Each week until the conference, our editors will put together a short article spotlighting one of the speakers featured at the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability 2010 Conference that contains a description of the session, an explanation of why they selected that speaker for that session, and a brief interview with the speaker about their session. Today's IRWD Spotlight Speaker is Thomas Parkinson.
Even as users become more search-centric, navigation remains key to revealing product assortment and building credibility with the shopper. Creating good navigation through a site is not easy because site designers often don't understand how shoppers are actually using their site. Successful navigation becomes further complicated by the three primary types of navigation—product organization, product selection and page signage. This session will feature a leading design consultant and a retailer with a huge, ever-changing product assortment who will walk attendees through the important elements of navigation and how to make sure shoppers can easily navigate your site.
With a large and frequently-changing assortment, online grocery stores face a particularly big challenge in organizing their web sites so as to direct shoppers quickly toward what they want to find. As one of the web's first grocery merchants, Peapod has mastered that challenge, expanding where others in the category have failed, expanding its coverage and growing sales to in excess of $373 million. This session will provide an industry veteran's take on site navigation that successfully supports a broad mix of shopper needs and product types.
"Don't expect any fancy PowerPoint slides in this seminar, just real world experience and hard knocks learning," Thomas says. "I will take you through 20 years of developing seven completely different versions of Peapod's on-line and website ordering systems, starting with MS-DOS to Windows, Mac and the Web. I'll talk about the challenges of creating a simple interface for making it easy to put 60 items in a cart; explore search, browse, smart lists and sophisticated filtering; and preview the making of the 8th version of the Peapod service now in the works."
Access Profiles of Previous Speakers of the Week
- Bernardine Wu, President, FitForCommerce
- Jimmy Healey, Product Marketing Manager, Onlineshoes.com
- John Thompson, General Manager, BestBuy.com
- Tom Funk, Vice President, Timberline
- Bridget Fahrland, Director, Creative Strategy, Fry Inc.
- Pamela Hilborn, Director of User Experience, Kobo Inc.
- Betsy Emery, CEO, Tellus Web
- Rick McNeill, Web Design Product Manager, Meijer
- Halley Silver, Director, E-Commerce, King Arthur Flour
- George Michie, Co-Founder, CEO, Rimm-Kaufman Group
- Larry Becker, Principal, LarryBeckerWeb.com
- Brian Moen, Vice President, E-Commerce, OrientalTrading.com
- Jay Scannell, Vice President, Information Technology, SkyMall
- Lynnette Montgomery, Vice President, Direct Marketing, Performance Bicycle and Nashbar
- Lauren Freedman, President, The E-tailing Group
Internet Retailer Publisher Jack Love explains why the Web Design & Usability 2010 Conference is the perfect niche event for anyone responsible for the development and sales performance of retail web sites. Why? Because it focuses exclusively on issues that are at the core of web performance and provides practical tips for improving online sales with better web designs. See Publisher's Invitation
IRWD 2010 Conference features 43 expert speakers, all of whom provide revenue-generating advice on retail web site design and usability. Chosen by Internet Retailer's editors based solely on their expertise, these speakers include e-retailers from all merchandise channels and the design professionals who help them create outstanding sites. See All 43 Speakers
Free Private Web Design Consultations — Feb. 15-16 All conference attendees can schedule two private 30-minute consultation sessions with top web design experts who review their sites in advance and suggest changes to improve sales during the private session. To take advantage of this valuable benefit, please schedule your consultations prior to the conference. Get Design Consultation Details
Internet Retailer's Web Design & Usability 2010 Conference draws web site managers and developers from all retail web operations, including those of store chains, catalog firms, web-only merchants, consumer product manufacturers and service companies and Internet solution providers—all of which have retail web sites with significant growth potential through better design. See Attendee Data & Evaluations














