It was with surprise and excitement, that I navigated through the European Wrangler Blue Bell website. The site features the pieces in a way that allows users to see the full range of movement. Instead of simply having a front, side back and zoom view, you can playfully put on and remove clothing. The website model goes through the actions of dressing, undressing and moving around in a way that provides not only a cool user-experience, but a much more comprehensive view of the clothing than we normally get online. It immediately conveys that the clothing is both wearable for real life and very, very cool. While this may not be right for all brands, (especially those with large collections since this requires you to shoot video for each piece) it is so much closer to where luxury brands should be in terms of using the web to truly showcase their collections. The edition of downloading a frame allows users to save the looks they love, although it would be great to be able to save this on the site itself through a login. Social media elements allow users to share the site via Facebook wall post or Twitter, which will definitely help promote the site virally for both fans of the brand, people interested in undressing the very handsome model, and those intrigued in the user-controlled movement. From a functionality perspective, all Flash sites can be burdensome to browsers and take forever to load. They also present challenges with Search Engine Optimization and metrics (both which can be overcome in development if your technical partner is aware and capable, just note that this will result in additional time/costs). Also notable is that they require people to have Flash (and usually a certain version or higher) to be installed. For users who do not have this, they are automatically unable to view the site content. There is always a happy medium for Flash use to achieve certain ethereal and experiential elements on a site, however it’s also important to note that users arrive at a website for information, which should be easily accessible. Photo Credits: Wrangler.it