In this guide 6 sections
A jigsaw buyer compares piece count, finished size, picture and cut, while a strategy game buyer compares player count, play time, complexity and reading load. Store each detail as its own field, numbers for ranges and short lists for the rest, so filters can narrow a shelf holding both.
What a puzzle shopper checks first
Size is the first question. Tables are only so big. A poster sized puzzle will not fit on a dining table, so the shopper wants piece count and finished width and height before anything else.
A night sky and a poppy field are different jobs at equal piece counts, so show the full image large with a close crop of the pieces. Plain skies and still water make slow work. Say so.
A grid cut repeats one piece shape across the sheet, while a random cut varies it, and experienced puzzlers hold firm views on which they want. Gift buyers ignore the cut and read the material and finish, so cardboard or wood and matte or glossy belong in the first screen of details.
What a strategy game shopper checks first
Start with the people at the table. How many can play, and at what count does the game really work, because a box that says two to five may only shine at four?
Box times run optimistic, so a shopper trusts a range in minutes, with a longer figure for the first session when the rulebook is still open. Complexity comes next, as light, medium or heavy. A thick rulebook can ruin a casual evening. Solo play and setup time sit in the same group, because a game that needs twenty minutes of sorting before the first turn changes the evening.
Reading load decides whether a mixed language household can play, so say whether play depends on text cards that someone must read aloud or on symbols alone.
Turn those details into filters
Clean data comes first. Store anything with a range as numbers: piece count, finished width and height, minimum and maximum players, and shortest and longest play time. Build the display bands from the exact count, so you can move a band edge later without rekeying a single product.
Keep the rest in short controlled lists. A drop down on the product form stops three spellings of one cut type from splitting a single filter into three separate ones. Reading load deserves the same care: pick a fixed scale from symbols only to text heavy, and never leave it as a sentence typed by an editor.
- Piece count bands built from the exact count
- Finished width and height in centimetres and inches
- Players supported, plus the best player count
- Play time as a minute range
- Complexity as light, medium or heavy
- Reading load on a short, fixed scale
Where product pages go wrong
The commonest fault is a piece count in the title and nowhere else, so a shopper filtering by size finds nothing. Another is a size in one unit only. Overseas buyers then guess. Guessing loses sales.
Strategy pages fail by copying the box. A claim of two to six players reads the same for a game that peaks at four, and a thirty minute claim hides a first play of hours. Add the best count and a true range.
Photographs can hide the facts too. Show the back of the box, one rulebook page and the game set up on a table, so a buyer can judge the amount of text.
Share a few fields and keep the rest apart
Brand, age, language, edition, barcode, condition and weight suit both types, so keep them in one shared set for a gift shopper to filter by age.
Keep the rest in an attribute set per product type, because a puzzle should never show a player count and a game should never show a cut. Empty fields confuse filters and clutter the form.
Test with a stranger. Pick one puzzle and one game, fill in the attribute list, then ask a colleague to find each using filters alone, and note every place where they fail. Each failure is a missing field.
Product page attribute sheet
Three blocks share one sheet. The puzzle block holds piece count, finished width and height, unit, cut type, material, finish, picture theme and a thumbnail of the full image. The strategy block holds minimum players, maximum players, best count, play time range, complexity, reading load, solo mode and setup time. A strip of shared fields runs underneath.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Do puzzles and strategy games need different product forms?
Yes. They share a core set of fields, but each type needs its own attributes, and separate forms stop a player count appearing on a puzzle.
How should piece count appear on the page?
Store the exact number once and show it in the title, the filter and the attribute list, and use bands only inside the filter. Edge cases never fall between two bands.
What does reading load mean for a game?
It describes how much play depends on reading text, so a game played with symbols scores low and a game driven by long cards scores high. Mixed language households care most.
Should complexity be a number or a word?
A short word scale reads easily on the page, and behind it you can keep the publisher’s own score so the scale can be redrawn later.