Shopping web sites often sacrifice engagement in favor of utility. They assume their customers are driven to buy stuff in the shortest amount of time with the fewest number of clicks. Major brand sites have fallen victim to this approach to ecommerce. Remove retailer logos from most of these sites, and it is not possible to differentiate between them—unique brands have been homogenized with almost identical web templates. Additionally, most major brand sites fail to address the customer desire to browse merchandise the way they would in a brick-and-mortar retail store. They have given up on the shopper who doesn’t know what they want or who may be browsing as they would in a mall.

The goal was to design an ecommerce experience that enables the user to engage more deeply and to understand the unique qualities of the brand through design, visuals, motion and interactivity. We worked with Nau, an outdoor clothing company, to envision the future of ecommerce by reflecting their products and business philosophy. The result is the Nau Concept Site, which demonstrates a more natural, immersive and unique shopping experience.

Exploring outdoor clothing in the outdoors gives you a “Duh...why didn’t I think of that?” moment. There is no line between photography and the interface. Truly gorgeous.