Characteristics of virtual experience in electronic commerce: A protocol analysis

This protocol analysis examines the content of virtual experience in e-commerce, as concurrently verbalized by a sample of 30 participants while interacting with four 3-D products. Thirteen different types of psychological activities were observed and classified into five characteristics of virtual experience: active process, presence, involvement, enjoyment, and affordances. As a result, virtual experience is vivid, involving, active, affective psychological states occurring in an individual interacting with 3-D computer simulations. The study anchors the position of virtual experience on the spectrum of consumer experience with design implications in e-commerce discussed.