TOWARDS AN IMMERSIVE ONLINE SHOPPING INTERFACE USING RICH MEDIA AND XML TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

This research explores the effects and importance of incorporating realistic interfaces for electronic commerce portals in the hope of attracting more users to collaborate and shop online as they would in the real world. Many areas such as the importance of designing and developing interactive and anthropomorphic interfaces, user acceptance of electronic commerce as an alternative market for trade, understanding of the psychological nature of the consumers buying behaviour and how it affects online trade, as well as the problems associated with combining new and existing technologies to achieve seamless integration, were taken into consideration and extensively researched to find suitable components that should be incorporated into electronic commerce systems in order to make it effective and easily adoptable. The end result of the dissertation is a prototype completion of a front-side interface to the website of a mall that would be incorporating all the technologies and components researched in order to demonstrate and prove the importance of incorporating realism in commercial web interfaces to increase the acceptance and usage for online purchases.