t
support synonyms or misspellings. A search for
market, though, the
ipob, for instance, resulted in an unwanted list
product range provides
of printer cartridges.
the sex appeal.
Although there was no faceted and dynamic
navigation to drill down and select products,
navigation and product confi guration are
pretty straightforward. You will eventually fi nd
28
Catalogue e-business www.catalog-biz.com
ceb175.indd 28 7/11/09 13:10:20
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