blog.jameshom.com

Small Multiples done wrong

One page I noticed on the nicely laid out DeLaEspada site is their All Products page. At first glance, this looks like a good example of Tufte's "small multiples" guideline--provide thumbnails of like items so viewers can compare and contrast without much work.

But the images used are mixed up--there's some "in use" images scaled down to thumbnail size, some "product only" images that show just the product with a transparent background, and some schematic floorplan diagrams for sofa sectionals and the like.

This kind of defeats the small multiples principle--some of the "in use" thumbs, probably reused from the print/Web catalogs, are scaled down so much that you can't distinguish the product from the background. Like this one.

Now don't get me wrong--I think their stuff is fantastic. Too pricey for me, but heck, I'm still using my bachelor pad furniture 10 years after moving out of my apt.