StyleShapes – 3D Printed Jewelry Finder

3 thoughts on “StyleShapes – 3D Printed Jewelry Finder”

1. 1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
    
   The first thing I notice is the name and logo for Style Shapes. People normally look to the left side of the page first and it is the brightest color.
    
   Underneath, I see “3D Printed Jewelry Finder” which is confusing. Is this a search engine to help find 3D printed jewelry from all over the internet?  Or is this a site that a company named Style Shapes printed?
    
   What is it you want to highlight: Style Shapes, that it is 3D printing, or the vast variety of jewelry?
    
   Most businesses want to highlight the name, but it doesn’t tell me anything. The logo includes what looks like a cut stone. So if anything, I’m thinking fine jewelry.
    
   Do most people know what 3D printing is yet and do they care whether the jewelry is 3D printed or not? Have you done the market research to find out?
    
   All the jewelry appears to be on the home page. Personally, I find it a little overwhelming. Fortunately there is a menu and a search, so I can look for the kind of jewelry I want.
    
   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?
    
   I did a search for “gold earrings” and got all kinds of jewelry made from gold or gold plating. I then searched for “earrings gold” and it brought up the same items. Also, the photos themselves were not all showing the items in gold. Being able to see jewelry in gold is important to me as a consumer. I want to know exactly what I’m buying and how it will look when it arrives.
    
   So, I was only able to find what I really wanted.
    
   3) Are you encouraged to like&share it over your social channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
    
   The idea is interesting. I like some many of the pieces. And website still needs some work before I would want to share it.
    
   I hadn’t noticed before, the like button and additional Facebook info is in the Cyrillic alphabet, presumably Russian. Are you a Russian business now seeking to reach the English-speaking market? If so, it is good that you are using StartUpLift to help you see if and how we think and shop differently.
    
   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which one do you prefer? Why?
    
   It wasn’t easy to find a comparable site. I went to https://www.hotpopfactory.com, which has a completely different feel. It feels more like haut couture or a higher quality fashion brochure. The home page above the fold is a large slideshow that is enticing, so I want to look further.
    
   However, it doesn’t have nearly the variety that you do.
    
   There are several photos showing how the jewelry is made on the “Shop” page. I find this extremely valuable as a selling feature. A curiosity for those who have never seen 3D printing in action.
    
   5) Is the website straight-forward, is it clear what it is and what for?
    
   Yes, the website is clear.
    
   6) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
    
   I think you have a great idea and would like to see the website improve from a marketing standpoint. (Do you have analytics to see how long people are staying on your site and what pages they are visiting?)
    
   The easiest way to improve the marketability is to improve the home page above the fold. There are numerous possibilities. One is to have photos of your favorite (or bestselling pieces) for each type of jewelry, i.e., earrings, necklaces, etc. This could be in a slideshow with models showing off the pieces.
    
   There could be a video of one or more of the pieces being made.
    
   Mainly, if you could do more to catch a visitors’ attention as soon as they come onto the home page, I think you’ll be more successful than if you leave it as it currently is.
    
   Also, I would want to know about the company. Who are the founders / principals. How did they get involved in the 3D printing jewelry business, etc.

2. 1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
   First thing I see is a huge space to the right of the logo and navigation links. I thought the site wasn’t finished yet. I tried scrolling down and saw that the page wasn’t actually displaying properly. It’s nice that the layout seems simple and easy to navigate around except that it wasn’t working for me – the thumbnails overlap the logo and the rest of the sidebar when scrolling down (I tried using IE8, Firefox 20 and Chrome 26 but the page still displays incorrectly.)

   So I looked around more around the homepage but I still don’t have an idea of what the site is about except for the “3D Printed Jewelry Finder”. I’m guessing that this site lists jewelry with 3D prints from different stores – I don’t know what “3D printed” is.

   I’m thinking that this site doesn’t explain much about 3D printed jewelry. Visitors who know about 3D printed jewelry would probably know they are looking for. New users like myself who have no clue about it might find it better to go visit some other site with explanations.
    
   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing?
   A search box and links to different types of jewelry are easily accessible at the side of the page so looking for items is really easy and simple.

   The way the items are listed is clean and not confusing. The simplicity is really a huge plus.
   3) Are you encouraged to like&share it over your social channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
   The items really look interesting so yes, this is something I would like to share/tweet about. It’s nice that I can share about a site listing interesting jewelry plus it’s easy to browse around for more items. But if the site also appears broken to others, it might not be a great experience for the people I share the site with.
    
   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
   I couldn’t find a similar site that lists 3D printed jewelry from different sites. The closest I could find was shapeways.com since they also have a category of jewelry for sale.

   Navigation was also simple and since it has a community/help/FAQ, I was able get a better idea on what 3D printing is.

   If I want a quick list of items, I would definitely go with StyleShapes but if I want to explore more and find something specific, I’m leaning towards Shapeways.
    
   5) Is the website straight-forward, is it clear what it is and what for?
   The website is straight-forward and simple. It is clear that the site lists “3D printed jewelry”. But for visitors who don’t know what 3d printing is, it is rather difficult to understand what makes 3d printed jewelry different from regular jewelry; although, I did manage to get a rough idea of what it is after browsing around for more items.
    
   6) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
   I think it would be nice if there was a quick explanation on what 3D Printed Jewelry is so that it would make (new) visitors interested in what it is and have them continue browsing the site.

   As mentioned earlier, I like that the site is simple and navigation seems easy. It’s also great that everything is straightforward. I just wish that there were some links on what the site is about, maybe on what 3D printed jewelry is and some users might want a Privacy Page too.

   I like that more content gets loaded upon scrolling down. I just find it difficult to scroll back up when tons of items have already been loaded in the page. Maybe it would be nice if there was a “Back to Top” link or something similar.

   I also like that when I clicked on an item and hit the back button, the page displays the items already loaded — it doesn’t reset back to the top. I’m thinking that if I like to check out multiple items and open these items in new tabs, my browser will be cluttered and mess up my navigation. Maybe it would be nice to have a “Bookmark list” (something like an “Add to cart”) so that I can just add the items to a list and check them out later.

   All in all, I like the site very much. The colors are easy to the eye and the layout is simple making it easy browse around and the lists aren’t cluttered. If the display can be fixed and maybe give a quick introduction on 3D printing, new visitors will more likely stick around and enjoy your site.

3. 1) Look around the home page – what is your initial impression of what you see?
   My initial impression of the home page was confusion.  When I first looked at the home page I initially thought what cool jewelry, but when I looked to the left of the page I saw the logo and “3D printed jewelry finder” which is where the confusion came in, I wasn’t sure if this was a site to buy or just look at snippits from other sites. Even after clicking on a picture I wasn’t absolutely convinced. 
   2) Think of something you want to find on this website. Now try to find it. Did you find what you were looking for? Was anything confusing? 
   I wanted to look for a locket, the search resulted in a few different items, but they weren’t what I had in mind.  I did like one that I clicked on and I was slightly confused about the bottom of the page “LEAVE A REPLY”, I’m not sure what to do with that or what it’s for.  Again it makes me think this isn’t a site to shop on.
   3) Are you encouraged to like&share it over your social channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc)? Can you tell us why (or why not)? 
   The pictures of the jewelry are really awesome, I love all the choices.  I would like/share with friends. 
   4) Go to search engine of your choice and find one other company that offers a similar service. Compare the two companies. Which on do you prefer? Why?
   I found Etsy, while they have some items I really preferred your company due to all the choices.
   5) Is the website straight-forward, is it clear what it is and what for?
   I believe the website is for designers selling their goods, however it’s still slightly confusing.  I see where you can buy things but what is “leave a reply” for, not understanding that.  I think if I was wanting to make a purchase I just want to buy it, not wonder if it’s something I need to worry about.
   6) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have
   There are many interesting items I’ve never seen before on your site.  I really like it.

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