Anywho, my work colleagues seemed uninterested and
slightly pissed that I had disrupted their discussion of the Zara SALE, and I
did inevitably hear/read the phrase, not once, but several more times that week
and every day since and so here we are, passive aggressive town.
But wait, I'm not going to get all bloggy on
your bad self. I'm not going to post vague political cartoon illustrations in
an attempt to make my piece all Newsnightesque and Broadsheet witty. No, its a
Sunday evening and I've got scented candles burning. I've had time to reflect,
relax and re-type.
OK, just one.
Before we get stuck in, the phrase best practice
is one many will have heard and said for varying different reasons both in
professional and perhaps even personal situations: "Dear, pop the milk in
the refrigerator door, it's best practice... Oh, I always make my own pastry,
it's best practice."
However, the context of the phrase I refer to here is
the context in which best practice is used to describe mechanisms,
systems and protocol within the e-commerce industry. This, in turn, spans two
paradigms, A) how Google wants the internet to look, or rather, how SEO
professionals think Google wants the internet to look, and B) What techies
think will make clicking 'add to basket' easier and more likely (perhaps
without even having to click!).
Now, I'm not a radical, I understand money makes the
web go round and I understand Google owns the internet, my beef isn't with all
that top level stuff, it's with the fact that creativity might be stunted and
suppressed in favour of SEO/e-com best practice, resulting in a mediocre
web-scape that just looks like a cheap version of Amazon.
Don't get me wrong. I adore Amazon. Just like I adore
my local ASDA WalMart Supercentre and Tesco Extra, but sometimes I want to pop
to the corner shop and pay double for some organic 'happy cow' milk and I want
the experience to reflect my choice to go all indie. Sometimes I want to wander
around the eclectic independent stores of a city centre and forego the flashy
chain-stores. Sometimes, I just want my internet to look a little different.
Rootin' Tootin' ASDA WalMart SuperDooperHugeCentre PLUS 24/7 .com
Ye Olde Corner Shop . com
Now. Back to the scented candles. I did want to just
type furiously about the importance of art in all that we do and strive to
achieve as human beings and how commerce is without a soul if it is without
creativity. But, the hypnotic scents of my Ocean Blossom candle have calmed me
some-what and instead I believe the future is a balancing act. To achieve
inner-peace/e-commerce harmony, we need to strike a balance between allowing
websites to be searchable and easily navigable and allowing room to make a
statement, excite people and make our mark on the market.
Par Example look at the website for downtown LA based culty fashion brand, Free
City. www.freecitysupershop.com
Free City is a cult-brand based on the ideals of the
Woodstock generation. Championing free spirits and free speech the brand, and
the name, come from the commune Freetown Christiania in Denmark, a "free
city" within Copenhagen. Now, a brand with a history and statement as rich
and as interesting as Free City needs a website that best reflects this, their
www. needs to be a "free city" within the web world.
Free City's website is a kaleidoscope of colour, as are the brand's garments. Our device screen transforms from a restrictive platform to multifaceted canvas, scroll any which way you want for content, movement and flashy loveliness.
Before you get excited, I understand this website is a
little more creative than it is practical and whilst I'm not one to dowse
creativity, I wouldn't really know where to begin if I wanted to purchase from
this site.
Whilst we can't all prance around the internet with
daisy chains in our hair, it would also be wrong to line up next to ASOS and
copy their wireframes. Why? because how boring would that be? What would the
internet become, the new media for human evolution or as plain and
straight-forward as your till receipt?
My conclusion? Best practise is all well
and good when coupled with creative and exciting communication. Why follow suit
when all your doing is diluting good work done by someone else? Understand the
basic principles of SEO and e-com, understand that the customer needs to be able
to make informed choices with ease, but also understand that the internet is
our biggest and most amazing blank canvas and to forget that is to forget why
we all got interested in it in the first place.
END.
