Thread: Carba-Tec 2008 Catalogue - Online Version

Great idea, but would rather we drooled over the printed catalogue and not the computer

I like the web page design, well presented, looks a lot larger than the last one. Can't wait for the hard copy though.

A quick glance and it looks very good.

I can find what i want without throwing half a tree away at the end of the purchase.

Originally Posted by Calm

A quick glance and it looks very good.

I can find what i want without throwing half a tree away at the end of the purchase.

Why would throw a printed cattledog out after a purchase?

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Why would throw a printed cattledog out after a purchase?

Haven't you noticed you get a lot of those shiny magazines under the bench??? It's hard to find the ones you buy for the good stories in them.

Originally Posted by Calm

Haven't you noticed you get a lot of those shiny magazines under the bench??? It's hard to find the ones you buy for the good stories in them.

always throw The Bulletin out when I finish reading it

*Updated after 20 minutes of browsing catalogue*

Master Luddite - with too many (cynical) years of experience with graphic designers and advertising agencies here...

If this is just a simple sneak preview for us woodies, and not the 'production' version of the online catalogue, thanks for the look, and stop reading here!

If it's supposed to be a sales tool, read on...

After 15 minutes of flicking through it, can I recommend that next year you save the design and web scripting cost and just use a pdf file?

In short - looks nice, functionality is crap.

• Occasionally, pages only half-appear when I zoom in (or rather, you get a zoom on two different areas of the page so you have a broken image).
• I have to wait for the 'page turn' animation to finish before I can flip to the next page, making flicking through it a slow process (If I know what I'm looking for, keeping me on a page that I'm not interested in isn't going to make me buy anything on that page!).
• No print option aside from printing the browser window unless I download the page (which I thought I had already done!).
• Small on-screen size - it only fills about one-sixth of my 24 inch screen, I'd really like to see more of the page than that tiny little window.
• It doesn't do anything!!! It forces me to be online to view it, but it has no online functionality aside from turning pages! I can't go 'click' and be taken to your checkout!
• Low res images so the zoom functionality is somewhat limited.

The fancy page flip animations (yes, I noticed the dynamic shadowing effects) and page-by-page downloads add nothing to my retail experience. I'm one of those people who doesn't equate bells and whistles with content. I don't mind Flash when it's being used to provide end user functionality; but when it's just driving fancy graphics that don't give any actual benefit, it's time to rein in the design team!

I'm looking at a catalogue with an eye to drooling/spending money, I'm not there to be impressed by something that looks 'cool' on a graphic designer's resume. (Graphic designers/ad agencies can save the cool stuff for their pro bono work; 'cool' more often than not doesn't equal 'sales').

It looks like you can download each page, but there seems to be no single download for the whole catalogue which is strange. I would have thought if individual pages were PDF'ed then the whole thing would be available in one file too....

After a year of drooling on our copy of the carbatec catalogue, ours is nicely prepared to go into the compost heap

Yep I reckon a downloadable cattledog would be the go, most woodys are online anyway... the old sticks in the mud that refuse to use the fandagled internet... stuff'em!

There'd be a cost saving in it too...

I have seen the Catalogue i can not see that is any major issues with it if anything i like the idea is been presented.



Masterwood

waiting for the post.

A catalogue in the hand is really good when you're in the workshop and suddenly wish to look for the correct tool.

Also handy when at a mates place in the bush, where there isn't even a telephone line, let alone power.

The online catalogue here is really good, yes it could be different, I can also see the reasoning for a PDF version which I could download and look at more easily, or even print out certain pages.

I did try to print a page but nothing happened. Perhaps you could have your index clickable. I wished to go to hand tools and had to zoom in to read the page numbers, I then put in page 99 and went from there.

I must say the camera shutter noise when a new page turns, is quite loud, especially at 0100 hrs when the rest of the house is asleep! I can live with it, as it is far better than nothing though.

Mick.

where do i get a printed copy? i prefer reading from a nice catalogue. the linbide one is great!