Customers’ mental models in e-commerce sites
This is the first of three blogs discussing Marcia Bates’ framework ‘Modes of Information seeking’ and how the modes apply to e-commerce.
One way to frame customers’ mental models is to use a framework like Marcia Bates’s Modes of Information Seeking, as a way to identify how a customer thinks of their interactions with the website and brand.
In this blog, I’d like to explain the model and then in the next blogs its applications for designing the information architecture of a site.
TOWARD AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF INFORMATION SEEKING AND SEARCHING by Marcia J. Bates, New Review of Information Behaviour Research, 3, 2002, 1-15.
Active and Passive
Active and Passive refers to the mindset of the customer when they are looking for information. Active customers are explicitly looking for information or products; Passive customers are waiting for the information to come to them.
Directed and Undirected
Directed and Undirected refer to the clarity of what the customer is looking for on the website. Directed customers have an understanding of the product space and know what they are looking for; Undirected customers have a need, but are unsure of the product space and need help exploring it.
Four mindsets of customers
From the model there are four mindsets the customers can be in when interacting with a website and brand:
Search
Browse
Monitor
Being aware
In the next blog, I will discuss search and browse in more detail focusing on the users’ mindset, behaviours and the Site features we design to support their needs..
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