Design Within Reach/DWR

http://www.dwr.com/

Intended audience
People like clean & simple contemporary-design furniture, including everyday tools and small appliances.

Usefulness of content
Pros: designer biographies. This brand sells very conceptual/designer-oriented furniture. For prospective customers, it may be important to know the “behind the products” to make a decision to buy.
Cons: Design Within Reach is mainly designers’’ furniture shop/gallery, but currently the top page is “tools for living,” not furniture section. Moreover, the top of the left-side page link listing is “gift service.” Furniture page link is not easy to find. It might be because now is in gift season. Nevertheless, some viewers may be confused, specifically, if they look for furniture, main products of the bland (See also “ease of navigation”).

Consistency of design
Consistent. Simple and elegant. Any page has the same layout (the top and left listing). Colors in the pages are not used unnecessarily. Moderate amount of white. No busy looking at all.

Ease of navigation
Generally easy, but some sections may be needed to be improved. For example, as mentioned in usefulness of content, “furniture” section is currently buried in the website. In addition, “categories” in the left listing are mixed up different levels of grouping. They are Seating, Bedroom, Shelving/Storage, Tables, Lounge, Dining, Workspace, Lighting, Outdoor, Accessories, and Floor Covering. It may be intentionally done; for example, a viewer is looking for multi-purpose “table” for eating and studying/working and another viewer is looking for “table” strictly for working. Still both of them are able to find the right one from the categories. However, for some viewers, such the grouping may be annoying because the viewers may have to look for several categories to find the best one. In addition, “Find a studio (showroom)” should be more obvious. After all, it is a furniture shop!