Comments on: American Eagle Features Products on the Fly

By: zacktyria

zacktyria — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 01:18:28 +0000

I’m a student at Western Michigan University and I am currently taking a retail management class with dr4ward (www.dr4ward.com). I agree with Dan, waiting for the hover to load can be frustrating. I think for a website like AE where most of the shoppers are teens to young adults, this technology can be used successfully. If the website is selling things geared toward older people then this technology could confuse and frustrate them. Having that much information pop up with the hover it could confuse some people. This could then lead to loss of sales. I like the hover because it’s better than having to go to another webpage to see all of the options. Loading webpages can be time consuming, especially if are working with a slower connection.

By: Beau G

Beau G — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:06:22 +0000

I feel like AE does a pretty sweet job of showing what type of content you may get under a tab…however using the marketing area on the ajaxy menu every time is perhaps overuse. Also whoever the AD over there is, is doing a great job I love him.

By: cfnerd

cfnerd — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:24:50 +0000

I have a love hate relationship with the AE site. I am a web guy so details always get to me. I like the site overall, but not a fan of their web 2.0. The site does not do a good job of communicating what is happening. Additionally I think that the background as energetic as it is ends up taking the focus from the items, menus really all the navigation gets lost.

As simple as it is I like the Hollister site. I think they did a better job only using the web 2.0 for the steps that are useful.

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:23:48 +0000

I like the idea, however I think the execution is not the greatest. The difference between what is established as the navigation on the hover state panel and what it in the sections when it loads is a bit confusing.

By: Richard Dewick

Richard Dewick — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:01:38 +0000

I agree with Dan, you have to hang around for the hover to load which isn’t ideal. They are also trying to pack too much in to a small area of the screen.

The navigation also changes colour from the hover state to how it appears within that section, off putting to me. There’s a clash between the blue text on yellow background in one section that grates on me. Not for me I’m afraid.

By: Linda Bustos

Linda Bustos — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:29:37 +0000

Hi Dan, thanks for your input. I always like to hear what designers think about new stuff. I agree the inconsistency across different sections is sub-optimal, although it makes sense the clearance section is red.

I noticed that AE changes its color scheme frequently also.

By: Dan Shields

Dan Shields — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:26:12 +0000

I really don’t like it, but I am a Web Developer that thinks a lot about the user experience. Sure its a nifty idea but I don’t think it is the most logical solution. For one the navigation hover layer isn’t even consistent between the different sections. They also have two styles of navigation in some of these hover layers. To me as a user I think its a bit overloaded and just doesn’t feel right. This include the hover state and when you are on that section.

It’s once again great for marketing as another way to jam products down the users throats. I don’t think any users will think to wait the 3 seconds it takes to load before actually just clicking on the main navigation link.