Iteration 2

What this iteration includes

Although the project is not tied directly to a client effort at this point, we did get some client feedback after presenting Iteration 1 as a concept and subsequently made the following changes:

• Added an "Add to list" button to the product page. This would allow for people to collect products to take future action on after finding them in the catalog.
• Added "last updated" along with some other meta data to the product page. This lets people quickly the understand the recency of the product information, as well as some other useful information like brand name and SKU number, which can be helpful in confirming you're looking at the right product.
• Added a language selector. Since the client indicated an interest in multi-language support, we want to factor in how this would be incorporated. For now it's simply a "translate" link in the header and footer, which could link to a number of options based on the need.
• Added category landing pages. After focusing on the home page and product pages for Iteration 1, we've included a category landing page for a more conventional information architecture and useful breadcrumb navigation.

Questions

These are some example questions we might look to get answers to with usability testing and other validation methods.

• What are users' expectations around the "add to list" functionality?
• What are the main follow-up actions they would take?
• What is the least of amount of "meta data" needed on product pages to be helpful without overdoing it?
• Do people understand the information architecture?
• Are people aware an alternate language option is available and do they know how to use it?

Iteration 1

What this iteration includes

• Two page types: catalog and product pages.
• Catalog page includes the following:
  • cards with media
  • metadata for number of products in category and date last updated
• Product page includes the following:
  • featured product image
  • tags for high-level info
  • prompt to log in for more details
  • jump links to full product info
  • links to other products in category (not all categories have multiple products)
• Content features:
  • 9 product pages across 5 categories
  • Products based on previous version of catalog
• Other features:
  • Uses USWDS, with included responsiveness and accessibility
  • Headers and footers with implied search capability

Questions

These are some questions that have surfaced, which we could seek answer with some usability testing using this prototype:

• Do we need a "landing page" for each category?
• Are we OK with prioritizing the official product name, since they vary so much?
• What are people's expectations around "view more images"?
• How do they primarily navigate through the catalog? (browsing in categories? searching?)
• What do they do after they find the information their looking for?