AbleCommerce Design Considerations

This guide contains some questions to ask and items that you may want to consider when deciding on your AbleCommerce site design.

First, the guidelines...
The site must work within the AbleCommerce framework and the constraints of HTML (the web's programming language). We have a lot of flexibility within this framework, but there are a few things that we can and can't do.

Sites must be laid out in a relatively rectangular pattern. Because the site is designed in HTML it is laid out in a series of invisible tables. The tables have rectangular cells laid out in rows and columns. Graphics can be used to soften these edges and give the appearance of curves. The main table of AbleCommerce has 6 main cells:

1 Header
2 Top Nav
3 Left	4 Content	5 Right
6 Footer

Row 1:

Cell 1 - Header Banner

Row 2:

Cell 2 - Top Navigation

Row 3:

Cell 3 - Left Navigation

Cell 4 - Main Content

Cell 5 - Right Navigation

Row 4:

Cell 6 - Footer

Each of these cells can be customized to look exactly how you want, and they are just the default layout, a good guideline. A few examples of sites where you can easily see these cells, especially the Right and Left navigtion panels, are: http://www.sheets2love.com/Percale_C2.cfm, http://www.williamsbrewing.com or http://www.bigdweb.com.

Again, within the constraints of AbleCommerce and HTML we have a lot of flexibility. Here are a few other sites that show how the different designs can be used: http://www.abundantlifeseeds.com, http://www.4mdogbooks.com, http://www.basbleu.com, or http://www.americanscreeningcorp.com.

One other thing that we don't do on a standard site is incorporate Flash directly into the e-commerce functionality of the site. Because AbleCommerce was designed with HTML code, incorporating Flash is a very large customization that is not included in the standard quote. We can however, include flash components, like animations and simple navigation. See http://www.abundantlifeseeds.com for an example of incorporating a flash animation on the homepage. If you would like more information about incorporating Flash components in your site, please call or e-mail Web 2 Market.

Considerations...
OK. Now that we've got that out of the way, here are a few questions to consider when deciding on the look and feel of your site:

What color scheme do you want to use?
Typically a web site should match the colors in the company logo and/or the colors in any current marketing materials or catalogs. You don't have to match these colors, but doing so will help build company identity. If you have a catalog or any marketing materials that you would like us to work from, please send them to us via mail, e-mail, or point us to a web site where we can view/download them. If you want to mail us information, contact your W2M Designer for the address to get your materials to us the quickest.

What AbleCommerce features do you want to enable, and where do you want them displayed?
This mainly refers to the panels available in the right and left navigation (Search, Categories, What's Hot, What's New, Specials, Basket, etc.). There's a pretty good discussion of the available panels in our AbleCommerce Features FAQ at http://www.web2market.com/tutorials/FAQs/AbleCommerceFeatures_FAQ.html.

What general feel do you want your site to have?
This could be a series of descriptive words, like 'clean, corporate, sleek' OR 'soft, inviting, warm'. Different companies want to portray a certain feel when visitors come to their site. It's important that the feel of your site matches your company. A gardening site wouldn't necessarily want a clean, sleek look, but an electronics site wouldn't necessarily want a rustic, natural feel.

Are there other web sites that you like the look and feel of?
A great gauge of how your site should look is other sites on the internet. Browse through a few sites (competitors are a good source of industry designs) and let us know a few that you like. We'll try to incorporate ideas and aspects of those sites into your design without looking like it's a copy. You will get your own unique design. Also if you have any sites that you definitely don't like, it always helps to see what not to do, too.

Finally, consider any custom features that you have requested for your site and how you would like them incorporated. Custom features can/may include a FuseTalk application, Custom Panels, the W2M News Application, Featured Products, etc.

Typically, for most customers we focus on the look and feel of just the home page during the design process. The home page usually has a slightly different design than the inside pages because products and specials are usually featured. Once we have the design of the home page figure out we make sure the inside pages (Product Details, Categories, Checkout, Account Management, etc.) match.