FOCUS: BABY PRODUCTS – hanna andersson

Reviewed Jan. 25, 12:30 p.m., Explorer 5.0 (www.hannaandersson.com)

plenty of “experts” say that a splash page is critical to establishing your brand online, but The Cybercritic, for one, sees it as just another impediment between the shopper and what he or she wants to buy. Sure, the Hanna Andersson splash page – an outdoor shot of two cute urchins clad in the boldly striped clothes for which the catalog is famous – displays the same clean photography as the print book. But the Hanna Andersson script logo that frames every page of the site itself does an equally good job of reinforcing the brand.

So do the product shots – once you click on them to enlarge them, that is. But that’s not a beef. The photos on the product category pages are small enough to load quickly but large enough that you can tell whether the item is one you’re interested in checking out.

For the most part, the Website doesn’t take advantage of the medium’s unique qualities – there’s not even a search engine! One nice touch, though, is how certain product pages offer links to coordinating items. For instance, from the page selling Solid Jeepers Creepers onesies, you can click directly to the pages for matching baby pants and hats. But I can’t find any explanation of the European sizing, and you cannot get home from the product pages without resorting to your browser’s history button.

On the other hand, you can get to the site even if you are a bad speller. The Cybercritic typed in the URL with just one “s” in “andersson” and still ended up at the splash page.

FOCUS: BABY PRODUCTS – hanna andersson

Reviewed Jan. 25, 12:30 p.m., Explorer 5.0 (www.hannaandersson.com)

Plenty of “experts” say that a splash page is critical to establishing your brand online, but The Cybercritic, for one, sees it as just another impediment between the shopper and what he or she wants to buy. Sure, the Hanna Andersson splash page – an outdoor shot of two cute urchins clad in the boldly striped clothes for which the catalog is famous – displays the same clean photography as the print book. But the Hanna Andersson script logo that frames every page of the site itself does an equally good job of reinforcing the brand.

So do the product shots – once you click on them to enlarge them, that is. But that’s not a beef. The photos on the product category pages are small enough to load quickly but large enough that you can tell whether the item is one you’re interested in checking out.

For the most part, the Website doesn’t take advantage of the medium’s unique qualities – there’s not even a search engine! One nice touch, though, is how certain product pages offer links to coordinating items. For instance, from the page selling Solid Jeepers Creepers onesies, you can click directly to the pages for matching baby pants and hats. But I can’t find any explanation of the European sizing, and you cannot get home from the product pages without resorting to your browser’s history button.

On the other hand, you can get to the site even if you are a bad speller. The Cybercritic typed in the URL with just one “s” in “andersson” and still ended up at the splash page.