I spent about 20 hours over the weekend working on design mode for StoreSuite. Design mode allows you to change the layout of your shop by dragging and dropping panels where you want them to appear. As soon as you rearrange a panel the changes are persisted in real-time using Ajax. You don't need to know HTML and it allows you to rearrange your shop in just a few seconds.

This is feature #1 on the list of 10 or so things I will be implementing into StoreSuite that I'm hoping to blow you away with. When I said we're going to make StoreSuite the best, easiest to use and most feature-packed eCommerce solution available, I wasn't lying.

To enable design mode you simply tick a checkbox "Enable Design Mode" in the StoreSuite control panel. You then view your shop logged in as admin and you can rearrange it as you like. Every single page can be configured to your exact liking.



It's hard to explain without the video, so watch the video and let me know what you think :)

In the screenshot and video you'll notice the yellow areas that appear when I start dragging a panel. These are the areas where it can be dropped. If you drop it anywhere else then nothing will happen. Nearly all panels can be moved, and it's easy to add your own panels into the mix using the built-in template editor.

Design mode is compatible (and has been tested) with all major browsers including IE 6 and 7, FireFox and Safari. As far as I know, no other eCommerce solution includes this feature, and I'm hoping it will make your template customization experience a lot easier.