Urban Outfitters
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/index.jsp
As you enter the site, you see five navigation systems and most of them make sense while some are a bit confusing. Basically the five navigations are in equal status and cover almost everything the brand offers. Therefore, no hierarchy among the navigation system appears. These navigations always stay where they are from the home page, so it is very easy to go from one category to another. The site highlights the navigation to indicate where you are, so you always know your location. The look of every page stays similar and you get they feeling of consistency within the site. The best of all is that the logo remains the same location on every page, so you can always go back to the home page by clicking the logo.
The site is meant for shopping and includes lots of pages to introduce their products. The site map shows the site has a very deep architecture due to the large amount of information. Most of the links appear as you get further into the site, so you are unable to access any page you desire at where you are. However, this works fine as the menu of navigation systems are clear and easy to find.
There is a clear hierarchy of the navigation. The appearance of first, second or third levels are distinguishable. The hierarchy of the typography is also apparent as the heading are more prominent than the body paragraph in terms of font sizes and line weights. As mentioned earlier, navigation labels like “women’s”, “men’s” and “sale” are clear, while “apartment” and “blog” appear to be unclear in a shopping site.
The structure of the pages stay pretty consistent from page to page. The primary navigations, logo, shopping cart and search always stay at the same place. Looking at the “women’s” overview page, the focal point of the page is the images in the center as their colors stand out from the white background. Also these images occupy 80% of the page and quickly draw your attention.
The imagery shown in the site accentuates the young and chic style of the brand as well as the site. The amount of the photos are about right because they are helpful when browsing products. The only icon is the shopping cart for check out and it is very easy to understand its meaning.
The color palette is basically black and white and leave all the colors for the imagery. The white background and simple color palette maximize the visual impact and attraction of the display products.
Being a shopping website, this site is selling fashion items. The site also provides the search function and you can easily find what you are looking for. You can search items that match the color and type you desire depending on how specific the description you enter for search. The site offers a filter for the search results and narrows down the choices for your search. This is a very useful feature of this site. One thing the site may consider changing is to make the navigation “apartment” to something like “home” or “home décor” to make this category more clear.
