

Tell HN: Hidden website design/usability gems? - stijnm

Hi All,<p>I just wanted to share this little unexpected design gem I discovered through a link over at Gizmodo. Go here http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/level-camera-cube/ and click 'add to cart'. Even the shopping cart turns its frown upside down.<p>It is smooth, well executed and adds to the user experience. I can also imagine this visual touch is a real boost in usability for less techy people.<p>Have you recently come across any other little unexpected innovative touches in a website which brought a smile to your face and improved usability?
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taitems
<http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/level-camera-cube/>

Clickable link.

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superamit
Hey thanks! We spent a long time getting the timing on the swoop and the
bounce when it lands in the cart right. Cool to see someone notice. :)

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alanthonyc
Hey, that's a great site even aside from the little animated cart.

Lot's of cool photo gear!

p.s. I almost bought 24 camera cubes, I was having so much fun clicking the
button.

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fsniper
Yeah that's what i was doing too :). Makes shopping like playing a game.

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colinplamondon
Not technical or new, but hitboxes, hitboxes, hitboxes. Add 5px of padding to
your anchors and a rollover color, it makes a really huge difference.

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yannis
Great trick! Movement always catches the user's eye, even my cat reacts if she
sees anything jumping! It appears it was all done with YUI. I guess moving the
image with position absolute and placing it in front of all other elements
with the z-index.

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russell
Neat product. I had to buy one for my GF, the artist. The whole shopping cart
experience is just a little bit better than usual. It asked me for my name and
the used it to populate the CC and shipping names. The messages were nice, not
institutional.

EDIT: Must be the HN effect: they are out of stock and wont ship for another
week, :-(

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weaksauce
That's a cool trick. Very usable. What are you using for the shopping cart? Is
it homebrew or something off the shelf like Satchmo or magento?

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superamit
Homebrew. We tried Magento but found the code to be a pile of spaghetti.

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weaksauce
Congrats on the site, it is fast and clean. I like it. Out of curiosity what
language or frameworks did you use for the backend?

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jacquesm
Neat little trick! Also a neat little product, ideal for selling over the web.

