Synchronized Multi-list User Interfaces for Fashion Catalogs

Several online catalogs use carousels to present thematic lists of products, based on different optimization criteria. While this makes it possible to search for items according to diverse relevance perspectives, it hardly supports an integrated evaluation, which is key to critical consuming behavior. To address this issue, we propose a synchronized multi-list model that (i) enriches item presentation by visualizing its evaluation and (ii) enables the user to simultaneously center the carousels of the multi-list on the item in her/his focus of attention, showing its ranking in each list. This type of visualization is aimed at enhancing the transparency of results by enabling the user to simultaneously compare products across all the evaluation criteria applied within the multi-list. As a testbed for our model, we selected fashion catalogs, with the aim of making users aware of clothes' evaluation with respect to the sustainability and ethical issues concerning the production practices applied by their brands. In a preliminary user study, we analyzed users' gaze behavior to reveal how people interact with the carousels of the multi-list for product comparison. The results show that people explored the position of items in all the carousels, following a pattern that differs from the top-left triangle observed in traditional multi-lists, and they selected items having a fairly good ranking, showing their interest in sustainability and ethical standards.