I decided that in 2010, I was going to design more things. I didn’t do as much just straight up designing of things in 2009. So rather than wait around for opportunities to come to me, I am going to just pick random things to redesign. At the day job we just got done doing a whole ton of data entry for a client, that we do every year when they revise their catalog. We use Pinnacle Cart for this client’s store, which aside from having table-based templates, is a pretty decent eCommerce software. After spending so much time in there editing products, I decided that I would take a crack at resigning that particular screen see if I could address some issues.

The area I redesigned is just a part of the overall page, so don’t be distracted by the fact that there isn’t overall admin navigation and what-have-you.

Before

Click to see full-size

Problems:

• White space used ineffectively
• Tabs feel cramped
• Ordering of fields doesn’t make sense (e.g. Why is “Meta Description” and 5 other fields in between the product title and the price, the two most important fields)
• Page length is too long, why not break images into a separate tab
• Promotions and discounts tabs could be combined
• Next/Previous navigation at bottom of page is useless
• Reset form button is useless
• Shouldn’t have to scroll to save
• Meta keywords are useless

After

Click to see full size

Improvements

• Tabs replaced by larger clickable links on top row
• Next/Previous navigation at top right corner. This way you can click-click-click and the link will always be in the same place.
• Fields grouped more logically
• Page length shortened by removing some things, and moving things around. At the same time the entry fields are actually much larger.
• Two save buttons present, so you never have to scroll to save, and is named “Save all changes” which should help with confusion over what the button actually saves (it saves everything not just the top or bottom half). The button also provides a break line to separate the basics from the deeper more specific stuff.
• Buttons for HTML tags in description area

This just feels better to me, but you don’t have to agree with me. If you have ideas for improvements or comments about where I went wrong, let me have it. I’ll also provide the PSD in case you want to shuffle things around yourself.

In an effort to provide a permanent resource to the question “are there any books you recommend?”, I created the CSS-Tricks Bookshelf. It had slowly gone out of date, so now I’ve bought it back up to date with new version of books, some new favorites, and some old classics.

This kick ass book, and more, on the updated bookshelf.

Matt Cutts writes one of the most successful and widely read blogs in the SEO field. What can we learn from taking a close look at his blog What lessons can we apply to making our own blog a success Keep reading as we take benchmarking to a whole new arena….

Digital Prototyping Demo Go Beyond 3D To Digital Prototyping With Inventor®. Free Online Demo.

By Joseph PhangNo other way of promoting a website turns out to be as successful as SEO or Search Engine Optimization, which is used by a lot of firms to successfully increase online revenues from their products or services. This technique comes with a lot of benefits, and its role in generating online revenues will be affirmed by any seasoned SEO consultant, which is why you must have a good SEO

By Jossy GrishanThey say that if you beautify your feet correctly, you are sure to look distinct in the gang. And why not! The first thing that comes to notice of an individual is their shoes. It stands not only for their fashion sense, but the social strata to which they belong. For women, it cannot get any bigger than Christian Louboutin. This is the king of all brands in designer shoes, not