Apple's iconic graphic design, AJAX, Magento theme development, and inspirational showcases made up the top articles on Ecommerce Developer in June 2010.
Each month, we publish a list of the most read articles based on the number of page views an article generated during the month. Put another way, these are the most popular articles published and read in June.
Interestingly, this month's list focused on our ongoing Magento theme development series, which has four posts on this list. Inspirational showcases also performed well in June. But a tutorial describing how to mimic Apple's breadcrumbs got the most page views.
If you got a chance to read these articles during the month, you contributed to this list. If you missed one of these, why not read what interested your peers?
No. 1: Apple-Style Breadcrumbs for Your Site
June's most read Ecommerce Developer article described how to develop Apple-style breadcrumb navigation. The post was requested by one of our readers, so it seems that responding to reader requests really pays off.
No. 2: Building a Magento Theme Start to Finish, Part 17: The Category Page Grid
The product grid on a category page displays similar products and is almost always one of the sections a shopper will interact with during the normal course of browsing an ecommerce site—thus its importance. This article focused on style changes to the product grid, including resizing it, adjusting backgrounds, and managing the fonts.
No. 3: Building a Magento Theme Start to Finish, Part 16: Category Page Image and Font
Part 16 of the on-going Magento theme-building series focused on product category page design, an important topic for any ecommerce project. So it is little wonder that it was very popular with our readers.
No. 4: Building a Magento Theme Start to Finish, Part 19: Smooth Sliding Tabs
JavaScript is an excellent way to improve site interaction and behavior. In this episode of the Magento series, JavaScript is used to add a transition to the Pine Theme's product detail page. This transition replaced an otherwise abrupt content change that happens at the page's tabbed product description section.
No. 5: Dissecting Tommy Bahama's Home Page
This article, which was published on June 23, only had a week to attract readers, but still managed to be the fifth most popular post of the month. The article described how the Tommy Bahama site uses spacer images and image maps.
No. 6: AJAX and the Problem of Web Accessibility
Despite its popularity, AJAX is not one of the best-understood areas of web development, even for web developers. Websites with features described as AJAX have become incredibly common in the last few years. Many of these sites are even using AJAX—and a few of them are even using AJAX well. Many, however, have significant problems in their implementation, especially where web accessibility is concerned.
No. 7: Twenty Tough Tool Sites
When designers and developers collect lists of beautiful ecommerce website designs, apparel sites typically rise to the top. That is even true here on Ecommerce Developer, where our weekly inspirational showcases frequently feature sites like Roxy, More of Me, and Free People. While all of these sites are well done, apparel does not have a monopoly on attractive design or impressive user interfaces. This inspiring showcase provided examples of well designed tool-related sites.
No. 8: When Darkness Reigns: 40 Dark-Themed Sites
Inspirational design and development can come from many different sources. So it's not a bad idea to stretch (thematically speaking) and examine the "dark" side of site design. This popular showcase, featured "dark" designs from both ecommerce and non-ecommerce sites. While these sorts of designs won't work for every ecommerce implementation, they offer interesting elements that can infuse your projects with new energy.
No. 9: Corporate Designs for Business-to-Business Ecommerce
Websites aimed at the business-to-business (B2B) market are evolving from online brochures to powerful ecommerce and customer service channels, according to a recent report from ATG, the ecommerce software provider. "As more and more traditionally nonconsumer brands begin to move online, questions abound," wrote Carrie Johnson, Elizabeth Davis, Brain K. Walker, and Kate van Geldern in the ATG report, "B2B eBusiness: Preparing For Online Liftoff."
These sorts of questions can create opportunities for ecommerce developers and designers who are ready and able to help B2B clients move toward ecommerce.
No. 10: Building a Magento Theme Start to Finish, Part 20: Facebook's 'Like' Button
Facebook has more than 400 million users who collectively spend the equivalent of 950,662 years on the social networking site each month, according to Facebook's own data.
These committed users share some 25 billion links, notes, photographs, and videos every month. So it is little wonder that online marketers want to tap into the Facebook community and convert those users into customers.
With this in mind, this post demonstrated how to use Facebook's Open Graph API to add a "Like" button to the product detail pages on the Pine Theme.
