[IxDA Discuss] What is interaction?

[Frederik Fix]

Hi,
I'm the programmer behind gussy.co.uk and Jack (the starter of this  
thread) pointed me to this discussion. First of all thank for all the  
thoughtful comments, positive and negative. Some of the points raised  
were concerns for me as well which is why I have been reworking the  
whole site.

But before I go on let me state the problem we (at gussy) are trying  
to solve:
Looking at most online fashion stores I struck me that they are  
selling fashion just like others are selling electronics. They are  
mostly missing the opportunities that the interactive, global  
networks affords and thereby distort the way fashion is consumed in  
the offline world. In particular they miss the combinatory aspects of  
garments, something that I hope the stylist can improve on. On the  
other hand the social aspects of shopping are missing. (A feature to  
address this is in the works and will be out before the end of the  
month...) In response to the other examples of this listed I found  
them to be too slow and somewhat awkward because they are not  
sufficiently integrated with the website.

Now I have put up a preview of the rework at http:// 
friends.gussy.co.uk/stylist. And I would appreciate your feedback on  
the changes I have made. In particular I would like to hear your  
thoughts on the lens (top box on the left) that allows you to browse  
the catalogue and allows you to put items onto the table (the box  
below it). Do you think the experience is intuitive? The reason I  
split the interface into two box is that I expect people to browse  
the catalogue and select a handful of items they like which they can  
then switch between once on the table. Does this division sound  
reasonable to you?
Another aspect that I would appreciate some feedback on is the redone  
zoom interface. Look at http://friends.gussy.co.uk/products/show/2  
for example. By moving the mouse over the main image a zoomed portion  
of the image appears next to the cursor. Do you like this interface?
Robert raised the point that the way the shopping box is grayed out  
when changing items is awkward. Do others share this view? If so how  
do you best show the user that the system is doing a network  
transaction that can take between 100 ms and 1 s, during which the  
user has to wait?

Thanks in advance for any responses,

Frederik Fix