woensdag 1 april 2015

Physical experience & Context of the product

A webshop differs very much from a normal shop, especially in the sense that you cannot physically experience the product you are buying and that the context of the product might be less noticable or different. Therefore these important aspects are described below for the new Velvet music website.

Physical experience


Of course the customers miss a certain experience since they cannot touch the CD or feel it in their hands, but this experience of the actual physical product is not as important for CD’s as it is for clothing. However it should be possible to listen to examples of tracks on the CD before purchase, so people will be able to explore music as they would in stores. 

The feeling of the CD can be simulated by showing the cover of the CD in its specific case and by adding the opportunity to flip the CD case to see the backside of it and open the case to see what is inside. 

Also the online shop lacks the experience of an offline shop. People miss the great atmosphere: the retro looking store where music lovers and musicians come to find and explore music by going through hundreds of CD’s and talking with other people. Thus setting up a music sharing community could greatly improve the web store experience. 

Velvet tries to encourage people to share their music by creating social media buttons. However sharing music should be something actively social: instead of just clicking a “like” button, people should talk and discus with others. Therefore we would recommend creating a forum to share music preferences and delete most of the social media buttons. 

Context of the product

Since CD covers generally are already obviously present it is not a good idea to add more context to the CD’s at the home page. However, for the CD pages it could be nice to add a link to an autobiography/ description of the band and their music style. Also it would be nice to add a section that provides recommendations for other CD’s that fits the music style of the CD people are looking at. This is not because of pure aesthetical or functional reasons, but to create a better atmosphere around the web shop.

In the image below an example of the 'Last.fm' website is shown, in which they recommend other artists based on your music style:


1 opmerking:

  1. Hi team C,

    Hereby our points of review on your physical experience and context of the product:
    Looks clear, only one comment/question: What will be the effects for the owners of the website by doing these things as setting up a community? Is that going to cost more money? Do they need to keep track of it? What are the expected effects?


    Kind regards,

    Team J

    BeantwoordenVerwijderen