Hello,

We have some very exciting news! For the last few months, we have been working on a new interactive system builder that will make it much easier for you to purchase your speaker system.

The new Interactive System Builder combines three tools into one easy to use interface. Now you can go through a simple 3-step process to get a recommendation, you can build your own system using the drag & drop interface or you can select one of our pre-configured systems and customize it. You can even mix and match colors when customizing.

The tool is nearly ready to be fully deployed, but we need your help to test it to make sure that it is working properly before we launch it. Please follow this link and put the ISB through it's paces.

http://www.aperionaudio.com/flash/isb.aspx

If you run across any problems or have any comments or questions, please send an email to: partners@aperionaudio.com

Thanks for your help!

It worked fine. It did take a bit of time to load the catalog though. One suggestion, can you show the speakers with the grills on? I'm a "grill on" kind of guy.

John,

That is pretty slick.  Nice work to the developers.  Of course I have to make a suggestion.  Let us add accessories like stands and stuff.

We discussed having that as an option but we decided that accessories overcomplicated the process and added overhead to the load time. For now, we are looking at how we can make the add accessories element better in the shopping cart but this is a really modular design so we might be able to add the accessories at a later date.
 

John,

Even without the accessories it is very impressive.  I have not seen anything out there that is even close from a coolness factor!

John -

 When the guru selects a system, there should be a summary of the components before it is added to the cart.

John

Hi John,

There is a control at the top of the page in the add to cart bar that says "view details". If you click on that, the box will expand and show your system. You can even delete items from the list before sending them to the cart. So, the functionality is there but the fact you didn't see it is something we should improve.

Thanks for the input!

John,

There's only one problem with the Interactive System Builder, it's not very realistic.  Each time I drop a new pair of speakers into the room, I don't see my pissed off wife clenching the checkbook tightly between her bony little fingers.  

Can we get that fixed

Hi John,

I seem to have a problem with the subwoofer mouse-over. It constantly doesn't show up and I have to move the mouse away and then bring it back just right.

The only other issue I noticed right away is a usability thing rather than an actual bug. Clicking on the speaker itself in the virtual room should bring up the details as well as going to the show details button.  A bit annoying and slight waste of time to have to mouse-over the speaker to bring up the options and then move the mouse again to click on the show details button. Obviously not a huge deal but being an interface designer myself I pay a lot of attention to the little details and it bugs me.

Great job to your developer(s) and designer(s)! It looks and works very, very nicely overall. I guess I do have one more suggestion. When it's loading the catalog you should really use a real progress indicator of some sort showing the percentage complete. With it taking as long as it does currently I think many users will decide that it isn't working and either leave the site or at the least cancel it and go to another part of the site. You could keep the circle animation but have the red part actually show the progress, go with a standard progress bar of some sort, or even just text (68% complete). Very highly recommended from a usability standpoint.

Thanks for all your feedback. Please post any additional comments by end of day today.
 

Overall, very nice.
I like that you can customize from any starting point by clicking the build your own tab, though this is not obvious.
The inconsistency that I see is that only the Get a Recommendation tab has the "I'm Done" button. In that menu, the "adjust" really does nothing, "add to cart" is the same as buttn on top, and customize activates the "build your own tab"  (the clue I needed to realize you could do this at any time). My recommendation is to keep the tabs consistent with all having this button  since I do think having the "customize" item is very helpful.