Cherry Red Records - Where do I look first?

Cherry Red records is an independent record label based in London. Established in 1978, the label is known for such artists as Dead Kennedys, Runaways, Everything But The Girl and most recently, Swervedriver. But despite the rich history of the label, the user experience of their website could be improved.

Since elements on the homepage are styled similarly (color, weight) and the page is so information-dense, it’s difficult for users to know where to look first, where to focus their attention and where to find things. There’s so much to look at that the visibility of what’s important is reduced. And I understand the red color is a big part of their brand, but the page is so saturated that it makes things worse.

A redesign of the page would help, focusing on a more aesthetic and minimalist design, deciding on the most important information and organizing the page in such a way that the hierarchy is clear and user can find things quickly. For example, they should consider:

Consolidating the 11 main navigation items to 5-7, anything more has been proven to put a burden on people’s short-term memory, causing it to be difficult to remember where to find things
Combining related things like Offers, DVDs, Books, Vinyl under one new option called Browse (or Shop)
Removing the unnecessary Home option, as users expect to simply click a banner logo at the top to get back home
Moving some things off of the page entirely - for example, genres could be moved to the new Browse/Shop navigation option
Replacing the entire entire shopping cart area with a simple cart icon, light gray by default and when a user has at least one item in the cart, adding a number and turning the icon red

The change in visual state will get the user’s attention
Also, placing it directly below the main navigation area, a typical location on sites with a shopping component

Taking all of the social things (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), replacing them with icons only and moving them to a more familiar (and visible) top right of the page

These are just a few things that could help them improve the user experience of the Cherry Red's site.

Comments

Unknown said…

Whoever made that site should step away from the computer, douse it in gasoline, and burn it to the ground and never touch one again.

March 25, 2015 at 9:26 AM

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