Feature Design: Product Review System

Problem/Feature Description

The product team has requested a new feature for the e-commerce platform: a product review system. They want to allow customers to leave reviews with ratings and text feedback on products they have purchased.

A junior developer on your team has already drafted an initial design that includes:

• Review entity with rating, comment, photos, and helpful votes
• Support for multiple photo uploads per review
• Helpful/not helpful voting system
• Review moderation queue
• Verified purchase badge
• Review reactions (like, dislike, etc.)
• Review analytics and reporting
• Email notifications when someone replies to your review
• Integration with third-party review aggregation services
• AI-powered sentiment analysis
• Review translation for international users

Your task is to review this feature request and create a focused design that addresses the immediate need without over-engineering.

Output Specification

Create a design document called review-feature-design.md that:

1. Classifies the decision type (architectural, tactical, or foundational)
2. Applies the design decision workflow:
   • Start with the simplest solution that meets current requirements
   • Identify what NOT to include (YAGNI)
   • Plan for future extension when triggers appear
3. Uses BAD/GOOD format:
   • Show what over-designed code looks like (including imagined future features)
   • Show the recommended simple approach
4. Documents tradeoffs:
   • What alternatives were considered
   • Why the focused approach was chosen
   • What risks exist and how to mitigate them
5. Includes validation step

Current Business Requirements (Real)

Based on conversations with the product team:

• Customers can leave a 1-5 star rating and text review after purchasing
• Reviews are displayed on product pages
• The team needs to be able to moderate reviews (approve/reject)
• They want this live in 2 weeks
• They are NOT sure about photo uploads yet - "maybe in the future"
• They have mentioned potentially adding voting "someday" but no concrete plans