Beyond Internet business-as-usual

Current Problems Today’s designers face numerous problems when designing electronic shops and electronic catalogs. Many of these problems are linked to technological limitations of the “web media.” A well-known limitation is, for example, that limited layout control and transmission rate forces designers to use fewer and smaller pictures and to lay them out differently than they would, say, when designing paper catalogs. Another limitation concerns user-system interaction: without integration of Java or Dynamic HTML elements, it is difftcult to give appropriate support to users who want to perform advanced shopping tasks such as product comparison or product customization. A third problem results from the limited means to communicate important new properties of the electronic media such as the danger involved in performing shopping transactions. For many users the current model of explicit security notifications is confusing as they are left with a vague perception of potential threats. These are only three of the more obvious problems designers face today when designing Internet shops to be attractive, supportive, and easy to use.