Designing for usability of 3D configuration in E-commerce : Interactive design of 3D in web applications

Abstract: Mass production of consumer products is both wasteful and limit the consumers' power to influence the design of what they are buying. When shopping for a product, the customer must choose between a range of specific products with limited variations. What if the customer could make all the design choices, creating and buying the product according to his or her own needs? A 3D product generator holding a configurable model of a product was created to replace static content in online stores and give creative power to customers. This work aimed at creating an effective 3D product generator by evaluating how users experience the design of and interaction with it, and finding general design goals when introducing interactive 3D content in static 2D environments. A prototype of a 3D product generator in a generic online storefront was implemented in two iterations, improving on and evaluating the design through usability testing. The evaluation of the final prototype suggested that the interface was indeed effective in both design and interaction. This work concludes that user feedback is crucial to creating a successful user experience, which in turn is important when creating interfaces for product configuration.