I needed an eshop site for my studio, since we have now a few products in our catalog. I started from an existing ecommerce template and I modified it. The home page quickly shows what are our product offerings, while product pages list products in a very simple, straightforward way. The "create" page is where serious design work was needed. I looked for a simple (low budget!) way to let the user create a custom bookshelf and obtain a total price and the number of elements to be included for shipping. This shelving system, with only 4 profile lengths (32, 66,100 and 134 cm), can make infinite combinations. I thought about an “active grid” where lines represents profiles and intersections represent the joints that keep the bookshelf together. After the user draws, the program scans the active grid: for example, if the first element has 4 lines highlighted before the first joint, that is a profile 134 cm long. Next if there is another line highlighted and right after it another joint, that is a 32 cm long profile; and so forth. After scanning all the horizontal lines the program calculates the number of profiles by each type by multiplying them by 2, since the bookshelf has an equal front and back. Next, the program scans for joints. A joint that has 2 lines highlighted around it is a 3 ways joint (2 for the sides +1 for the depth), a joint that has 3 grids highlighted is a 4 ways joint (3+1); and so forth. Again the total number of joints by each type is gained by multiplying by 2 (for front and back). Next the program scans for vertical profiles. Vertical profiles are different from the horizontal profiles so the count is separate, nevertheless scanning is the same as for horizontal lines. Finally a bookshelf has one depth which can be picked from a list box (15,32,66 cm). The total number of “depth profiles” is easily calculated as it is equal to ½ of the number of total number joints (of any type). Now the program has calculated the amount of each element of the bookshelf so from here the task of calculating the price is a piece of cake. Try the active grid, it is fun. |
