9-24-08

The seven design elements of the customer interface are context, content, community, customization, communication, connection, and commerce. Context determines the look- and- feel of design. It’s the layout and design of a website. The dimensions of context are function and aesthetics. The critical factors in the site layout are section breakdown, and linking structure and navigation tools. The performance of the site depends on speed, reliability, platform independence, media accessibility, and usability. Aesthetics deal with the color scheme and visual themes. Content is the text, pictures, and videos that a webpage has. The dimensions of content are offering mix, appeal mix, multimedia mix, and content type. Community is the way sites enable user- to- user communications. A sense of community can encourage customers to return to a website primarily because community can create an attractive content. It also makes certain activities possible or easier. Customization is the site’s ability to self- tailor to different users to allow users to personalize the site. The dimensions of customization are personalization and tailoring. Personalization would consider login registration, cookies, personalized e-mail account, content and layout configurations, storage, and agents. Tailoring is based on past behavior or behavior of other users wit similar preferences. Communication is the dialogue that is initiated by the firm. Firms can broadcast through mass mailings, FAQ’s, e-mail newsletters, content update notifications, and broadcast events. Interactive occurs through e- commerce dialogue, customer service, and user input. Hybrid is a mixture of broadcast and interactive. Connection is the degree that a site is linked to other websites. A firm is connected to another website through a hypertext jump or a hyperlink. The dimensions of connection are links to sites, homesite background, outsourced content, percentage of homesite content, and pathway of connection. The main features of commerce that supports the various aspects of trading transactions are registration, shopping cart, security, credit card approval, one- click shopping, orders through affiliates, configuration technology, order tracking, and delivery options.