Social commerce - A user-centered design approach

Abstract: Social commerce (s-commerce) is a new paradigm for electronic commerce (e- commerce) where sociability, such as reviews and forums, is introduced into the e-commerce context. Previous research point to s-commerce design as a topic that needs more research, and that creating user-centered s-commerce websites is cumbersome and a hindrance for s-commerce adoption. The main research objective of this thesis was to investigate the result of applying a user- centered design process to incorporate sociability into an e-commerce website. How product characteristics influence s-commerce design was also investigated. Initially, a review of some of Sweden’s largest online stores was conducted. Drawing on the conceptual model found in the reviewed stores, a low-fidelity (Lo-Fi) prototype of a fictional e-commerce platform was created. Using a user- centered design process, sociability was integrated into the fictional e-commerce platform. In order to integrate sociability, comprehensive s-commerce design requirements were formulated and a participatory design session held. There- after, two design iterations were performed - each iteration concluded with a test. The final test of the prototype evaluated usability, as well as other impor- tant s-commerce aspects, such as trust. The final test revealed that a user-centered design process could be suitable for s-commerce design, as the prototype fulfilled many criteria important within the s-commerce context. Furthermore, the result from the participatory design session indicates that product characteristics influence s-commerce design. How- ever, the prototype was not tested in production, none of the evaluations have statistical significance and some s-commerce aspects were not evaluated.