Many products on the Vistaprint site require customers to make selections from a range of options. These options are typically things like substrate, size or shape. 

With the explosion of size and paper options on the site, it was getting difficult for customers to make informed choices. This growing problem was captured in two important questions: How can we give customers the confidence in the choices they are making? How can we help them understand these choices?

Customer research about pain points in the customer journey revealed that showing their selections in real-time would be one of the best ways to help generate that customer confidence we were striving for. 

Implementing this UX pattern turned out to be a big technical challenge, owing to the fact that some products had several options that could be mixed and matched. I worked with the development team closely to keep the project focused on the customers needs, and find ways to streamline implementation.

During this time I also worked with our photography team to come up with a system to create consistent photographs of the products. 

Above you can see some of the original concept mockups for referential images. The site has changed a great deal since this initial project, but the underlying concepts have remained.