buffalo exchange
October, 1999.
By Molly E. Holzschlag. (Link to original article.)
Recycling has been a popular issue for many years now, but did you know you can recycle clothing, too? If you are fortunate enough to live in the Western U.S., it's likely that you've come across Buffalo Exchange, a wonderfully hip, recycled-clothing store.
With an eye for progress and a strong awareness of popular culture, the owners of Buffalo Exchange got on the Web site bandwagon quite early. In fact, they have had a Web site since 1996. Their site has always been attractive, useful, and kept up-to-date for content. But recently--as is wise from time to time--it was decided the time had come for a new look.
Figure 1. The new site has a clean, white background, rich and vibrant colors for headers, and bright photographic elements to keep the site lively.
Redesigning Web sites is often a difficult task. There are multiple reasons for this, but much has to do with the ability of a designer to give a fresh look to a site without diminishing the power of the brand it represents. This means having to use familiar elements in different ways. In a sense, this is a lot like recycling clothes! If you kept those jeans you wore in 1975 (and can still fit into them), you know what I mean.
Another issue regarding redesign is clearly defining when it is appropriate to thoroughly change a site. Should you follow the lead of Web design trends, or should you go with instinct and make significant changes when the time makes sense for your business, rather than caters to the demands of popular culture? My sense is that there's a big difference between keeping a site up-to-date and redesigning it entirely. Updates keep it timely and interesting. Too many redesigns can confuse rather than serve a site's visitors.
"Gone are the frames and animations, in their stead are precise layout and subtle JavaScript mouseovers."
The powers that be at Buffalo Exchange have earned my respect for a variety of reasons. They knew when to get on the Web, and they knew how to brand their site consistently with their growing company. Never ones for keeping a site static, their first design was developed by Buffalo Exchange with DesertNet Designs and Brainbug. I worked on the original concept and can say the site was impressively ahead of its time, using frames, server-side includes for randomization, and server-push animation. These elements were updated wherever necessary. For example, the server-push became an animated GIF, and JavaScript was added to route browsers to frame and frame-free options.
Figure 2. Buffalo Exchange keeps its site up-to-date with news and tips.
Despite the upkeep of the site, the time came to make some significant changes to the design. After all, it had been four years, and the company had grown and made positive changes of its own. A fresh, clean look was needed.
Buffalo Exchange called upon designer Amy Burnham, who had worked for the ad agency that represented them before she moved on to work in the area of Web design. Burnham maintained her relationship with Buffalo Exchange, which turned to her for guidance when the site was ready to be redesigned.
Burnham didn't let Buffalo Exchange down. While progress was the name of the game back in 1996, elegance, clean lines, and rich content define the current site. Moving from the black-and-copper theme of the early design, Burnham chose to go with a clean, white background, rich and vibrant colors for headers, and bright photographic elements to keep the site lively. Gone are the frames and animations; in their stead are precise layout and subtle JavaScript mouseovers.
Consistency with the old site has not been lost, despite these dramatic differences. Use of the logo and fun photos help maintain the company's brand, and the site's navigational structure--while updated to refine and add additional items--is similar to the original. These elements have helped the site keep its branding power and still make it a delight. Site visitors who used the previous site regularly should have no difficulty making the switch, and, in fact, finding it a stimulating one.
Figure 3. The old design had a black-and-copper theme that didn't go with Buffalo Exchange's hip attitude.
Most interesting about this redesign is that in a day and age of cluttered portals, top-heavy navigation, and technological mania, the Buffalo Exchange designed a site that is effective, popular, and new precisely because it doesn't follow trend. If anything, the site is more simple now than it was originally, and this simplicity adds a refinement and grace that is truly refreshing.
In the content arena, Buffalo Exchange uses the Web very intelligently. It has company information spanning its history, its vision, and its philanthropic works. There's a page that explains the entire buying process, describing what they buy and don't buy and why. Fashion forecasts, news and events, location information complete with interesting things to do within the city or state of interest, and even job openings are available for site visitors to enjoy. The site is useful as well as attractive and easy to navigate. Look for an online catalog coming soon!
Checking under the hood, I am pleased to say I found extremely clean, intelligent code. I have to admit it comes as a surprise that the HTML coder uses FrontPage, but obviously he doesn't rely on the program to get the job done properly. The code is well organized, with each page appropriately meta tagged, every visual image containing an
Buffalo Exchange's new design gets my hearty applause. For a company that has already proven its expertise in reuse and recycle, the word redesign can be added to a formula that defines the concept of Web site success.
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designer's interview
Molly: What was your role in creating the site?
Amy Burnham: I was the graphic designer and client contact. I outsourced the programming to Burr Design, a company I frequently work with, but performed all other roles myself.
Molly: How did you plan the design and functionality of the site?
Amy Burnham: Its previous site was very heavy and dark, and it didn't fit Buffalo Exchange's image, which is really young and fresh and somewhat playful. I've worked with this client for several years on various print and online projects and have a good feel for what represents them. I'd really been chomping at the bit to redesign the Web site and knew it would be a really fun project.
Molly: What did you have to leave out of the design that you would have liked to include?
Amy Burnham: I originally was planning on having more animation in the site. I was going to have a different animation in each section in the tiny images at the top of the page. Once I started working on them though, the payoff wasn't big enough to justify the additional download time so I dropped it.
Molly: What feature on the site are you most proud of?
Amy Burnham: Probably the catalog. The client had experimented with a catalog on their previous site, but it wasn't successful. There are many reasons for this: the items sold weren't representative of Buffalo's main draw (one-of-a-kind and vintage pieces of clothing), there wasn't much of a marketing drive to support the catalog, and the online catalog itself was somewhat clunky. The new catalog has much more thought behind it and fits in better with the Buffalo Exchange experience. It is also a more intuitive and fun experience for the user. I'm very excited to see what kind of response they get.
Molly: Is there anything you'd change on the site now that it's live?
Amy Burnham: No, I can't think of anything, although we make changes to the site all the time. The client is wonderful in that they're religious about monthly updates. It's great to have a client that cares about keeping it's site fresh and up-to-date.
Molly: What was the most important lesson or tip you learned while building this site that you'd pass on to other Web builders?
Amy Burnham: The only problem we had with this site was in switching from the old host to a new one. There were a few ruffled feathers, and it could have gone more smoothly if I had been clearer as to who was contacting whom. There were a number of people involved in the technical side of this site. Besides myself and Burr Design and the new ISP, there were several technically astute people on the client side, as well as people from the old Web design company and ISP. It turned into a case of everyone thinking someone else was handling the transfer, and it dragged out the new launch by about a week.
Molly: What's your favorite Web site?
Amy Burnham: Designwise I love Salon because of its elegant simplicity and Word because of its originality. I also love the use of Flash on AtomFilms. In terms of functionality, I spend a lot of time at some of the standards like Amazon, IMDB, Expedia, etc.
Molly: What site do you wish you had designed?
Amy Burnham: Salon Magazine, definitely. At the time that this site came out, its originality just blew me away. The simplicity of the design is so misleading, there is so much thought behind this wonderfully designed site, and it is a perfect case of someone designing for the Web instead of in spite of it. I love it, love it. It used to be better, but I still love it.
Molly: What was your background before becoming involved with Web building?
Amy Burnham: My background was in print. I was an art director for an ad agency before being bitten by the online bug when I went to work for several years as the art director of a Web design company. Recently, I started my own graphic design business, and now I work in both Web and print. I specialize in identity packages and Web design but enjoy having a wide variety of projects to work on.
Molly: When you're not busy building sites, what do you enjoy doing?
Amy Burnham: I do a lot of print work also—I particularly enjoy identity work. And I also enjoy things that make me jump around a lot like racquetball and kickboxing, and of course things like movies, traveling, and cooking.
