Behind the scenes
Digitec Galaxus Hackfest 2022: the lowdown
by Coya Vallejo Hägi
Small but mighty: introducing our new search feature
14.7.2022
Translation: Katherine Martin
Pictures: Christian Walker
Our product development team has equipped our shop with a new specification search bar. You’ll now be able to filter reams of data according to the information you need. Have you tried it out yet?
ROM, RAM, gigabytes, pixels, grammes. Nowadays, smart gadgets and sophisticated products come with a veritable smorgasbord of specs – which can quickly become overwhelming when you’re shopping. A new mini feature has been introduced to the Digitec Galaxus shop precisely for times like these: the spec search.
Open and search
Thanks to the new feature, you can now search for specific details on products that have more than five specs. To do this, scroll down to the specification list on the product page and click to reveal it. A search bar has now been created there. You can use it to enter the filter criteria you want. All specs containing the term will then be displayed automatically. Here’s what it looks like.
The image above is taken from the mobile version of our site. You can, however, find the spec search feature on our webshop and in our app, too.
From the product party to the shop
The architects of the new mini-feature are members of Team Isotope. «The idea came out of our last product party», Manuel Ott tells me. He’s a UX designer and built the first prototype for the spec search.
The product party is an event which takes place every few months. «It’s all about finding weak points on our shop and getting a better understanding of how people from outside the company perceive our site», Manuel explains. At the last product party, all eyes were focused on the international competition.
The attendees were set a specific task: to compare the three cheapest monitors. «That’s how we stumbled across a Dutch website with this really cool feature that we didn’t have», says Manuel.
Piratesque inspiration
Manuel openly admits that the inspiration for the new feature came from another online shop. The function, he says, was so simple and helpful that the team just had to introduce it to our site. With this in mind, the UX designer went straight to work on the prototype.
After he was done, things continued rapidly: the team liked Manuel’s work. So much so, that his design proposal was converted into code within just one week. «We already had the building blocks for the search function, which is why the implementation went so quickly», Manuel adds.
Once it was finished, a short test phase took place before the feature was integrated into the Digitec Galaxus shops in a flash. Incidentally, all this took place without any back-and-forth with upper management. «When it comes to small features like this, we take a piratesque approach and just give it a try», says Manuel. It was a good idea – the feedback, he says, has been very positive.
If the spec search goes down well with customers too, Team Isotope hopes to integrate it into the comparison feature as well.
Have you tried our new mini-feature yet? How do you like it?
«I want it all! The terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles!» – these words spoken by an iconic American TV celebrity could have been mine. It's a take on life I also apply to my job. What does this mean in concrete terms? That every story has its charm; no matter how small, large, exciting or trivial. The more eclectic the mix, the better.
