Elevyn

February 14, 2009 8:34 AM

Elevyn
Elevyn (pronounced as "eleven") is a place to buy and sell hand-made items produced by indigenous or marginalized communities. Think of it as an eBay or Etsy with a cause; using web 2.0 tools to connect artisans to the worldwide market.

Inspired by one of the team members who work with indigenous groups in Malaysia, we discovered that the womenfolk produced beautiful earrings, bracelets and accessories. Unable to find a market for their crafts, the artisans struggle in poverty. We thus came up with Elevyn to allow buyers to purchase directly from the artisans. We work closely with field partners on skills-training and capacity-building programmes with the ultimate aim of having the artisans manage the online business independently.

posted by friedbeef (5 comments total)

A wonderful idea. May Elevyn be greatly successful.

Here are two humble suggestions:
The faceless icons at top (Makers, Buyers, etc.) are somewhat off-putting. Could they be given faces with pleasant expressions? This likely will make introduction to your site more welcoming.
Also, the left-right product scroll currently displays objects that are directly below it on the page, so we see duplicates, which may prove confusing.* Would it be possible to display objects on the scroll that are on inside pages? (*I realize that this may be occurring due to a current dearth of available items).

Otherwise, truly a nice site. Cheers.
posted by terranova at 12:34 PM on February 14, 2009

It was a bit slow, and it needs more content.
posted by cjorgensen at 12:42 PM on February 14, 2009

I love this idea, but it's very clearly in its early stages, especially as far as availability of stuff goes.
I totally will be bookmarking this and checking back in a few weeks/months, though.
Hope it does well.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 11:32 AM on February 17, 2009

I very much like it, but have a small complaint:

When I loaded the site, I wondered what the flash content on the top would be for (since I use flashblock). After enabling, I thought "aha, this is the main navigation menu", which it turned out not to be. I would suggest giving the actual store content more screen real estate and making it more clear somehow that this isn't the interface by which I navigate the site (yes, I saw the links up top, but the flash is front and center with selectable icons).
posted by Dr.Enormous at 8:56 AM on February 18, 2009

Superb feedback guys and gals. Keep it coming :)
posted by friedbeef at 4:37 PM on February 19, 2009