SmokingPipes Site Redesign

[Swiss Army Knife]

Seems like SPC has done a site redesign! Big thing is moving the new arrivals and new pipes into a sliding carousel similar to how the recommended tobaccos and order again carousels were. I've gotta say I'm not a huge fan of that change. It's a feature I used pretty religiously, checking every couple days to see what new pipes were in stock and perusing the estates. Moving it into a carousel and combining with any other new arrivals, cigars or accessories for example, just makes it a lot more cumbersome to use. I think there's also something lost when you don't scroll down into a big awesome grid of new pipes.

Another new feature which I think is a little underbaked right now but could be interesting is a Pipes We Think You'll Like section. Right now it's just showing a bunch of 2024 St. Patrick's Day Petersons which is funny because I have little to interest in these. Either it's another avenue to move unsold stock or the system of actually recommending appropriate pipes based on previous purchases just isn't there yet.

Ultimately I think they would have been better off using collapsible elements. Maybe keep the Rec Blends and Order Again carousels at the top side by side like they were but then have the big New Arrivals grid collapsed into one row by default that you can then easily pop open fully. Same for a Recommended Pipes section below that.

Finally the overall design has been tightened up and modernized just a bit. I actually really appreciate this because while I was perfectly happy with the old design I could see it feeling a little dated and the folks at SPC didn't go overboard here. A lot of site redesigns are awful because all the focus is put into looking sleek entirely at the expense of functionality. My only gripe is that it seems like they've removed the Find A Pipe/Blend/Cigar buttons. These were nice features just to instantly hop into a section and start sorting. You can still do it the more roundabout way of going into a specific section's drop down menu and selecting All Pipes/Blends/Cigars but frankly I don't really know if dropping these elements is really worth what little decluttering it may have brought.

Long story short I'm happy but dissatisfied with the reliance on the carousels. They're just kind of clunky. What's everyone else think about the new SmokingPipes?

 

[craig61a]

I hadn’t noticed

 

[Dave760]

Just saw it. Hate it.

The site is harder to read for those of us with less than perfect eyesight. The font they've chosen, displayed in grey, is just not user-friendly. I used to have to go to one place to see the "new arrivals" in pipes as both new and estate pipes were accessed from the same menu, but now they're separate. Overall it seems like form-over-function to me.

The changes won't stop me from using the site, but for at least a while (and perhaps forever) I'll be frustrated when I use it. If their goal was to piss me off, the they get a big "Well done!" from me.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

Love Smokingpipes... hate the new layout. When I first saw it earlier, I thought maybe it was a glitch, so I closed it out and reopened it. Yuck, I say.

 

[Chasing Embers]

They change the layout every few years but man they really dropped the ball this time.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

It's different but if I want to look at pipes or whatever I just go to the menu in the upper left and click on what I want, the "carousels" don't affect how I use the site. The impression I have is there are more displayed on the page when I go to what I want to view, similar to Danish Pipe Shop, the reality is it may not be that much different, lol, because I honestly can't remember what it was like the last time I looked, which was within the last few days! So I guess I can't complain. All in reference to my laptop, haven't looked on my phone.

 

[Merton]

Love SP and with the loss of Tobacco Pipes (it will not be the same) SP's market share will likely grow exponentially. I will get used to the new site but I have always disliked the "Pipes we think you will like" "Tobacco we think you will like" and "But it again" aspects of the site. These seem to be even more prominently displayed on the refresh. I know that it is marketing but, as we all know, pipe smoking is a long journey and over the course of many years one's tastes change with regard to pipe shape and certainly regarding tobacco. If you bought a lot of goopy aromatics 15 years ago, you are going to be reminded of it every time you visit the site...

 

[fireground_piper]

I hadn’t noticed

Same but I guess I don’t use it daily.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

How long has it been like this? Because, now, I can't remember what it used to be like, ha ha. I never stay on that splash page long anyways. As long as I can find tinned or bulk tobaccos, I'm fine.

That scrolling thing at the top that tells you what is on sale was always nice, because it let me know that whatever is on sale, is probably picked over to death, ha ha. So, I usually avoided whatever was on sale.

 

[pylorns]

The home page has had some tweaking but all the subsequent product pages look the same.

 

[woodsroad]

Seems like SPC has done a site redesign! Big thing is moving the new arrivals and new pipes into a sliding carousel similar to how the recommended tobaccos and order again carousels were. I've gotta say I'm not a huge fan of that change. It's a feature I used pretty religiously, checking every couple days to see what new pipes were in stock and perusing the estates. Moving it into a carousel and combining with any other new arrivals, cigars or accessories for example, just makes it a lot more cumbersome to use. I think there's also something lost when you don't scroll down into a big awesome grid of new pipes.

Another new feature which I think is a little underbaked right now but could be interesting is a Pipes We Think You'll Like section. Right now it's just showing a bunch of 2024 St. Patrick's Day Petersons which is funny because I have little to interest in these. Either it's another avenue to move unsold stock or the system of actually recommending appropriate pipes based on previous purchases just isn't there yet.

Ultimately I think they would have been better off using collapsible elements. Maybe keep the Rec Blends and Order Again carousels at the top side by side like they were but then have the big New Arrivals grid collapsed into one row by default that you can then easily pop open fully. Same for a Recommended Pipes section below that.

Finally the overall design has been tightened up and modernized just a bit. I actually really appreciate this because while I was perfectly happy with the old design I could see it feeling a little dated and the folks at SPC didn't go overboard here. A lot of site redesigns are awful because all the focus is put into looking sleek entirely at the expense of functionality. My only gripe is that it seems like they've removed the Find A Pipe/Blend/Cigar buttons. These were nice features just to instantly hop into a section and start sorting. You can still do it the more roundabout way of going into a specific section's drop down menu and selecting All Pipes/Blends/Cigars but frankly I don't really know if dropping these elements is really worth what little decluttering it may have brought.

Long story short I'm happy but dissatisfied with the reliance on the carousels. They're just kind of clunky. What's everyone else think about the new SmokingPipes?

You should tag @swilford on this. A very good critique!

 

[Ahi Ka]

On a phone it looks the same or even better and less clunky than I remember - granted it has been a long time since I have been there. Either way, it looks great.

I did notice that the pipe/cigar/blend finder buttons are no longer there in the drop down menu, which is a shame as that was how I primarily navigated the site and always saw it as a point of difference - though I guess with their competition being kneecapped I suppose they no longer need a point of difference. Goodwill is more than enough.

 

[jackets]

Something about this redesign resolved an issue I was having with some of their fonts, like the top navigation bar on my Linux laptop. It was normal on my phone and desktop but something about the fonts and backgrounds didn't agree with this combo or Linux distribution and laptop.

 

[Dave760]

I have some further thoughts having looked at the new site more deeply. (Apparently I'm a glutton for punishment.)

The loss of the Pipe Finder and Tobacco Finder functionality is a big issue for me. I used those almost every time I visited the site. If there's a way to filter based on whether a blend is in stock or not, I can't find it. That used to be an option.

The font they've chosen is poor choice if readability was a goal. My eyes aren't great, but under the old style I could easily read the text on a 10" tablet screen with the device on my lap. Now I have to zoom in to read much of the text. Zooming in and out on a site where that wasn't necessary before is a pain in the neck. Making important text grey rather than black adds insult to injury. There's also something strange going on with the font kerning, which makes the text even harder to read.

Having two different text size on the Tobacco and SALE menus is an...interesting...choice. There might have been two different sizes in the past, but if there were it was a lot less obvious.

I'm sure some of you will consider my comments as nitpicking, but I used to do a lot of work on user interface design. Not only has the new site design lost functionality, but it's actually worse visually. I'm happy with the de-cluttering of the banner at the top of the page, but overall the site is less usable for me. (Designing a UI to be useful for those who are no longer young with perfect eyesight is important. I'd have thought especially so in this case, given that plenty of their users must be in the over-50 crowd.)

Overall the redesign feels like it's the result of, "We should change something to make the site seem new," rather than an attempt to make the site better.

I can only imagine how I'd have been raked over the coals if I'd submitted this design as an improvement to what went before.

 

[JackOrion]

The last few times I’ve randomly tried to go on it’s been the ‘try back later’ page.

 

[eeshooter]

New design is harder to navigate. Show me the new pipes and less about what you think I want. Spend the money on more servers so the site stops crashing when something popular drops.

 

[fireground_piper]

The finder still exists, it’s just not in the drop down menu but on the “all pipe tobacco” page.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Yes but I miss the little logos

(I need something to complain about so I feel like I fit in with the codgers)

 

[ThermionicScott]

As much as I love serif fonts, the site does seem to be a little harder to read now.

 

[Servant King]

A completely unnecessary (they always are) "upgrade" to something that didn't need changing in the first place.

What else is new?