I don’t really shop online too much except for some obscure items I may need. Really I’ve only ever bought anything from Amazon.com. I don’t want to review Amazon.com. So I decided, I could use a new pair of shoes. Why don’t I hit up an old grade school standby Eastbay.com? Since I was a kid “Eastbay” catalogues were always at school. A new issue would come out and that’s all kids wanted to read about, the new shoes and exclusives that would be available.

I’ve been using computers probably since I could talk. So immediately upon the page loading, I see no real issues. That being said, I’ve become numb to the incredible amount of ‘wrongs’ a web designer can bring to a site. So I have to take in the site objectively.

Now, upon loading the page (In a new perspective) the site is not much to look at. A bunch of information is crammed in at the top, a 1-800 number, a help button along with my account and recently viewed tabs. Interestingly enough there is a live chat option available too. Directly underneath these tabs are more tabs. And under those tabs are…you guessed it, more tabs. But at least these tabs have cool sub-menus. The third sets of menu tabs (white text on grey) are actually very helpful towards the navigation of the site. From here the user will be able to navigate to the brand they want, the sport they want or the type of clothing they want. There’s a sliding menu/banner with featured items that the user can click also slightly helpful. Overall the main page looks like a hamburger with the meat lettuce tomato and condiments surrounding the buns. Up top are a cluster of buttons and a flashing sliding menu. In the middle are various picture links to best selling apparel or just localized items. At the bottom are another smorgasbord of buttons and links to click, all in small black type that I don’t even care to read. I’m looking for shoes, why are you making me read things?

The search bar is at the top of the page. I’m looking for “Jordan Retro 9’s.” One of the many styles of Jordan brand shoes, if I were looking to buy a pair I’d buy this type. A quick entry and search leads to a simple layout of results, a mix of clothes and shoes. On the left is an extremely helpful menu; the user can filter their search with an abundance of options, from sport, color, price, gender, age, product type and rating (from other site users). This is probably the smartest feature of Eastbay.com. After filtering my search results I came to find that they currently don’t even offer the shoes I’m looking for besides for infants and toddlers.

I don’t really want to say Eastbay has a bad website. They have sufficient information available, but the means in which it is presented are a little confusing. The layout is far from interesting. And on top of that they don’t even have the product I wanted.