SoftLayer/IBM – Storefront

This is an example of a simple storefront designed for SoftLayer in 2012.

The problem this was supposed to solve, which still existed in 2018, was the inability to purchase different items at the same time. Additionally, it was supposed to provide the ability to do quoting and to save carts that were able to be both shared and returned to later. Also, there were to be editing capabilities right in the cart including the ability to order multiples of the same configuration or duplicate and make slight adjustments as needed. Lastly, after the sale was completed, there was to be a visual indicator showing in real-time the provisioning state of the items you purchased.

Essential elements to make this work included a complicated exclusionary system on the backend that kept up with your configuration choices to exclude ones later that would not be compatible and it did these checks and validations as you made your decisions. Unfortunately, that was never released. Only a few ideas behind the faceting/filtering on the new selection screen and parts of the configuration page made it into the final product that you could see as of March 2019.

Throughout this review, I’ve included images next to each other of the wireframe and the released version that was accessible in March 2019.

Click on an image to view it.