the Designer Pages blog

Franki over at Life in a Venti Cup calls us a “playground for the designer in all of us.” I love that description for Designer Pages. There is something called funware, which was introduced to me by Gabe of rmbr, that tries to use games to get work done.

As much as possible, we try to make the experience of searching for products fun. When we were researching how designers searched for products, we found that they would flip through magazines and doggy-ear the pages with products that interested them. This let them get through entire magazines in minutes, scanning more then reading. After they had highlighted what was important, it was easier to go back to the magazine and focus on only the important content. We loved this process and are trying to bring it to Designer Pages in a lot of ways.

First, we wanted to make the search results as scannable as possible. That’s why we created “product cards,” like a mini version of a product. They contain only the information you need to decide if you like it - if it matches what you were looking for. Then, we wanted to make products doggy-earable. The quick actions on the right of a product card - save, add to workspace, and request more information - are more then just “one-click” actions, they are ways for you to immediately insert these products into your work. Do yo love that faucet but don’t have a project that calls for it (yet)? Save it so you can easily find it when its day comes. Is that couch perfect for the lobby of that swank new hotel your designing? Great, throw it into a workspace and see if your boss agrees.

We know that you’re using Designer Pages to get work done, that’s why we made it as fun, easy, and effective as possible.