Both the NikeID and Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ sites are extremely interactive and great examples of mass customization. They both have flash designed websites that are appealing to the eye and engage the customer to look around. You can tell right away that the Nike site has a very athletic appeal, where the Puma site is a bit more style driven with the play on a restaurant theme. I enjoyed visiting both sites and I think they offer a unique experience that will intrigue customers. Both offer basic shoe designs that can be customized to the consumer’s taste.
Check out the
Nike Shox Navina+ iD Women’s Running Shoe
I designed at NIKEiD.com
From just exploring the NikeID site I noticed that they have a large variety of styles to choose from and customize. They also offered equipment and clothing as well. As a customer I was somewhat overwhelmed at first as they offered so many choices, but I ended up spending a lot of time on the site looking around and finding the products that I liked the best. In my personal opinion, after searching through both sites, I enjoyed Nike’s site better because the styles were more my taste and because I had so many options. I also personally enjoyed their choices for color changes better than Puma’s. I thought that it was extremely clever to use the “my locker” feature to save your designs because it provides a great way to build a database of customers for marketing purposes while allowing people to save and share their designs.
Check out the
Nike Shox Navina+ iD Women’s Running Shoe
I designed at NIKEiD.com
From just exploring the NikeID site I noticed that they have a large variety of styles to choose from and customize. They also offered equipment and clothing as well. As a customer I was somewhat overwhelmed at first as they offered so many choices, but I ended up spending a lot of time on the site looking around and finding the products that I liked the best. In my personal opinion, after searching through both sites, I enjoyed Nike’s site better because the styles were more my taste and because I had so many options. I also personally enjoyed their choices for color changes better than Puma’s. I thought that it was extremely clever to use the “my locker” feature to save your designs because it provides a great way to build a database of customers for marketing purposes while allowing people to save and share their designs.
I did feel, however, that the Puma site was a little bit more straight forward to use. They don’t offer as many options as Nike, but for some customers that may be a plus and less intimidating. I did think it was interesting that Puma offered different texture options as well as just colors, however I was frustrated that I couldn’t change the colors on as much of the shoe as I could on most of Nike’s. I also thought it was easier to get started with the Puma site. I did, however, experience some difficulties loading their site in the middle of my design process, which could definitely negatively affect the consumer experience. It even made me jump back to the Nike site instead of continuously waiting for Puma’s to load. Once I was patient enough to sit down and wait for the site and actually design some shoes, I tried a couple of options but never saved any. I didn’t even like one enough to post a picture on to my blog.
What I think is especially great about these two websites is that they are very much designed for different types of consumers, offering the option of customization to a wide variety of people. While athletes are more likely to use NikeID, Puma is probably a better option for individuals looking to make a statement with their shoes. I thought it was great on both sites that they each offered the option to look at what other people had created. I enjoyed looking at other people’s designs just to see how similar they were to my own and to get inspiration for new designs. Another aspect of both sites that I thought was great was the option to customize a shoe in a store as well, rather than just on the internet. I thought this was a good idea for customers who are maybe worried that they aren’t getting an accurate picture of what their sneaker will look like from the online images, or for people who enjoy getting feedback from a salesperson who can help them face to face. I personally also know certain people, such as my grandparents, which are too nervous to put their credit card info online or to shop online at all. This gives them the option to get ideas from online but actually customize their sneaker in a store.
I personally thought it was really interesting to compare these two websites and to think about how different this process would have been just a few years ago. People our age probably take for granted all the options they have for mass customization or even just shopping online in general. Overall, though I thought both sites were extremely creative, I enjoyed the NikeID site the best and feel as though they use technology more efficiently to offer mass customization.
