What do you think of the new Buck site?

mnblade

mnblade

Joined
Feb 7, 2000
Messages
6,676
Well, the new look at www.buckknives.com has been up for awhile now. Any thoughts?
Personally, I find it confusing and hard to navigate. I'm not crazy about how it breaks the knives into categories like hunting/fishing, outdoor, everyday, etc. A whole lot of their knives fit into two or more categories, after all. Actually, most of the knives I own would fit into those three categories. :confused:
 
…Overall… not bad. I agree about the categories. It may not make as much sense on a web page, but it does aid in making sales.

I'll like it better when the new PCKS is in full swing.;)
 
Sorry to say ......Don't care for the new web page at all. It's way to hard to navigate. Way to hard.
The old site was very customer friendly. I suspect Buck is trying to make it easy for Joe Average
to find a knife they might like which might explain the catagories. Problem is that while trying to
help a potential customer the site irratates the customer enought to leave. It was a good try but
I feel it misses the mark by a mile.
 
I don't have any major problem with it, although I agree it looks to have been set up for "non" knifenuts. I am also anticipating the new Pete's, anxious to see what options will be added.
 
Don't be shy with your comments, we won't get our wittle feelings hurt.

Tell us what you really think of the site both from an experienced user and a novice point of view. I know it hits you with product right on the home page, but are you able to find articles about our history, what's new, Collector's Club, etc ...

If you're not sure if you're an experienced user answer this question: Have you ever needed stitches? :eek:

pq
 
While it does look good and offer more options, such as enlarged views of the individual knives, it is sometimes hard to find a certain knife because there is not a single overall listing of all knives.
 
OK, my first reply didn't take. Tell Colin Moock that he/she needs to code their javascript in such a way it works with or without java/javascript and cookies.

If you don't have the right combination of cookies and javascript turned on, you either get a blank screen or an infinite loop checking for the flash plugin. ( flashcheck.php )

Until that problem is fixed I can't comment any further.
 
OK, I'll further comment, now that I'll accept cookies.

1) You pdf file about choosing a knife is kinda of buried. I'd suggest developing and icon system to denote blade materials, blade shape, etc. With each picture of a knife the knife's appropriate icons would appear where a user could click to get info on the material or blade shape. Looks like you're using a database to generate pages on the fly so that should be easy to do.

2) Many images don't come up, for example no images of knives on this page at all:

http://www.buckknives.com/products/products.php?Category=16

3) I wouldn't put prices on or try to sell them from your site. Why? Lets say the customer decides they want to buy one at your Suggested Retail Price. Cool. Later they find out they payed twice what everyone else sells it for. The good thing is you are not underselling your disribution chain, the bad is that customers are likely to believe either a) they got ripped off by paying too much, or b) Somehow every where else has the same, but at lower prices and maybe lower quality.

This plants seeds of general doubt about the product and the company. Especially if the user is not knowledgeable that Suggested Retail is pretty much BS.
 
OK here's some more,

You should but some navigation at the bottom of the page. For example I can read about the collectors club, and have to scroll down to the bottom to read it all, then I have no where to go.

So I scroll back up to the top, and select the next link in the series to read. I want to go on once I'm at the bottom of a page.

I would agree with it being a bit difficult to navigate. One of the reasons is that there are too many stylisticly inconsistent hyperlinks. For example, the bars at the top are different from the iconified categories of outdoor, and etc, which are different from the links near the text to take you to further pages in that category.

You're sharpening page talks about only one type (flat stone) of sharpener, I'd be willing to bet more people have seen other types than flat stone. Perhaps a comment about the other types is in order. ( Unless you're trying to market you own stones, and that's the only kind of sharpening system Buck has. )

On the field dressing page with a zipper page, the title text for each section is in the same font and size of the regular text, it should be bolded and larger by a small amount. Otherwise the sense of organization and hierarchy is lost.

Your text and your warranty don't match up well, for example on the zipper page you talk about the no nonsense guarantee. But there no link to the guarantee, is that the warranty?? In the context of the page it sounds like the guarantee is performance based. But the warrenty page just talks about materials and workmanship, not about performance. So for the careful reader you have confused them.
 
On the message from CJ Buck :

Quickly and easily may be a misplaced modifer, maybe move them to infront of "make".

Also more talk about guarantee which isn't talked about anywhere that I could see unless it's the same as warranty.

Also they say they welcome comments or suggestions, but on the warranty page it says you don't accept designs or ideas from outside parties. That is in at least part contradictory, I mean aren't people commenting on your page in this forum the offering of ideas? Or will you ignore all ideas presented in this thread and it's for comment only?

I think what you want to say is something like " Don't send us suggestions about our knives, we won't accept them. Everything else is OK"

Many navigation icons broken on
http://www.buckknives.com/products/lifestyle.php?Name=Sheaths

and

http://www.buckknives.com/products/products.php?Category=27

etc.
 
One more, on the Hunting and Fishing page, lets pick fishing, OK top of the new page looks the same, the info I want is now loaded below.

The problem is there are no visual clues to tell you that the top section of the page is navigation and doesn't change. If you're not paying alot of attention, it looks like the link didn't work.
( Made worse if you have a small screen size )
 
Buck knives are cool and the company is even better. The site, however, could have been made a little bit easier to get around. If the marketing department is bent on the hunting/fishing/hiking breakdown scenario, what would be the harm in listing the sam eknife in more than one catagory? It would be a start at making hte site more knife knut friendly.
 
I have to agree with the other opinions and suggestions that have been posted in this thread. Since the new site first appeared I have been thinking that it must be "just me".

The layout of the product line obviously makes sense to someone but the logic has escaped me.

The organization of the technical and other knife interest information seems disorganized. Under the "About Buck" heading is a FAQ page with some information, under the same heading is another heading "Technology and Innovation" with one subheading "Feature Articles" (in which one can find a good blade steel page) and another FAQ item entitled "Tech FAQs where one can find the Buck year codes among other information. Under another heading on the main page is "Knife Knowhow" with another good item "How to Buy Knives", as well as the knife sharpening and use of the "zipper" articles. It was much this way on the previous web site and when the new one was constructed I guess all of this sort of content was just patched in this way without anyone reorganizing it. I can usually find what I want but if I were not already familiar with the content I don't think that I would even know that some of the information is available there.

The main negative impression from this new website is that it just seems "weak". Buck Knives is a 500 lb. gorilla in the industry and to me the overall visual and layout effect just doesn't do Buck Knives justice. It should ROAR! Even the font seems washed out and unassertive, certainly not crisp and clean.


I like the new "Plant Tour". It is very well done, and I found it quite interesting.
 
From all the exacting comments here maybe,just maybe, Buck should take the new site back to
the drawing board. I've already offered that the site is not user friendly as have others here.
Buck has always lead the way in consumer education and this attempt was well meaning ,
but, try again please.
 
I would have to say that the site looks very clean. Name one other knife site which even comes close to the quality of the layout and the information contained within. Sure there are a few missing links etc., and the site might be setup for the average person. But it offers alot of background information on the company and some pretty decent technical articles and subjects of general interest. I also did not find it hard to navigate the site. What's so tough about clicking on the product link and then clicking on view entire category? Congratulations Buck on a job well done.
 
I have been hitting the site ever since the
beta url was posted in this news group.
Here is what I think.
A BIG plus, the better pictures.
A small minus, the slow navigation.
A small minus, what you are looking for is very
hard to find with this new grouping, and the lousy searh facility.
On the whole, I like the old site better, but then I don't remember what kind of teething problems that one had in the early days....
My sugestion is to have the knifes organized according to number, that way things look, oh, well, organized I guess. As it is now it looks a bit haphazard.
Something you might allso want to do, tell a little story about each family of knifes, like who designed them, when, for what purpous, what was his/her main interests in life and so on.
This is what I do when I describe a knife to somebody who cannot se the quality just by looking at it, human touch and all that.
And a question to round off: Is the 701 dropped, or is it just hiding somewhere? I can't seem to find it on the new site.

john
 
Here's what I think of it:

ERROR: The requested URL could not be retrieved

Happened everytime I tried to open a page.

Albin
 
I thought I'd BTTT this, anyone from Buck listening or care about the comments people made here?

DaveH
 
Dave,
You bet were listening and we care too! I will forward this thread to our marketing folks. I have already been letting them know the pros and cons i have heard. Thanks for the comments and please keep them coming.
 
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