Do You Like smokingpipes.com New Website's Design?

[misterlowercase]

I agree with Frozen Churchwarden that the Fresh Pipes is a mega fail.

It's like a ritual with me on Mon & Thurs to check the fresh stuff, what used to take 1 click, with clear vision, now becomes 3 to 4 clicks through a muddied terrain --- I miss the old splash page that had the fresh pipes front and center, easy to see, easy to find, easy to browse, immediate.
I feel that overall, the aesthetic experience has been cheapened, for me at least -- what used to be an elegant understated minimalist form of function-before-fashion, now has a rather generic and characterless feel, more like other webshops and less like the SmokingPipes.com that I love so much --- it may just be jarring to me to see such dramatic change and I may grow to like it more after the dust settles and the growing pains are over, but the classic SPC had it's very own distinctive identity and feel, like a warm home - now it seems like the cozy fireplace has gone out.
:!:

 

[lordofthepiperings]

I'm only on my iPhone and haven't noticed any difference to the site by accessing it this way.

 

[misterlowercase]

Looking at the site early this morn with fresh sleepy eyes.
Looking mainly at pipes.
If I hadn't known that there was a MarTelo update, I might not have been aware, and sometimes a certain pipemaker sells very quickly, making it crucial for the viewer/buyer to have quick scanning capacity, for example, the last Cannoy pipes sold very quickly, and often it requires a quick trigger finger to score the pipe that one wants, but one can only have a quick trigger finger if one is keenly aware of the target. Refreshing by clicking the SmokingPipes.com home logo upper left generated random Fresh Pipes, after about the third refresh I finally saw MarTelo. I liked the old version where you'd see the most recent updates only.
The black bar dropdown, as others noted, seemed glitchy to me, overly sensitive, but also somewhat useful in the fact that I was moreso prompted to read the blog.
I don't like the green "quick view" arrows on right hand bottom of each "pipe card", they're quite harsh and cause eye strain, competing with the mostly earthtoned pipes -- adding unseemly clutter, and actually even unnecessary as I'll click the description if I wanna see the pipe.
I kept scrolling down for the specs because that's what I was used to, but the sidebar specs are actually very good and I like that placement.
The "similar pipes" feature was actually a helpful feature and somewhat accurate as well, again, the green arrow icons are highly distracting though.
One more thing I'll mention is font choice; in this day and age where everyone knows that the little dot above a lowercase i is a tittle and ampersand is a commonly understood term, a more stylish font could be chosen, mostly just for the sake of adding individuality or personality or style or whatever, I know it'd be a major pain in the ass probably, but there are so many great fonts out there now, and SPC could really take advantage of what a really great font can do - beyond legibility, a great font enhances the readers experience and adds a distinct flavor to the joint.

 

[davet]

The drop down bar seems to be working for me now. I do like the sort feature, newest first, price low to high.

 

[bigjoe]

It will take some getting used to.
Navigation has become much more painful with all the gimmicky web design bells and whistles.
They also broke their "New pipes" ad links to the forums here.

 

[agnosticpipe]

Why, why, why can I only see a photo of one side of a pipe unless it's over a $100? And even then it may be only one more photo! I find the lack of photo information and any other detailed description very odd! If you want to buy a pipe you want to know what it looks like all around. If I was on ebay I would probably pass over a seller that was only willing to post one photo of his item. Four shots should be the minimum, right, left, top and bottom. Also, why no magnify feature? It would be nice to see some detail in the grain, blast, stem and button. They give condition a number rating from 1-5, but what's that supposed to mean. Saying a black sandblast pipe has minor rim char doesn't mean as much as one that has a light smooth finish. The bit has some light chatter? How light is it? What's light to one person may be not acceptable to another. I expect lousy, fuzzy poorly lit photos from people at home using a cell phone, but these guys are running a professional business and should be expected to take some proper photos of their products.
I'm not posting this just to try to bash Smokingpipes, I like doing business with them and have had good experiences in the past. But I buy fewer pipes from them mainly because of the lack of clear information on their estate pipes, and to be honest some of the new ones too.
Am I the only one bothered by this? Am I being too picky to want more than one or two pics of a pipe I'm spending money on? What gives here?

 

[mso489]

There's a tug-of-war on websites these days between the greedy advertising impulse and the wholesome service oriented style, and of course greed is winning. Throw all kinds of promotional material in the face of the viewer and let them fight their way to what they want to see, if they can. Just remember, if the viewer/user/shopper isn't able to get to what they want, or if they are uptight and frustrated when they get there, they are really not in the mood to put in their credit card number. They are no longer enchanted with the merchandise. To the degree possible, the potential customer should be almost unaware of the website mechanics. They shouldn't see anything that strikes them as annoying and distracting. Those are sites I visit less and less often until I don't visit them at all.

 

[lochinvar]

What bothers me is the sidebar lists, as opposed to the central page block. Just takes more time to navigate.

 

[misterlowercase]

I expect lousy, fuzzy poorly lit photos from people at home using a cell phone, but these guys are running a professional business and should be expected to take some proper photos of their products.
I'm not posting this just to try to bash Smokingpipes, I like doing business with them and have had good experiences in the past. But I buy fewer pipes from them mainly because of the lack of clear information on their estate pipes, and to be honest some of the new ones too.
Am I the only one bothered by this? Am I being too picky to want more than one or two pics of a pipe I'm spending money on? What gives here?

You are not alone Orley.
The predictable response, probably very true, is the high volume of listings would dramatically increase labor time for more extensive photography on each and every pipe, but given the often slightly higher than market value estate prices, I do agree that such a basic feature should be part of the listing --- yet I do also understand the time and labor issue, because they do indeed have a rather high volume, and the return process is simple and easy if you're not fully pleased with the estate when you get it in hand.
I also agree with BigPond...

What I would like is higher rez photos, a larger image or simple way to magnify a photo...

That would be very nice and an added bonus,

I like to read stampings and etcetera.
Many of the European webshops rule over the American ones in that department.
:!:

 

[zitotczito]

While all this is well and good, I will make it simple. I use to take a glance 2 or 3 times a day and it was easy and fast. Since the new site is up I will not spend my work break and most of my lunch trying to navigate the site as it just take to long. In reality since it has been up, I have looked 3 times and none now. To much going on and just takes too long. Sorry SPC but you lost me. I won't say I would not buy from you again if it was something I really wanted or could not get elsewhere, but since I won't really be visiting your site much I won't see things I might feel compelled to buy. Thanks, you are saving me money.

 

[mrbigglesworth]

I agree. I am a very visual person. Someone above said it looks "cluttered". That's what I see, clutter. If things are not visually appealing I go somewhere else. The previous site was easy on the eyes and, therefore, easy to navigate (for me anyway). I think they had good intentions, but something went awry.

 

[northernneil]

Wow, we sure like to complain as a community don't we.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

This sort of thing is important. And, all of the post had valid concerns, except maybe the one about colors. But, when P&C changed their website and made it harder to view and buy pipes, they totally lost my pipe business. There are too many places easier to see and buy pipes. I would think that a company would be interested in hearing our concerns. And, they seem to be. I've always asked my customers when I make a website change.
If I didn't have a problem, I would have given a thumbs up.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

lochinvar:

What bothers me is the sidebar lists, as opposed to the central page block. Just takes more time to navigate.

Potentially more time to scroll down, yes, but being sorted under alphabetical categories now I find it's much easier to navigate and just as fast to find things, depending on how fast you were at picking one name out of a hundred in a three column listing.

The current implementation is right on track with the best websites out there, they just need to collapse the names into each letter.
It is a slight step back, similar to our complaints with the "fresh pipes" list, in that you don't have a "single glance" option for looking at all the manufacturers.

Sometimes I forget the brand for a certain pipe and I want to sit there and stare at the names of every manufacturer out there so that my brain can make the link.

Ideally I want that in the drop down menu on the homepage. Zero click access to a full listing sounds amazing to me.
I still want a full page listing with manufacturer names, but I also jump around a lot when I'm browsing so having that information constantly in the side bar is good too.

The only addition I would make to a new "full page manufacturer list", is that they should still be separated by letter. In the old system I had trouble finding manufactures sometimes because new letters would begin randomly within the three columns.

Since ending columns at each letter is less space efficient, if they could slot an indicator between names at the beginning of each new letter, a bold and off color letter or even just a simple line, that would probably do the trick.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

NO!!! Estate pipe section is AFU, much more difficult to use. The old interface, for the entire site, was better looking, and easier to use.

AFU?
Alaska-Fairbanks University?

 

[lordofthepiperings]

On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 12:06 PM, Bradley Simon wrote:

You're screwing up, pipe smokers especially older, BUYERS, liked your clean easy to navigate site, now, not at all, go with the flow , you're gonna stop the flow. SHEESH! Bradley Simon

The guard is changing and the older pipe smokers aren't really the target audience these days. It's changed to the 20 & 30 somethings.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Also note that if they put a full manufacturer list in the drop down menu then that would be available from any page on the website.

Pipes, Tobacco, Cigars: Bam bam bam, you could look at every single one of the hundreds of names across the entire tobacco industry within seconds, at a moments notice.

I really hope that one comes through.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Next thought: Tobacco items should have a "Quick View" that just lists components and "Strength - Room Note - Taste" stats.

 

[tslex]

I would say that I easily spend 90% of my pipe-related dollars with SPC every year. I have always lauded their outstanding customer service and the fact that they made buying a pipe online as close as it can ever get to buying a pipe in person. Great content about the EXACT pipe I'm buying (photos, plus video for the higher end stuff) means a lot with something like pipes, where no two -- even from the same shape/maker/batch/finish/etc will ever be the same.
So that's still in place. Good.
But the old interface was simple, clean, "friendly" and easy to maneuver in a way that this one -- which seems a little frantic to me -- is not. I presume the huge margins have to do with usability for those on mobile devices -- where a lot of e-commerce happens these days -- but it doesn't favor the way a lot of us pipe folks interact when deciding to spend $200, or $300 on a pipe, or $200 on a tobacco order.
So, I dunno. From my end it's not as pleasant an experience. But I admit that's a little intangible. From a functionality standpoint, I'll have to see how it goes.

 

[tbradsim1]

Lord you ain't as thick as you're trying to portray yourself, the Guard may have changed but the Dollars are still with the Old Guard, big mistake to piss off the Old Farts.