Bookshop Freiheitsplatz is a German book vendor that puts an emphasis on quality services and communication with local customers as well as authors and on bringing them together. Although running a well-equipped online shop including e-books, the bookshop team mainly focusses on selling longtail products locally, by personal advice, and by offering opportunities for discovering extra-ordinary works through events.
Ksign has been helping the Bookshop team to improve their website since April 2010 when we won their competition on designonclick.com. Our initial task was to redesign and restructure their dated website, which had accumulated a myriad of nested subpages displaying ‘boxes’ of different sizes and differing content without a clear rationale. We did so with a clear and simple design that referenced both the product and the people behind it: The clear typographical structure with a strict baseline across columns reminds of books, whereas the warm fonts and the featured header photographs of the team and its shop give the site a personal touch in line with their business approach.
Later we developed a flexible information architecture for the entire website and a corresponding clearly arranged navigation menu that combines target-group-related links with necessary administrative and informational ones. Based on user survey results the latest revision of April 2011 focused on enhancing user interaction with the bookshop website (shop search and action bar under every book recommendation) and on further developing the minimalist design of the site.
The website version of January 2011 was shortlisted for the Hessian Web Award as one of the top 12 Hessian commercial websites out of 205 competitiors.
From the user survey 2011:
Well done! Your new website has been laid out clearly making it easy to navigate and to find information. The new positioning of your complete contact data and of the search function is very helpful — they caught my eye immediately. I also like the book recommendations with comments. The icing of the cake is your group photograph — it endears you to your audience and inspires trust. Unfortunately, I’m so enthusiastic about your new website that I don’t have any ideas for improvement. Well done!
Partners
taquiri — web development
