Interactive Design for New Media and the Web

22e-Commerce Systems

 

 

In Chapter 21 we briefly discussed the distinction between interactive information systems and interactive commerce or sales sites. In that chapter we defined the structure of the information system as a series of ever-opening doors leading the user to more choices and more information. By contrast, the e-commerce system was described as a series of fewer and fewer choices leading the viewer to a single action: a purchase.

Interactive shopping systems can be divided into two major categories: “promo” systems that show off products and offer information but don’t take the order, and “buy” systems that actually allow the shoppers to place their orders through the computer. However, because “promo” systems also are eventually ...