| Course | CIS 434 Internet Marketing |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 5 |
| Paper type | Customer interface design |
| Length | About 1,060 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for CIS 434 Module 5
Seven Elements, One Promise: Designing the Website and Messages of a Montana Fly Shop Around Trust
Student Name
Business Administration Program, Aspen University
CIS 434: Internet Marketing
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Seven Elements, One Promise: Designing the Website and Messages of a Montana Fly Shop Around Trust
Module 4 set three principles for Rattlesnake Creek Fly Shop's interface: meet each question where the angler asks it, spare first-time visitors the 400-pattern catalog and put a guide's name on everything the shop sends. This paper turns those principles into the website and messages a first-time visitor such as Dana will see. The shop's current site, built eight years ago, lists products by category and puts guided trips on a page that takes four taps to reach on a phone. The design below replaces it. The shop, its site and every number here are made up for this course.
The Seven Elements
The customer interface can be described with seven elements: context, the site's layout and look; content, what it offers; community, how users interact with each other; customization, how it adapts to each user; communication, how the firm and customer talk; connection, how it links to other sites; and commerce, how transactions happen. Each is designed below for traveling anglers.
| Element | Design for Rattlesnake Creek | Principle served |
|---|---|---|
| Context | Phone-first layout; today's river report and a Plan a Trip button at the top; plain photographs of real guides and rivers | Answer the question being asked |
| Content | Guide-written river reports by river and week; river-and-month kits; short videos on rigging the kit's flies | Answer the question being asked |
| Community | Client photo gallery tagged by river; a question board where guides answer within a day | Keep the guide's name visible |
| Customization | A My Trip page holding dates, guide, kit and packing list; returning anglers see their past rivers first | Never overwhelm a newcomer |
| Communication | Every e-mail signed by the angler's guide; text reminders before the trip; a winter note | Keep the guide's name visible |
| Connection | Links to the state wildlife agency's flow and regulation pages; two partner motels link to the shop | Answer the question being asked |
| Commerce | Booking with dates, price and deposit in three taps; kits added at checkout; secure card payment | Never overwhelm a newcomer |
Earning a Stranger's Trust
Dana has never heard of Rattlesnake Creek and is about to send a deposit to a small shop two thousand miles away. Gefen et al. (2003) studied people shopping at an online bookseller and found that intention to buy depended both on trust in the vendor and on the site's perceived usefulness and ease of use, the two beliefs of the technology acceptance model. Trust itself was built by familiarity with the vendor, by the belief that the vendor had nothing to gain by cheating and by visible structural assurances such as security and guarantees. Neither trust nor ease of use alone was enough.
The design gives Dana reasons on both sides.
| Trust signal | Where it appears |
|---|---|
| Real names and faces of guides, with years on these rivers | Trip pages and every e-mail |
| A clear price, deposit and cancellation policy before booking | Booking page, stated in one short paragraph |
| Recent dated river reports | Home page, updated daily in season |
| Membership in the state outfitters' licensing system, with license number | Footer and trip pages |
| Secure payment from a known processor | Checkout |
| Reviews from past clients, including critical ones | Trip pages |
Planning for Reviews
Chevalier and Mayzlin (2006) compared books' sales ranks and customer reviews on two large online booksellers. When a title's reviews got better at one store, it gained sales at that store compared with the rival store, and the effect of one-star reviews was larger than the effect of five-star reviews. Readers, in other words, paid attention to reviews and gave more weight to complaints.
The shop will ask every client for a review a few days after the trip, through the guide's follow-up message, and will display all reviews, not only flattering ones. When a review is critical, the guide or owner will reply publicly within a day, explaining what happened and what changed. A visitor who sees a thoughtful answer to a two-star review about high water may trust the shop more than one who sees only praise.
Referrals Over Advertising
Trusov et al. (2009) studied a social networking site and compared how new member sign-ups responded to referrals from existing members, to marketing events and to media coverage. Referrals had a much larger and longer-lasting effect: the long-run elasticity of sign-ups to referrals was roughly twenty times that of marketing events and about thirty times that of media appearances.
Most of Rattlesnake Creek's guided clients already come from friends of past clients, but by chance. The interface makes referral deliberate. After each trip, the guide's message includes a link the client can send to a friend; when the friend books, both receive a free box of a dozen flies tied by the shop, worth about $30 at retail and costing the shop about $9 to tie and mail. The offer is modest enough that it feels like a thank-you rather than a sales pitch.
Checking the Elements Together
An interface fails if its parts contradict each other. Three checks apply. First, voice: the community board, the booking page and the e-mails should all sound like the same guides, plain and specific, never like a large retailer. Second, path: every page should lead to the Plan a Trip button or, for returning anglers, to My Trip. Third, load: the site must open quickly on a phone with a weak signal, since many anglers check river reports from the road. The guides tested the current site from a pullout on the Blackfoot with one bar of service, and the home page took nineteen seconds to show anything useful; the new design keeps the first screen to text and one small photograph so it appears in two or three seconds even there. A test like this, done by the people who will use the site in the field, catches problems no design review would.
Conclusion
The redesigned interface turns the trip-ready promise into seven concrete elements, each tied to a principle from the experience design. Gefen, Karahanna and Straub explain why trust and ease of use must both be designed, Chevalier and Mayzlin why every review, especially a critical one, needs attention, and Trusov, Bucklin and Pauwels why a modest referral offer may do more than paid advertising. Module 6 adds the online and offline levers that bring anglers to the site.
References
Chevalier, J. A., & Mayzlin, D. (2006). The effect of word of mouth on sales: Online book reviews. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(3), 345-354. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.43.3.345
Gefen, D., Karahanna, E., & Straub, D. W. (2003). Trust and TAM in online shopping: An integrated model. MIS Quarterly, 27(1), 51-90. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036519
Trusov, M., Bucklin, R. E., & Pauwels, K. (2009). Effects of word-of-mouth versus traditional marketing: Findings from an internet social networking site. Journal of Marketing, 73(5), 90-102. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.73.5.90
Reading the CIS 434 Module 5 assignment instructions
Designing the customer interface is the subject of CIS 434's fifth module, and the paper typically asks students to plan a company's site and messages element by element. Your Aspen classroom's Module 5 instructions decide the scope; the shop and site here are fictional. Use a recognized framework such as the seven Cs: context, content, community, customization, communication, connection and commerce. Tie each element to the target customer and the experience design. Explain how the interface builds trust with first-time visitors. Address reviews and referrals. Show that the parts agree with one another, and back each design choice with research, referenced in APA 7 style.
How the CIS 434 Module 5 example is put together
The seven-element table runs from context, a clean, phone-first layout with the day's river report at the top, to commerce, a booking page with dates, prices and a deposit in three taps. Content centers on guide-written river reports and river-and-month kits; community on a gallery of client photographs and a question board answered by guides; customization on a My Trip page that holds the angler's dates, kit and guide; communication on e-mails signed by the angler's guide; connection on links with the state wildlife agency's flow data and two partner motels. Gefen, Karahanna and Straub (MIS Quarterly) support the trust design, Chevalier and Mayzlin (Journal of Marketing Research) the review plan and Trusov, Bucklin and Pauwels (Journal of Marketing) a referral offer giving both angler and friend a free fly box.
Where the marks sit in the CIS 434 Module 5 rubric
Interface papers earn their marks by covering every element of the framework and by showing how each serves the target customer, not by describing generic web features. This one designs each of the seven Cs with a specific feature tied to Dana's journey and the three principles from Module 4, then checks that the elements reinforce each other. The trust section applies Gefen, Karahanna and Straub to concrete signals a stranger can see. Using Chevalier and Mayzlin to plan for negative reviews, rather than hiding them, shows mature judgment. The referral design follows from Trusov and colleagues' evidence and is cheap enough for a small shop to sustain.
Common CIS 434 Module 5 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Many interface papers describe a website's look without explaining how each feature serves the customer and the strategy. Tie every element to the target segment and to a moment in the journey. Another weakness is covering only the elements a student finds interesting; a framework like the seven Cs exists so nothing is left out. Address trust directly, since first-time visitors to a small firm's site have no reason to believe it. Plan for bad reviews instead of assuming all will be good. Finally, check consistency: a casual community board and a formal booking page can feel like two different companies.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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CIS 434 Module 5 questions, answered
What does CIS 434 Module 5 usually ask for?
Aspen's CIS 434 covers the customer interface in this module, so planning a company's website and messages with a framework such as the seven Cs is typical. Check your Module 5 prompt.
What are the seven Cs of the customer interface?
Context, content, community, customization, communication, connection and commerce: the elements of a site's design and the relationship it supports.
How does a small website earn trust?
Gefen, Karahanna and Straub found trust and ease of use both drive intention to buy, so show real people, clear prices, secure payment and easy navigation.
Where can I find a free CIS 434 Module 5 sample paper?
One is posted here in full, covering all seven interface elements for the made-up Missoula shop plus a checklist of trust signals and a plan for answering reviews.
Do online reviews affect sales?
Chevalier and Mayzlin found better reviews raised a book's relative sales, and one-star reviews had a larger effect than five-star reviews.