Abstract

This work looks for possible connections between the main disciplines involved in the building of the real-world and virtual retailing space: visual merchandising and web design. Aiming at this, the author proposes a model for an analytical representation of the consumer's route, from the entrance up to the check out counter. Such a model allows comparing the user experience with both off line and on line booksellers in terms of five basic actions. Through the analysis of the user interfaces of some of the best known American and Italian e-commerce web sites, it emerges that the online booksellers sometimes neglect the human-computer interaction rules, and that only Amazon.com is testing any solutions really new in the construction of the user experience.