# CommerceDex UX Docs — Overview

## What this document set is

This is the **Phase 2 deliverable** of CommerceDex: Information Architecture & UX Flows. It translates the Phase 1 domain architecture (`../architecture/`) into the shape merchants actually see and use:

- The merchant-facing navigation and information architecture (`01-information-architecture.md`)
- The core end-to-end flows a merchant runs through daily or weekly (`02-core-user-flows.md`)
- Reusable interaction patterns applied consistently across the product (`03-ux-patterns-and-conventions.md`)
- Open questions flagged for Phase 3/4 (`04-open-questions.md`)
- A lightweight customer-facing storefront flow addendum, added after Phase 4 to unblock Phase 5 (`05-storefront-flows.md`) — see note below

## What this document set is NOT

- **Not a database schema or API design.** That's Phase 3 — System Architecture & Database Design.
- **Not a visual design system.** Colors, typography, spacing, and component styling belong to Phase 4 — Design System & UI Framework. This phase defines structure and behavior, not visual treatment.
- **Not a screen-by-screen wireframe spec.** Core flows are described as steps and decisions, not pixel layouts.

## The load-bearing constraint from Phase 1

`../architecture/06-open-questions.md` (item 1) locked in a hard rule that governs everything in this document set:

> The merchant never sees the internal 20-module architecture. Information architecture is organized around merchant goals and workflows, never around module boundaries. No per-module settings screens, no exposed module names anywhere in the merchant-facing product.

Concretely, this means Catalog and Inventory (two separate backend modules) surface to the merchant as one thing — "Products." Marketing, Discount Engine, and the relevant slice of Automation Engine surface as one thing — "Marketing." The IA in `01-information-architecture.md` is the translation layer between the 20-module domain model and a small, merchant-legible navigation structure.

## How to read these docs

Read `01-information-architecture.md` first — it establishes the vocabulary (section names) that the flows in `02` and patterns in `03` both use. `04-open-questions.md` can be read any time; nothing in it blocks the rest of Phase 2.

## Note on scope: admin vs. storefront

Documents `01`–`04` are scoped entirely to the **merchant admin** — Phase 2 did not originally cover the customer-facing storefront (product browsing, cart, checkout). This was flagged as a gap in `../design/06-open-questions.md` #1 during Phase 4, and resolved by adding `05-storefront-flows.md`: a deliberately lightweight flow-shape addendum, not a full storefront IA/design pass. Full storefront visual design and the merchant-theming question remain open for a dedicated future phase — see `05-storefront-flows.md`'s own "what's still deferred" section.

## Relationship to other phases

| Phase | Depends on Phase 2 for |
|---|---|
| Phase 3 — System Architecture & Database Design | The flows in `02-core-user-flows.md` define the read/write access patterns each module's interface needs to support (e.g., the product-upload flow implies Catalog + Media Manager + Automation Engine must all respond within the same user-perceived action). |
| Phase 4 — Design System & UI Framework | The IA's section/page structure and the interaction patterns in `03` are what the visual design system is built to express. |
| Phase 6+ (Catalog & Inventory, Orders/Customers/Payments, etc.) | Each build phase should implement the merchant-facing flow described here, backed by the module(s) defined in Phase 1 — the flow is the contract; which module(s) satisfy it underneath is an implementation detail invisible to the merchant. |