I’ll cut to the chase – I need your help. Or at least your opinion.
As the Doogs Studios product line grows, presenting it is becoming more of a challenge. Especially products that are all variations on the same basic thing.
Like, oh, six different P-47N wheels…
Now that I’m spinning up P-47D wheels, the situation is about to get entirely out of hand. Because we’re talking not only multiple tread types, but covered and open-spoke versions of each, with specific sets designed to fit specific kits perfectly.
1/48 diamond treads alone cover four products. Multiply that by cross tread, square tread, chevron tread, block tread…that quickly adds up to a lot of scrolling past products that look almost identical at a glance.
Enter Variations
The shop’s ecommerce backend has variation functionality, which lets you cluster products together and select between them with a drop-down box. Kinda like selecting a size or a color if you’re buying clothes online.
For something like P-47 wheels, instead of four individual products and thumbnails and add to cart buttons showing up for the four 1/48 diamond tread options, it could just be 1/48 P-47D Wheels – Diamond Tread, and from the product page you could then select the exact type desired:
- Diamond Tread | 6 Spoke | for Tamiya – DS148017
- Diamond Tread | 6 Spoke | for MiniArt – DS148018
- Diamond Tread | Covered Wheel | for Tamiya – DS148019
- Diamond Tread | Covered Wheel | for MiniArt – DS148020
Thoughts?
I generally lean toward reducing friction and steps wherever possible, but in this case if seems like I just have to choose where that friction will be.
Which one do you prefer? Scrolling through more thumbnails on the category pages? Or selecting from a dropdown?
And let’s take it one step more aggressive. How would you feel about seeing this done with, say, 1/35 Sherman tracks? I’m not sure I’m ready for that much consolidation! But curious what others think.
As long as I can SEE the variations as I make selections via a pull down then I love those. But if it’s one picture of one product with a bunch of variations I can’t see, it makes steam come outta my ears.
Personally, I would prefer the drop down menu. Why? If I’m not interested in 1/48th P-47D wheels, I can scroll by just one instead of six or eight. If I’m really into 1/48th P-47D wheels, working through a drop down is not a problem at all. Same goes for Shermans.
Just my two Kopeks.
Definitely go with a drop-down I think, as you say, we are all used to using them when shopping online, and it’s just neater!
While not being a historian that for exactly not knows which sidewinder version is used with a specific type F-4 Phantom, or match a specific ejector seat type with the corresponding plan/type, I would prefer to clearly have a selector for the kit (Tamiya #’s, MininArt #’s) to pick from.
I like the idea of less scrolling. Is there a way when selecting what variant you want that it would change the thumbnail image you are looking at? Basically make the selection of variant a requirement to add to cart and then once selected the customer can see what they’ve selected. Also maybe put in the name for the variant add information you found during your research. For example “Diamond Pattern (Most Common)” “Oval Pattern (Goodyear)” ect. (Idk if that info is accurate im spit balling)
Yep – all of that seems possible to now that I’m digging around in the platform guts
Drop down: adds clarity without information overload. Happy to help more.
Selecting from logical drop downs I reckon .
By scale > by plane (as per your P-47 example) > by tread > by specific kit
Might sound lengthy but appropriate segregation is great. Gotta start with scale tho……
Personally I like website design that allows me to cut to the chase when selecting products. Your proposal to present the category (P-47 Diamond Tread) with a drop-down of kit options is preferable to scrolling through endless thumbnails of similar looking products.
Variations was my first thought when reading the first alinea’s of your post. (I make commerce websites for a living)
Only 1 “product” in the list is the logical way to go. You can choose variations in the next step (product detail page). Most customers will already be used to this way of working.
You could have multiple dropdowns, 1 for thread type, 1 for spoketype, … but that would depend on what your underlying system supports in regards to variations.
One image of the product, then selecting from a dropdown – saves space and easier to find
I like the one product and then choose the specific item.
Selecting from a drop down would seem to be the more concise method.