Mental models and online consumer behaviour

As the Internet evolves into a medium for communication, commerce and information gathering, marketers need to focus on creating an experience for a given task that is intuitive to users. Marketing on the Internet requires an explicit knowledge of not only the user's needs, but also the information necessary to meet those needs. Understanding and applying different models of presenting information, the ways in which the information will be used and the processes by which people think about that information will enable a more intuitive and compelling online experience. The current paper applies relevant research in economics, psychology and marketing to establish a method for analyzing and critiquing different cognitive paradigms.