The Elegant Pantry and the Taxonomy of Kitchenware
by Glen F. Nemeth
A while back I expressed my frustration to Jeanette Canterbury, the senior partner
of the Elegant Pantry, at not having enough room on the kitchenware pages to
illustrate all the various kinds of kitchenware we were introducing to the Elegant
Pantry Web site. She suggested I break down the kitchenware into two categories:
bakeware, for the oven;
and
cookware for the
stovetop. This was a very helpful suggestion, and I used it to give more room
to those products that fit under those categories.
Later on I began to see that one of my general categories, kitchen accessories,
needed some breaking down as well. Rather than burden Jeanette again with this,
I turned to my old friend
Wikipedia
to see if could get a more logical breakdown. Say what you will about Wikipedia,
it certainly does a great job of organizing giant headings into minute topics.
I found a virtual taxonomy of kitchenware that made short work of organizing
these pages.
Like Jeanette, Wikipedia broke down kitchenware into two basic categories: bakeware
and cookware. It also turned up such interesting subcategories as
drinkware,
dishware, and
cutlery.
As I began adding new products, some new categories occured to me such as
juicers,
slicers and graters,
barbecue and grill
items, and
wine accessories.
It's as if Wikipedia opened up a door, and my own thinking process opened new
windows. Not exactly a scientific taxonomy, but very definitely a way around
the problem of too much product and too little space.
Now realize that I impose certain restrictions on my page design: I don't make
visitors vertically scroll unless absolutely neccessary. I regard the 800 x
600 pixel screen a single unit, so that if people have to scroll, the important
information has already been presented at the top. The less important stuff,
like this mini-essay, rests below the vertical 800 pixel mark, which to me is
the Web page equivalent of the newspaper fold.
So if I can fit a lot of products onto an 800 x 600 screen, I've given the visitor
the entire sweep of whatever product type we have available, all in a single
glance, with further information on each product just one click away. Thank
you Jeanette, and you too, Wikipedia, for making my job easier.
About the Author
Glen Nemeth is the Webmaster of theelegantpantry.com,
primedirec.com,
mintjulepairpark.com,
youclearncarpets.com
and a host of other sites that will open up in 2007. Raising Web design to an
art and e-commerce to a science is his mission and his motto.
Strawberry/Tomato Corer