Illy
This web site review was written in March 2001.
Name: Illy
URL: illy.com
Coffee Genre: International Espresso Supplier
Striking Design
The espresso supplier Illy went to great lengths to tie their brand into a striking web design. Illy.com is a Flash-based web site that successfully utilizes the colors and fonts of the actual Illy brand espresso. The color simplicity of red, white, and black allow the user to focus on the content without being overwhelmed with the design. Another thing I liked was the use of photographs as starting points to drill down menus. It allows the user to quickly jump from page to page without excessive clicks and page loads.
Illy.com screenshot
Global Presence
The first thing that the user of the Illy.com will become aware of is the size and scope of Illy. From the first screen we must decide whether to enter the United States, France, Italy, or the "World". As expected the France site is written completely in French and the Italy site Italian. My guess is that as Illy grows, they will expand their site to meet the language requirements of their customer base.
Temporary Flaw
On a few screens we see the "Coming Soon" label. In my opinion, this is only slightly better than seeing "Under Construction". Instead of alerting the user to what aspects of the site are uncompleted, a better decision would have been to leave those pages off the menu. Either that or adding a simple version one. One page missing verbiage is "Why Illy?". My guess is that somewhere in the Illy empire, a mission statement or a few sentences on a sales brochure reside that would work on this page.
Shopping Cart
Besides being a supplier of espresso for cafes, restaurants, and hotels throughout the world, Illy.com provides the user with a shopping cart for the individual shopper. The "Exclusive Gifts" section has boxed sets of cappuccino cups, saucers, and other gifts suitable for a coffee lover.
Illy Exclusive gift page
Summary
In the article Designing a Web Site for a Coffee House, I stressed the importance of connecting the look and colors of a coffee house with the design of that cafe's web site. The same principle holds true for most businesses. Illy has done an excellent job of making their web site look like their product.
INeedCoffee is proud to award the March 2001 Site of The Month award to Illy.
Published: March 2001, Last Modified: October 2011
