If you use the internet, chances are that you have seen a 404 error page. It is basically inevitable. The 404 error page will be displayed whenever someone asks for a page that is not available. There are many possible reasons for this error; it could be an incorrect link somewhere on your site or someone made a typo when entering the URL.
At the bottom of this post is a table that explains the various error code messages.
Unfortunately the 404 error page is usually an afterthought, or not a thought at all. Let’s get creative! When designing a custom 404 error page, consider the company’s culture, and the type of response desired by their audience. These will no doubt lighten the actuality of the situation (the page they wanted can’t be found) and possibly steer them into a different direction and increase exploration of the site.
I have scoured the web for clever 404 error pages and compiled a list of 25 for your enjoyment. This list is relatively short compared to other websites such as:
Your users. They have opinions about a lot of things. They probably have opinions about your site and what’s on it. What’s the best way to collect those opinions in order make your site better? The easier it is for your users to tell you what they think, the better. Here are a few ways for your users to give feedback painlessly.
“Was this helpful?”
In a situation where you want to help the user find an answer to a question, or learn how to do something with your product or service, you can ask them directly: “Was this helpful?” or “Did this answer your question?” Allowing the user to also leave a comment along with their “Yes/No” answer (most likely “no” if they are frustrated enough to leave a comment) might give you some insight into what they were looking for and how you can improve the content itself, or the search algorithm to better help answer their question in the future. But the “Yes/No” buttons alone, along with a good look at your help documentation search logs, might be enough to show where you may have dropped the ball in your documentation.
A few weeks ago a bunch of us from eROI went to see Jared Spool present “Revealing Design Treasures from the Amazon”. It was a fantastic presentation about some key learnings about e-commerce design from experiments on Amazon.com. One tid-bit really especially struck a chord with me: Jared went in-depth about Amazon’s review system and conjectured that to amass 20 reviews for a product online one must have had 26,000 sales (on average one out of 1,300 purchasers will write a review.) Assuming the site has a 2% conversion rate (a typical rate for e-comm) the product needs to have 1.3 Million hits to reach 20 reviews.
What!? Only one in 1,300 purchasers will write a review?? That seems like a depressing statistic for people hoping to use user reviews as a means to help sell their products online! Another drawback is that customers are also a lot more likely to go back to a site to write a bad review versus a positive review (if the product is just as they expected, the user goes on living their life. If it isn’t, they want to tell someone about it.)
Fear not, there are some creative ways we can overcome the challenges!
Lately there seems to have been an explosion of 3D typography on the web so I thought I would give it a go myself and share it with you. Took a little time out of my day to experiment with type and light and this is what happened.
This little wallpaper was made with a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and a lot of time on the Wacom tablet. The majority of the work took place while trying to make the shadow look natural. Shadows have always been really difficult for me to get right. All in all I think it was a worthy afternoon of exploration and creativity. Enjoy.
Need this wallpaper in a specific size? You got it!
For people like me, who like to research products before purchasing them, online shopping is very convenient.
One of the things that I like to shop for online is apparel (like blouses, shoes, accessories, etc.). From the comfort of my couch, I sift through countless pairs of pants, high heels, or dresses and visualize how they’d integrate into my wardrobe. I rely heavily on customer reviews when making online purchases, and can recall a recent shopping experience when customer reviews strongly influenced my buying decision. Let me explain.
Jeans in Question
I’m not a fan of buying jeans, but when I decide to buy a pair I try on style after style, brand after brand, and fit after fit. One brand that I’ve had success with is Banana Republic, so I went to their site one night knowing that I was looking for a pair of dark skinny jeans. After browsing through their selection, a pair caught my eye; it had everything that I was looking for — dark wash, allegedly long length, and my size. After reading the customer reviews, however, I learned that these pants ran about 6 inches shorter than the advertised inseam length! So, when I ordered the pants online, I made sure to order my size in a longer length so that they’d fit me the way I wanted. In the end, I loved the pants and ended up keeping them!
My contributions to this blog have all fallen into the category of inspiration – sharing the artists, designers, and even the tunes that drive me to be a designer and part-time aspiring artist. It all adds fuel to my fire, and I’m kind of a pack rat when it comes to saving images, bookmarking portfolio sites and subscribing to RSS feeds. Taking it all in helps me put out more creatively even though this process is quite the time-suck.
In this light, I am going to continue to share this time-suck with all you Fresh readers.
This post is a spotlight on Los Angeles-based designer, art director, artist, entrepreneur and skateboarder, Michael Leon.
I have been keeping up with the guy’s projects, brands, and aesthetic for the past few years, and am constantly inspired. He has the ability to design simply and boldly while maintaining a certain whimsical feel-good quality, leaving me with a smile on my face and a warm, fuzzy feeling in my gut.
He captures fun, skateboarding, California, drawing, and all of the youthful energy that inherently comes emotionally packaged with these things into each piece. It’s honest and original — two of the hardest things to consistently embody as an artist or designer.
I’m proud to announce that after almost 2.5 years at our 5th and Couch location, we have finally completed our street level signage and entrance design. When we relocated from the Alber’s Mills to Old Town, it had a profound effect on our company. We became a part of a growing neighborhood with a unique energy and flavor that paired well with our company culture. Old Town isn’t your average Portland neighborhood. It’s one of the few places in Portland where I actually feel like I’m living in a real city. It’s fashion, youth, small business, food, and art. All of this juxtaposed with a dodgy past makes for an interesting few blocks. When it came time to design a sign for our new office we wanted to make sure to acknowledge the roots of the neighborhood while adding our own piece to the mix.
When we first began concepting ideas, we needed to clearly define why it was we even needed a sign. After all, we aren’t a retail space or a restaurant where people are walking in off the street for their next online campaign. Most people that come to our office know who we are and are simply looking for a clearly marked street address. It’s more way-finding than anything. We had to take into consideration things such as public transportation and parking, so we could position the sign in a place that made sense. Once people found us they needed to be buzzed in, so we also included an integrated call box into the entrance.
Today I’m going to look at three e-commerce sites that are inspiring us over here at eROI. They’re all fashion related but feature totally different aesthetics. They’ve all done a great job usability-wise, but what really impresses me is how well each of them engage the user in the brand and lifestyle for a holistic and fun shopping experience.
The current home page is hot! Wow. You’ve got to go see it because the Flash is really well done. It has a 50’s paradise vacation vibe going on (they’ve got a trip to Bali contest currently running that speaks directly to the design). The background color — currently teal — is a custom element that changes frequently to match the design’s style; the last time I looked it was hot pink.
Recently, I walked around the office with my Flip camera and asked the eROI team about ecommerce sites. We talked about the ones that we liked, what could be improved, and what people should think about when creating an online shopping experience. Since we work in the digital marketing industry, it should come as no surprise that we’re highly critical of things like overall brand experience, way-finding, and ease of use.
Two things that are critical to address at the onset of any project are the measurable business objectives and analytic goals. In our design process at eROI, these things are kept at the forefront of every project; these two things guide our designers as they begin creating their web designs. By always referring back to the objectives and goals, and making creative decisions that strive to directly impact these things, we’re setting our clients up to succeed on those two fronts.
Our process helps to ensure that these things don’t get overlooked or forgotten about as a project evolves. I’ve visited other ecommerce sites before, however, where the functional and transactional experience is incredibly poor, and I end up leaving the site feeling disgruntled, confused, and/or frustrated. I’m sure that all of us have experienced a site that left us wanting more or saying to ourselves, “This site could be better if they’d only [insert awesome suggestion here].”
What are some of your favorite ecommerce sites and why?
We love bikes here in Portland! I’ll admit it though, I’m a fair weather rider. Now that the sun is shining (sporadically) biking is on my mind. I created this wallpaper with a vintage-feel in mind. There is a faint cobble-stone texture in the background which might speak a little more to Europe than Portland, but who’s keeping track?
Grab this wallpaper and you can picture yourself lazily riding through town while you’re actually inside because you’re at work or it is raining :)
Fresh Bike Ride, eROI Wallpaper
Need this wallpaper in a specific size? You got it!
