Challenge Summary
Welcome to "Andersen Compare Products Design Concepts Challenge". In this challenge, we are looking for your creative ideas and "design" concepts to help solve a user experience problem that customers have when comparing our products. The goal of this challenge is to design concepts and user interactions for a product comparison tool that is easy to use and easy to understand for our customers.
At the end of this challenge, we are looking to see a creative ideas, interactions and user experience "design concepts" that help us realize a better customer experience.
This challenge is focused on "graphic design" output and results.
Round 1
Initial Design Concepts for checkpoint review
2. Initial Product Comparison Tool Page
3. Interaction/Click Diagram
Any additional features or screens that will help explain your idea
Round 2
Final Design Concepts plus any checkpoint feedback and updates
1. Home Page
2. Product Comparison Tool Page
3. Interaction/Click Diagram
Any additional features or screens that will help explain your idea
Challenge Details
Andersen is the most recognized and most used brand in the window and patio door industry. They are the largest window and door manufacturer in North America. The company is known for its strong history of commitment to its business partners, employees, community and environmental stewardship. Andersen employs 9,000 people and markets products throughout North America and in South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Design Problem
Visitors to our website (http://www.andersenwindows.com/) need to be able to compare our window products. Our windows currently are grouped by “Series” and within a series you can have multiple products. It is hard for our customers to understand the difference between a Series and a Product when doing comparisons. In order for our customers to make an informed decision on which product is right for their needs, we are looking to design "comparison" tool for our site visitors (and potential customers) where they can quickly compare and learn the attributes of:
a) Different product series and
b) Individual products (windows and doors that are children of those series)
Design Goals:
- Improve customer/site visitor satisfaction
- Give the user an easy to understand and compare products at both the series level and product level.
- Move users through the window selection decision flow (what is a unique way to do this?)
Note: The larger goal is to create a continuum of tools/functionality that the customer can access from different starting points. Generally, all customers travel in different paths with different priorities from tool to tool, yet they have a high expectation that the tools be interconnected allowing them to find the pertinent information they need – when they want it – and retaining their selections from one tool to the next.
Current Customer Usability Testing Results
(See Exhibit A) - usability testing of a comparison prototype has established these expectations for this tool/features:
- Users would look for a product comparison tool after selecting specific product(s) from a list with images and brief overview
- No one wants to have to spend too much time to use the tool
- Users want to see product-specific information in the comparison results and get more information on attributes they don’t understand
- Users want to be able to link between comparison results and the product details
User Scenario:
- Imagine you as a homeowner and you are looking for products for your dream home or home renovation.
- You want to find good quality products for your home at www.andersenwindows.com.
- You are able to find products you're interested but can't make a decision which one to purchase
- You want to compare two or more products to quickly scan and move through the decision process and make a purchase
- You should be able to select products that you want to compare (You can compare at a Series level or a Product level)
- Those products show up inside of the new Product Comparison Tool
- Users can now easily see multiple products in an easy to understand view so they can make a decision.
Compare Tool Concepts:
Notes:
1) We are focused on the actual compare tool in this challenge
2) A user can go directly to the comparison tool from the home page or trigger it by searching through the products and selecting compare.
- Your design should be engaging, clean, easy to understand
- How to sort products (sort by attributes like color, size, finish, etc)
- How to handle additional information (hovers, flyouts etc?)
- Communicate a good/better/best without using those terms (maybe a rating system or a 3 star product)
- A way to display a recommended product? or after making comparisons does it provide you with recommendations?
- Users expect to see all possible choices of a product that is a Series level product
- Making changes to that Series level product should update the comparison
- This tool will be added the website in a future release www.andersenwindows.com
Suggested Pages:
01. Home Page - (http://www.andersenwindows.com/)
Create for Desktop only.
- We are looking to add a navigation item or call to action that highlights/attracts a user to the comparison tool.
- We are only focused on the actual comparison tool design concepts - do not redesign the home page
02. Product Comparison Tool Page(s)
Create for Desktop and Mobile
- The customer arrives on this page and they want to be able to compare products.
- Customer needs to be able to search for products, filter and compare them
- Customer will be able to compare products base on individual products OR products series category
- Sorting and filtering products by some criteria? popularity? prices? color? finish? material? etc?
- For individual product comparison, compare the attributes of 2-4 products on a single page
-- Material
-- Exterior colors
-- Interior colors
-- Grille patterns
-- Hardware colors
-- Exterior Trim
-- Glass options
-- Energy rating
- For Series comparison, compare the attributes of all Series on a single page (see Exhibit B)
- In this page, customer should have ability to see how different selections change the look of the product and the price
- How to handle additional product information such as explanation for material type (popup? modal window? navigate to new screen? bubble message? tooltip?)
- Ideas for communicating good/better/best products without using those terms
- How a user evaluates options and sees a representation of what they’ve selected in the product image (image changing when they've changed colors)
- How this comparison tool lends itself to recommendations for our customers / site visitor
- There should be a function to remove products from the grid if user don't want to compare it anymore.
- Ability to save, print, share or submit for a quote
- Access to attribute definitions without leaving compare page
- Access to more details on product page (warranty, care and maintenance, installation)
03. Click/Interaction Diagram Presentation
- We would like to see a click/interaction diagram showing how the user would use your concept!
- We want to understand your concept and why its useful for a customer
- See download for examples
Branding Guidelines :
- See http://www.andersenwindows.com/ to get clear information about products and content for your designs.
- See challenge attachments
Target Audience:
- Primary audience is homeowners, representing approximately 80% of site visitors.
- Secondary audience is builders and architects, who want to use a comparison tool with their clients (homeowners).
Judging Criteria:
Your submission will be judged on the following criteria:
- Design concepts! Did you try something new?
- User Experience - does your concept make sense?
- Design Concepts! Great presentation of your ideas and design
Submission & Sources Files
Preview Image
Create your preview image as one (1) 1024x1024 JPG or PNG file in RGB color mode at 72dpi and place a screenshot of your submission within it.
Submission File
Please upload PNG images in a zip file with all requested contest requirements stated above. Number your files (01, 02, 03, etc) this will help review them in order (only necessary if you have additional screens).
Source Files
All original source files of the submitted design. Files should be created in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and saved as layered PSD/AI files.
Please read the challenge specification carefully and watch the forums for any questions or feedback concerning this challenge. It is important that you monitor any updates provided by the client or Studio Admins in the forums. Please post any questions you might have for the client in the forums.