Designing Flow Experience on the Web: A Grounded Theory of Online Shopping Flow

Flow, the psychological state of deep focus while conducting a fluent activity, has been increasingly examined to explain web users´ post-adoptive behavior. The practical implications of flow on the web are supposed to result in a win-win situation for both users and website operators. However, to date there is little concrete knowledge or advice on how to design a website for flow. This study develops a grounded theory of flow experiences of the users of a large shopping platform, shedding light on the theoretical relationships between concrete realizable website design options, corresponding latent constructs, and the flow experience.