Reading the first chapter of “Don’t Make Me Think” addressed many of my own concerns about web
design. Doing some shopping on my favorite writing utensil/stationary site Jetpens made me appreciate
the things they did right as well as wrong, which will hopefully reflect on my own projects.
Loading the site to browse the fountain pens revealed it had recently undergone a redesign, as it was
much less cluttered and opened. The very top of the page contains links for logging in and accessing
your account, and your wish lists. Below that, the site’s logo in on the top left for easy navigation back
to the homepage, followed by a large search bar. A new feature to the right of that is the cart button. It
shows how many items are in your cart, as well as how much they are worth. Directly below this are
the broadest categories for those looking to browse. They include “Pens”, “Pencils”, “Cases and Bags”.
Below that lay a grid of icons leading to more specific product lines, like fountain pens or drafting
pencils. Clicking on “Fountain Pens”, I am taken to the product results page. The first thing that comes
up are the most popular fountain pens on the whole site. The column to the left of the results contains
different ways to refine your search by nearly any variable you can think of, such as pen type, ink type,
nib type, costs, grip materials, and so on. Wanting to go with a classic look, I click on the “Black” color
for pens and am returned with their most popular black pens. I should also note that search results can
be ordered by price, product name, and average customer review. A Lamy Safari catches my eye, so
I click it. The individual product pages are to my eyes very cleanly laid out. Most products include
several pictures of the product, user reviews, and links to related products, as well as links taking
you to the same product in different colors and styles, as well as recommended refills. Another novel
feature that I liked was that every item has a count of exactly how many the store has in stock. Liking
what I see, I click on Add to Cart, which updates my Cart icon in the top right.
Overall I feel like the site has a very clean and open layout. Spreading out the items by categories is
good for people who know exactly what they’re looking for, as well as people just looking to window
shop. If you are in the market for a fine writing utensil, I would recommend starting the search at
Jetpens.