Customer Interface

Agenda  What are the seven design elements of the customer interface?  What determines the look-and-feel of the site?  What are the dimensions of content?  Why be concerned with community?  What are the levers used to customize a site?  What types of communication can a firm maintain with its customer base?  How does a firm connect with other businesses?  What are the main features of commerce that support the various aspects of trading transactions?

Seven Design Elements of Customer Interface ContextSite’s layout and design ContentText, pictures, sound and video that webpages contain CommunityThe ways sites enable user-to-user communication CustomizationSite’s ability to self-tailor to different users or to allow users to personalize the site CommunicationThe ways sites enable site-to-user communication or two-way communication ConnectionDegree site is linked to other sites CommerceSite’s capabilities to enable commercial transactions

What Determines the Look-and-Feel of Design?  Context: look-and-feel of a screen-to-face customer interface.  Dimensions of Context: Function and Aesthetics  Function  Factors Critical in Site Layout:  Section Breakdown, Linking Structure & Navigation Tools  Performance of Site:  Speed, Reliability, Platform Independence, Media Accessibility and Usability  Aesthetics  Color Scheme & Visual Themes

What are the Dimensions of Content?  Content refers to any digital information included on a website, e.g. audio, video, images and text.  Dimensions of Content:  Offering Mix  Appeal Mix  Multimedia Mix  Content Type

Why Community?  Sense of community can encourage customers to return to a website primarily because:  Community can create attractive content  Community can make certain activities possible or easier, thus satisfying needs not attainable individually.

What are the Levers Used to Customize a Site?  Customization: To better address individual needs, a site can be altered by the user or by the organization.  Dimensions of Customization: Personalization and Tailoring  Personalization: Login registration, cookies, personalized account, content and layout configurations, storage and agents.  Tailoring: based on past behavior or behavior of other users with similar preferences.

What Types of Communication can a Firm Maintain with its Customer Base  Communication refers to the dialogue that is initiated by the firm.  Dimensions of Communication: 1. Broadcast  Mass mailings, FAQs, newsletters, content update notifications, broadcast events 2. Interactive  E-commerce dialogue, customer service, user input 3. Hybrid  Combination of broadcast and interactive

How does a Firm Connect With Other Businesses?  Connection is the degree to which a given site is able to “link” to other sites through a hypertext jump, or hyperlink, from one webpage to another.  Dimensions of Connection:  Links to Sites  Homesite Background  Outsourced Content  Percentage of Homesite Content  Pathway of Connection

What are the Dimensions of Commerce?  Commerce capabilities are those features of the customer interface that support the various aspects of trading transactions.  Dimensions of Commerce:  Registration  Shopping Cart  Security  Credit Card Approval;  One-click Shopping  Orders Through Affiliates  Configuration Technology  Order Tracking  Delivery Options