the Designer Pages blog

Hello 2012. Good bye 2011, though you were a fabulous year! A lot of new engine parts under the hood, and I mean that quite literally. Beyond our new mobile property, Showrooms.com (apps for iPhone and Android), nearly all of DesignerPages.com has been reconstructed, that which you see, and more importantly, that which you don’t.

In this third year of development, we’ve had an opportunity to step away from the scale and maintenance responsibilities of the period we’ve labeled the “terrible twos” and return to our core promise: to re-invent the product and material search experience for the architecture and design industries.

Introducing Category-Specific Product Search

After much consideration and research, we realized we need to delve deeper: every category of product or material deserves “an inch wide and mile deep” approach. When a designer searches for toilets, lighting, or carpeting, the toolset per body of results needs to dynamically adapt to further facilitate information consumption and help the designer narrow in on just the right product or material.

It Starts with Carpeting

It’s with this philosophy that I’m proud to unveil our new carpeting search platform, which addresses the widespread challenge of identifying the right carpeting solution through a sophisticated search experience. Designers can easily select the brands whose products they want to see with an improved on/off mechanism, and can narrow results by color, pattern, type and soon even more technical facets such as fiber, density, backing, construction, pile height, etc. We’ll continue to revise and iterate until every designer agrees that searching for carpeting begins and ends at DesignerPages.com. That’s our vow!

What’s Next?

Once we’re comfortable with our triumph over carpeting, we won’t kick back and relax. Instead we’ll apply the same philosophy to the next category of product or material. While we’re strongly considering lighting and plumbing next, we welcome suggestions. Drop a comment below!

In 2012 we promise a higher quality product search experience all around. A very happy holiday season to our family and loyal supporters. We’re excited for our next chapter together!

The Designer Pages team emerged from a retreat in Palm Beach last week feeling connected, refreshed, and energized… with lots of great new ideas and features soon to come in our network of websites.

What to look out for:

* Gridded search results now come standard. Searching for products on DesignerPages.com now yields a set of easy to see, easy to filter images. See our earlier blog post on the beta phase for more info.

* Better search results. Soon, you’ll be led through search results as if through a funnel, until you’ve found exactly the product you’re after. Plus, you’ll start to see updated, user-friendly categories and a more intelligent understanding of search terms (hotwords).

* More vibrant editorial. 3rings and DesignerPages.com will soon be fully linked. You’ll be able to save products you find on 3rings directly into your Designer Pages workspace, get quick data on the manufacturer of a product, quick access to product specifications and more.

* Revamped workspaces. Exciting new features to include product comparisons, a better way to view product files, and new ways to comment.

* More Manufacturer Pages. Still in beta, Manufacturer Pages will soon revolutionize the way you view (and manage) product information on DesignerPages.com. See the prototype for Duravit here. You’ll be able to see a manufacturers’ products, showrooms, and info including firms that specify their products, the projects their products have been used in — all in one centralized location.

* An updated dashboard. Including a customizable newsfeed, trending products, and quick links.

* Better user feedback mechanisms. Including customer service through Twitter and Facebook, email updates on our new features, and new opportunities to share Designer Pages with friends.

* A more social Designer Pages. With new discussions on Twitter, new apps on Facebook, and a host of new events coming this fall.

Designer Pages and The Mohawk Group teamed up to ask designers 5 important questions at NeoCon 2011. From inspiration to challenges, see what they had to say.

1. What at NeoCon have you found inspiring?

2. Who or what influences your design? or Where do you draw your inspiration from?

3. What can product manufacturers do more of / better to help make your job easier?

4. What do believe were the biggest challenges of this past year?

5. What do you see as your biggest opportunities?

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