The Web has overtaken almost all aspects of my own personal information gathering. I haven’t been to a library in years, the white pages sits in a closet, and I just don’t own any maps anymore. But the Yellow Pages still gets well thumbed. For some reason, finding local resources online can be frustrating. Even with resources like “Google Local”:http://local.google.com/ and “toronto.com”:http://www.toronto.com/, if I need to find a plumber in Toronto the Yellow Pages is better than the Web.
But now “Yellowpages.ca”:http://www.yellowpages.ca/ has redesigned and so “Ken”:http://www.onedegree.ca/category/ken-schafer asked me to take a look at the experience.
The home page is clear and concise allowing for multiple ways to search.
The first search field allows you to enter a business name, category or phone number. What’s nice is the system figures out what you are looking for. That means searching for “2 Brother’s Plumbers”, “Plumber”, “drain repair” or “416-XXX-XXXX” will get me good results.
I can search geographically by entering city, province or postal. What is nice about this, is the system handles the complexity, you enter terms that are natural to you and the system figures it out. Too many sites hoist complexity back at the user.
Results are great.
It allows you to easily browse listings. Listings have graphics, typically company logos, and some replicate the ad from the Yellow Pages. This allows for good visual recognition and comprehension. That is one of the benefits of the paper version of YP, when I look at a page I can scan it for a listing that fits my needs. They haven’t replicated that experience but have brought the right aspects of it over to their site.
When you are in a listing it gives you all the information you would need (address, phone, description map etc.).
It also gives you a screenshot of the home page of the company’s Web site (if available) which is a great idea. I was able to evaluate if I wanted to visit the company’s site before leaving Yellowpages.ca. A few search engines like Yahoo and Ask.com have begun doing site thumbnails as a way of finding search results and it works well.
Category: Jon Lax
Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal, and in that spirit two large Canadian sites have unveiled significant redesigns. “CBC.ca”:http://www.cbc.ca/ and “Sears.ca”:http://www.sears.ca/ have taken the wraps off major site overhauls.
h2. CBC.ca
CBC’s former site had been getting a little long in the tooth. It was a very utilitarian design with pages that essentially contained a laundry list of links to articles. That and the odd picture thrown in for some visual context. But mainly it was a fairly dry information delivery system.
The new site is a major improvement. Its grid system is far better laid out to allow readers to scan the page. The visual design has been updated to better reflect modern Web design. The navigation has been simplified into two choices Radio or TV, (actually three if you count CBC.ca as a nav item). This is an improvement from the previous navigation which was much more confusing.
One criticism, I’ve heard of the site, is that it borrows from “CNN.com.”:http://www.cnn.com/ I don’t see this being a big issue. CNN and CBC are large news gathering organizations and would end up with similar design problems. Coming to a similar design solution would seem natural.
Left hand navigation is better laid out, providing access to features like Podcasts and RSS feeds which were previously difficult to find or not available.
The CBC group does really great work in a challenging environment. The CBC is a tough place to gain consensus due to the number of people who have input. The mere fact this redesign looks as good as it does is a testament to the talented people there.
h2. Sears.ca
I need to disclose up front that I was not familiar with the previous Sears.ca site so I can only look at this one as a fresh site.
Sears.ca is trying to bring its site up to modern e-commerce standards. In fact “they partnered with Amazon”:http://www.onedegree.ca/2005/04/28/filtered-links-for-april-28-2005 to get this site online. The visual appeal has that candy style that is oh so 2.0. The main nav has a glow effect running horizontally through it. The navigational text is white on a white glow. This lowers the contrast making it potentially tough to read.
_This article is by Guest Contributor Jon Lax._
It’s no secret that newspapers have had a hard time lately. The financial engine of the newspaper business has for many years been classifieds. Something like $7 billion in classified revenues has just disappeared since 1997 (US stats) and it’s not coming back. People just aren’t looking for cars, jobs or general merchandise in the newspaper like they used to. Sites like “eBay”:http://www.ebay.ca, “craigslist”:http://www.craigslist.com, “Autotrader”:http://www.autotrader.ca, “Monster”:http://www.monster.ca provide a better and cheaper product.
“CanWest”:http://www.canwest.com/ is launching a series of sites to put innovative classifieds products online. We were asked to participate in the redesign/relaunch of the auto classifieds product called “driving.ca”:http://www.driving.ca.