Finally, a Web 2.0 Outfitter Delivered

Adobe and Scene7 just published a case study titled “Otto UK Site delivers Web 2.0 Custom Outfitting with Scene7 on Demand”. You can read all about it on the Adobe/Scene 7 site or check out Oli.co.uk. This cool new feature allows the consumer, when browsing, to add items to a “look book”, then open drag items onto a canvas, resize, organize and save or buy all at once. It’s pretty easy to use and truthfully something that a lot of us in the industry have been talking about and trying to implement for years. Two basic things held us back:

1. Technology — It took us all a while to figure out how to drag something onto a page and allow users to arrange things, save, and then then buy at the same time. Platform came into play, development effort came into play, an some creative engineering skills came into play. All needed to work in perfect concert together with the technology.
2. Product Images — Images have been JPEGs for ages. I don’t know enough about .pngs to know why they never took off but I did know that they had absolute transparency and allowed for some pretty cool things. It’s only recently that imaging companies like Scene 7 have started becoming more prevalent and are enabling more creative uses of imagery, including PNGs.

I do want to point out that we’ve seen this initial implementation on a UK site. Is Europe more advanced or less risk adverse than the US when it comes to taking chances in eCommerce Regardless, Oli is doing some cutting edge things with this feature and all interactive designers — and retailers — should take note. This type of interactive design tool points the way the future ecommerce sites can go.