In the timeline of websites, www.LaDiff.com has been around for a LONG time. While we are not quite as old as Amazon (Bezos started that little marvel 14 years ago this summer), ladiff.com is - get this - one month older than Google (who will be 12 this September). That's pretty cool. We were around before all that dot.com explosion of 1999, and came out of it the other end happy and smiling.
Our first site, which was very experimental and very pretty, was designed by the one-of-a-kind Carol Cahill, former-LaDiffer-and-designer-extraordinaire.
A few years later, it was updated...twice. It was still pretty, more menu-driven, and it started moving up the Google charts to appear at the top of those search lists. We liked that! Only problem was the maintenance. The site used to be all HTML - it grew to be over 1000 pages deep & wide - a bear to update and organize. (And a task undertaken valiantly through the years by Sarah, Brooke, Ken, Lois, Beth, and John... thank you all!)
Last March (2008), LaDiff changed the format of our website.
We changed to a data-base driven site, thanks to the perseverance of then LaDiff designer Sarah Pratt and the OS Commerce expertise of the folks at Allegro Consultants. The then-new site could (and can) be updated far more easily than before by not just the LaDiff graphic designer, but by the buyers and others, too. Discontinuations by vendors? Delete! Price changes? Update! Color no longer available? Change!
While we are still not point-click-BUY (we still firmly believe that FURNITURE buying decisions require the warm-fuzzy interaction with a talented, smart LaDiff salesperson!), you can go to LaDiff's website and fill & submit a shopping cart, ask questions, get dimensions & details, and so much more than you could on the previous version.
Fast forward to last week... Tuesday to be exact... when we revealed our latest version of ladiff.com, with even MORE updates and changes. When font-loving-former-Portlander (that's OR not ME) Juliette arrived on the scene, she set out to take the good and make it even better. (And we're not finished yet!)
Here are a few of the changes you'll find in our recent 'FaceLift':
1. A link to 'Staff Picks' where you can learn what individuals on our sales team list as their favorite LaDiff items!
2. Identifiers on our 'green' merchandise (this is still a work in progress, in tandem with our in-store 'green' leaf rating system!... stay tuned!)
3. A link to LaDiff's Facebook Page where you can become a FAN.
4. A new category all for VIVE - our newest introduction of global & eclectic furniture: old world charm with a LaDiff attitude.
5. A link to this blog! (but you don't need that now... because you're already HERE)
6. And a way for us to include special, smaller shout-outs that feature certain vendors or categories such as outdoor furniture or our new Calligaris Gallery.
The colors are updated, too - a bit bolder and brighter to jump off the page and into your memory banks.
Take a look-see for us and tell us what you think! We love feedback, since it only helps us get better and better. Check it out for yourselves... www.ladiff.com - We hope you like it!
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