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Brands Section - being updated - and Questionairre

post #1 of 12
9/30/10 at 2:24pm
Thread Starter 
Hi all

I'm updating the code for the brand section, along with the main directory pages and wardrobes (they are all quite interlinked, so I'm working in them all together.)

Firstly, New features:

1) More info about the brand. Each brand will have a little fact box, which (has the potential) to tell you a few things about the brand - eg - year founded, names of the founders, country, parent company, etc

2) Ability to add a bio. Members can submit bio's for the brand if it doesn't have one. (probably won't be ready 'til later)

3) Reducing the amount of fragrances shown. The brands pages are really designed to be a hub where you can get to all the information about the brand. A list of 300 fragrances in some cases, is really better show in the directory listings. I'm going to reduce the amount of fragrance shown to 12. The 12 will be selected by seeing which percentage of the fragrances are male/female/shared and showing the top ones in those genders. Plus, say, the three most recent launches -- so the majority of people will be able to click straight through to which one they want. You will of course be given a link to see all of them, if you're looking for some weird discontinued scent.

4) Links to most recent forum threads about the brand.

5) Links to most recent news items / features about the brand.

6) if the brand has a twitter account, we will show the most recent tweets.

7) Links to official sites. Currently we are only able to list one site per brand, but some brands have many sites so we can now list more

so - questions...

In your opinion

a) Does the Brands section need its own tab on the menu, or do you think it should be a sub menu under Fragrance Directory?

b) Would you use a 'favo(u)rite brands' feature, where you could choose a brand as a favourite and it would show up under a favourites section in your wardrobe?

c) Do we need to list all the brands on the index page? There are a few thousand and some don't make fragrances as such (eg, stores, distributors). Or is it helpful to have them all in one place. Sub question - would a top 30 brands list on the right hand side be useful if we did list them all.


I think thats it for now, if you have any suggestions please feel free...
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post #2 of 12
9/30/10 at 2:58pm
Grant- Perhaps a list of the top 50-60 would be better on the right side otherwise they would all be designer frags.
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post #3 of 12
9/30/10 at 3:17pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by stuigi View Post

Grant- Perhaps a list of the top 50-60 would be better on the right side otherwise they would all be designer frags.

I'll have to experiment with the best number to use. I think top ten would give something like Guerlain / Creed / Chanel / Dior / Serge Lutens / - eg usual suspects. So a higher number would hopefully include a better range

Maybe it would be good to have a few lists

Top 10 Houses
Recently Added Houses
Rising Houses

I'm also trying to add categories such as 'niche', 'designer', 'celebrity' etc as I'm going along, so that could be something to use as well (ie top niche, top designer, top etc etc)...


Thanks for the feeback
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post #4 of 12
9/30/10 at 5:59pm
Top 30 Basenotes vs. top 30 in sales? Then that would be a good number.
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post #5 of 12
9/30/10 at 7:09pm
Reducing the number of fragrances shown on a brand's page is a huge mistake. I almost never use the Dirctory, but use the Brands menu instead. Having the entire output of a brand, past and present, viewable on one page is immensely useful. I've never seen a brand page that looked too cluttered.

a) Does the Brands section need its own tab on the menu, or do you think it should be a sub menu under Fragrance Directory?

Yes, the Brands section is at least as important as the Directory. I use it more than any other part of the site, apart from the forums.

b) Would you use a 'favo(u)rite brands' feature, where you could choose a brand as a favourite and it would show up under a favourites section in your wardrobe?

I would never use this.

c) Do we need to list all the brands on the index page? There are a few thousand and some don't make fragrances as such (eg, stores, distributors). Or is it helpful to have them all in one place. Sub question - would a top 30 brands list on the right hand side be useful if we did list them all.

All brands should absolutely be listed. More information is better than less. Even though many of these companies are small or inactive, their inclusion is of immeasurable value.

The way the brands menu is currently laid out is fine, with the alphabetical index at the top of the page.

A Top 30 brands index would be of no value.



This apparent effort at emphasizing certain brands and making it harder to see/find info about others actually quite disturbing.

More information is better than less.

These proposed changes would be like publishing a dictionary with the 200 most commonly used words given a prominent section at the front of the book, while the rest of the language is reduced to fine print and segregated.
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post #6 of 12
10/1/10 at 11:13pm
I strongly agree with strifenot.

I would like to see a tab for Brands, as I also find this as useful as the Directory.

I also think all brands should be listed. To have them in one place would be very convenient. I am always for more info and completeness if possible.

I don't have much interest in popularity poll type lists, as so much of this is subjective and may skew viewers towards certain houses or products and away from others. I do, however, like lists of recently added houses, fragrances, etc.
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post #7 of 12
10/2/10 at 9:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by noggs View Post

I strongly agree with strifenot.

I would like to see a tab for Brands, as I also find this as useful as the Directory.

I also think all brands should be listed. To have them in one place would be very convenient. I am always for more info and completeness if possible.

I don't have much interest in popularity poll type lists, as so much of this is subjective and may skew viewers towards certain houses or products and away from others. I do, however, like lists of recently added houses, fragrances, etc.

I agree. I think brand popularity shows in the wearing and SOTD shows that quite well .Newly added brands list may allow those of us who have fragrances from the line to properly update our wardrobes and SOTD .
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post #8 of 12
10/3/10 at 11:27am
I totally agree with strifenot, noggs and bookwyrmsmith. More information is definitely better than less. I love that I can come here and find all the different scents made by a certain company, current and discontinued. Please don't change that feature.
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post #9 of 12
10/3/10 at 12:01pm
I also use the Brands tab in the directory as a start point to find a particular frag, so having it's own tag would be GREAT. As strifenot wrote "I almost never use the Directory, but use the Brands menu instead. Having the entire output of a brand, past and present, viewable on one page is immensely useful. I've never seen a brand page that looked too cluttered"

Like the text box with historical data on the House, idea.

quick specific answers to Questions you asked :
a: Yes
b: Nope
c: YES list all brands which make fragrances. (why would you list a brand that does not make a fragrance???)
c subquestion: A sublist (or quick link list) on the right would be OK.
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post #10 of 12
10/4/10 at 6:11pm
Actually, I like the current organization. I often use the directory search tool as well as the scroll down brands list. I also must disagree with your statement "A list of 300 fragrances in some cases, is really better show in the directory listings". Actually, when one isn't sure of the name of the fragrance, but the name of the producer is known, this listing is a big help... and it's very nice to see everything all at once.

No doubt you have good reasons to enhance the links, Twitter features, news about the brands etc... but for me it's the stuff on Basenotes itself that I enjoy the most, and find truly unique and indispensible. I rarely follow outside links, except to ebay.
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post #11 of 12
10/4/10 at 7:19pm
Another voice of agreement with Strifeknot. I use the Brand page just about daily, and for the sole purpose of checking the list of all frags released by that house. It's the most useful tool for me after my own wardrobe.
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post #12 of 12
10/5/10 at 4:58am
Thread Starter 
Okay, I'm listening.

Logged in users will be able to see the full list should they wish.
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Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Article Comments, Forum Announcements, FAQs › Forum News and Announcements › Brands Section - being updated - and Questionairre