Design and development of a social shopping experience in the IoT domain: The ShopLovers solution

In this paper the authors approach the Internet of Things field describing the ShopLovers solution as a tool to create an environment of interconnected objects through RFID/NFC technologies. The objective of the ShopLovers solution is to enhance sociability for customers and to empower social media marketing solutions for companies and brands. The prototype described here is the result of the collaboration between two laboratories of CATTID (Centre for Application of Teleservices and of Technologies for Innovation in Digital world), one dealing with ICT and the other dealing with Web and Mobile Usability. CATTID is a research centre within “Sapienza” University of Rome. After giving a technical overview on Near Field Communication (NFC) and Internet of Things (IoT) related scenarios, the authors explore the growth of Web 2.0, discussing the way it is changing communication between people and brands. Finally, the authors present the ShopLovers solution, describing both the architectural components and the design process which has followed a User Centered Design (UCD) methodology.