How effective are domain selling marketplaces in interfacing with their users?
Visual identification of key segments is important, and it’s not just for looks.
User experience design (UX) plays a big part in identifying information easy and fast. Imagine the difference it makes when one is able to locate great ongoing domain sales, as opposed to wading in long lists.
We started this 5-way comparison of domain marketplaces with Afternic.
Flippa is 6 years old.
Today, it’s the turn of Australian domain, web site and app marketplace, Flippa – operating from Flippa.com.
Flippa had a redesign recently, and it’s still growing on us. The web site adapts to the width of your browser on the web, and there is a dedicated app for Flippa on mobile devices, which is truly awesome.
But let’s focus on the web version of Flippa.com and its marketplace.
The Flippa.com header consists of the company’s monochromatic logo, and a clean distinction of the three genres for sale; Websites, Domains and Apps. There’s a login and sign up link on the right, and a prompt to start selling.
When one hovers over one of the three options, a submenu overlay presents a search feature, with the capability to search everything or just the auctions, recently sold domains, brokered sales or appraisals. As long as you move horizontally to the search box, you can input a term to search, or click on the advanced search menu.
The Flippa “hero” graphic follows, consisting of a guy or a girl against a tech background; an effective use of stock photography.
The image also presents a quick link to buying or selling web sites, domains or apps. Although the image is rather tall, occupying some premium real estate, it provides a clear visual separation from what follows, and it’s analogous to the overall length of the Flippa home page.
The following segment is Editor’s Choice. It’s a scrollable area displaying – automatically, or via the user’s interaction – domains selected by Flippa due to their extra premium quality. Each domain’s details are clearly displayed in a box, with an optional image and links to watch or join the respective auctions.
Right below, is a three-column segment of featured web sites, domains and apps.
The lists display the web site, domain or app title, along with the days or hours remaining until the end of the auction and the current bid or price. There are links to see all of the current segments as well. This visual separation aids in identifying ongoing auctions easily and one can quickly join the auction of interest. It’s one of the strongest elements of the Flippa web site.
Right below the domain listings is a section with three visually rich call to action (CTA) areas, that follow the same grid size.
These include news, such as “Flippa gets a rebuild,” sales tutorials such as “Deal flow,” and upselling prompts to increase your auction’s visibility, such as “Domain brokerage.” It’s a very clever and effective combination of education and product promotion. 😀
The final part of the Flippa landing page displays some information about the auction stats, such as number of bids in the current week, total number of open listings, aggregate sales and weekly sales totals.
Below that section are once again three buttons to buy or sell web sites, domains or apps.
At the very bottom is a spartan navigation menu, along with links to social media, terms/rules and a privacy disclaimer.
In our opinion that bottom part has two weaknesses: it’s far too tall and sparse, and it presents information in a wasteful manner. To improve it, we’d shorten the white space between the areas, combining the stats segment with the buttons, and making the bottom navigation part richer.
So how does the Flippa web site rank in terms of design, user experience, ease of navigation and overall presentation of domain inventory?
Here are the rankings for Flippa.com :
Design: 9/10
User Experience: 8/10
Ease of Navigation: 9/10
Inventory Presentation: 9/10
Overall Ranking: 9/10
Flippa has completed its 6th year as a strong player in the domain aftermarket. Their newly redesigned web site reflects that, and they are always listening to suggestions in order to improve it.
