Geri Coady explores Cottonbureau.com, and reveals how it's been designed to allow for new features and constant evolution.
The hugely popular T-shirt company United Pixelworkers is well-known to designers, developers and creative folk looking to geek-up their wardrobes with T-shirts designed by the industry's finest.
It became so popular that it has spawned a sister site, Cotton Bureau, where hopefuls can submit a design, promote it and see it go to print after it has reached 12 pre-order sales.
Jay Fanelli and Nathan Peretic – the minds behind both Full Stop and Cotton Bureau – are constantly introducing new features to the website.
Always new features
Cottonbureau.com shows how designers can embrace flux to great effect.
While they claim the site is fairly standard, built on the toolkit they've been using for years (jQuery, Laravel, Mercurial, Linode, Stripe), they can't help but brag a little about their shopping cart.
"We're not afraid to try things that sound a little crazy, and this is one of those things. Rather than kick you off to another page, the entire cart and checkout experience slides in from the right, one panel at a time," Peretic says. "You've got to try it to see how great it is."
The control panel for folks who've submitted a design also shines, with responsive sub-navigation menus and a simple, effective UI that makes keeping an eye on your shirt's success a breeze.
