Ordering goods with videotex: or just fill in the details

Abstract Home-based transactional services such as teleshopping have become available using videotex technology. In this form of shopping, users may acquire details of goods, evaluate items available and place orders by using a home terminal or an adapted television set. Two experiments examined different sorts of demand that the videotex ordering task might impose on users. The first experiment assessed the usability of four types of ‘response frame’ for practised users. Fastest performance times were associated with ‘tailored’ and ‘menu’ frames when ordering single items, and with ‘tailored’ and ‘generalized’ frames when ordering several items. The novel task structure associated with the ‘generalized’ response frame is different from normal shopping and therefore might be a source of difficulty for the novice user. A second experiment manipulated possible methods of increasing compatibility. Subjects given videotex-compatible experience were faster in ordering goods than subjects who only had ‘shop’ sh...