Pardon me while I indulge in a brief pat on the back for myself and Robyn... The proprietors of Woolwinders informed us this week that sales from their online store have doubled since the redesign.

Go. Us.

This is a logo and site design for a group of scientists who wanted something more than the run-of-the-mill homegrown site the university IT guys will deign to kludge together for them. Since it's password protected the thumbnails below will have to do...

...but you get the idea.

Woolwinders: A Knitting Salon redesign launched Saturday, January 3rd.

The main page of the site is now a weblog powered by Movable Type (of course) where they will post product updates and general store news. This is a fast growing trend with businesses (*cough*Sekimori) and one that just makes good sense. The blog interface is simple to use, even for techno-nulls, and gives shoppers more of a sense of interactivity since your average blog post is less formal than website content. Also, the comments are enabled so instant feedback is possible, always a big plus with end-users.

The shopping cart is powered by osCommerce, an open-source application. My general problem with os software is the poor documentation, and this app is no exception. There are very active user forums though and the beginnings of a pretty good wiki, so it's not completely hopeless. I was able to adequately customize the site to the clients' need without sacrificing too many chickens.

This was a team effort this time, Robyn handled the weblog and very nifty overall site design and I took on the nitty gritty of the shopping cart. This was my first experience with osCommerce...powder-ground teeth and new land-speed record for foul language aside, it is a robust app and will serve them well.

Next year I'll talk them into upgrading to Squirrelcart. Muwahahaha...