Curation Revolution

You probably heard about the modern web design term at least once, but how can be used correctly with an online shop? What are the requirements?

Marty Note (here is how I shake out on each of these recs)

Big Hero Or Sliders Agree With Caveat!
Depends on what you do immediately to the right or under your large hero. Hero's create HOT SPOTS on the right and immediately below, hot spots that convert and hot spots NO ONE uses (goofystupid). If you are running an ecommerce site you aren't selling the picture, but you do need the attention it can grab. Make sure you put a Call-To-Action to the right or immediately below. People don't like to click within a hero (especially a big one), so CTA below even if it is a restatement.

http://www.charitywater.org/
Does a good job with a large static hero and a "can't miss" CTA with 3 critical links almost directly below the hero. & I DO NOT like sliders.

Warmer Colors - AGREE!
Websites are inherently COLD so warming them up with strong accent colors is a must. Remember to figure in the images you like to include. You can use more warm color if your images always have white backgrounds. If not, you may achieve "warmer" with images instead of needing to modify your design.

Interesting Grids - AGREE!
Thanks to Pinterest the GRID is getting creative. Grids are a great way to share a lot of information fast.

Flat Design - Agree!
The web doesn't do 3D well (yet), so flattening out your design can help make buying decisions easier. Include zooms if applicable and remember to ask your customers to share pics of your products on them or in their homes (great User Generated Content).

Animation
Vine has me convinced there are ways to create animations that help and don't hurt, but be careful. An animation that doesn't stop (like Vine videos) can be obnoxious. I prefer giving control of animations to the click over auto-play. If someone ASKED to see the animation its different than if you just start playing it and it doesn't stop.

Mobile Friendly UI - Agree!
Your responsive design must master the swipe, spin and scroll of the mobile experience. If your site isn't FUN and easy to spin, snip and buy from your customers won't. Spoke with a friend at lunch in the craft space today and her traffic is now HALF mobile, so make sure your content is FUN to use on a phone or pad and takes advantage of the mobile UI.