Owner: Whistles
Agency: Bureau for Visual Affairs/BT Fresca
www.whistles.co.uk and m.whistles.co.uk
| Content | 20/25 |
|---|---|
| Usability | 21/25 |
| Branding | 20/25 |
| Monetisation | 20/25 |
| Total | 81/100 |
Fashion brand Whistles has relaunched its websites to be optimised across mobile and tablet devices and while the branding and experience feels slick and consistent, travelling between them leaves the mobile site feeling very simplified.
The desktop website is full of content, inspiration and truly innovative means of scrolling between looks and items. On a category page, such as dresses, information and any text is removed, leaving just the images arranged neatly. This wouldn’t work on a website where information such as price is a key selling point. While not a luxury brand per say, Whistles is certainly on the upper end of the high street and its prices reflect that. It has a specific Outlet tab for bargain hunters, leaving the rest of the shopping experience dedicated to the products themselves.
Moving onto the iPad - this is where the features and content really come alive. The shopping experience almost mimics that of the desktop but when reading the features the iPad version allows for beautiful movement between the pieces of content and images.
However, on the mobile version although you can switch to the full site, which doesn’t look great on the small screen, the mobile-specific website feels more functional compared with the style of the other sites. It is still a good-looking mobile site and it works brilliantly as a mobile retail site, making it very easy and enjoyable to purchase on such a small device. Compared with having to grapple with the full website on mobile I’d take the simplified version any day of the week, but it would be nice to see more of the Whistles brand or personality shine through.
Whistles has created a consistent brand experience and style, which works across desktop, iPad and mobile web. This is the sort of website design that should be becoming standard for all brands, although sadly that isn’t the case. Whistles has obviously taken care to understand what it is users want when experiencing the brand across each and has tailored the content and shopping user experience accordingly.
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