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“Choose with your eyes closed” instore shopping experience and spatial maps in visually impaired and sighted persons

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Abstract

The literature on the consumption patterns of specific categories of consumers, such as people with disability, remains limited to date. This study explored the explicit consumer experience of a group of visually impaired (VI) consumers in-store using behavioural and self-report measures. A VI and a control group explored three different product shelves and manipulated target products inside the supermarket. Behavioural and self-report data were collected in relation to three main different phases of the in-store shopping experience: (i) the identification of a product; (ii) the style of product purchase; (iii) the consumers experience. Results showed that in the VI group, accuracy and reaction time vary by product category. Touch was the sense that most guided VI group’s product recognition, but it was also found to be significantly used by the controls across product categories. Higher levels of disorientation, difficulty in finding products, and repeating the route independently were found for VI. The results could encourage the use of tactile touchpoints, braille maps or an initial guided exploration of the supermarket, to allow the VI to memorize the internal layout of the different product categories and allow them to shop independently. This paper extends the literature on the consumption patterns of specific categories of consumers, such as people with disability, that remains limited to date. It also represents the first in-store consumer research took place in Italy comparing Italian VI people with sighted consumers behaviour.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and feedback from the participants of this study, as well as the support of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, of “Dialogo nel buio” and of “Associazione Nazionale Subvedenti”.

Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International research center for Cognitive Applied Neuroscience (IrcCAN), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

    Michela Balconi, Laura Angioletti & Carlotta Acconito

  2. Research Unit in Affective and Social Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

    Michela Balconi, Laura Angioletti & Carlotta Acconito

Authors
  1. Michela Balconi
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  2. Laura Angioletti
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Contributions

Conceptualization, M.B., L.A. and C.A.; Methodology, M.B., L.A. and C.A.; Software, L.A. and C.A.; Validation, M.B.; Formal analysis, M.B., L.A. and C.A.; Investigation, C.A.; Resources, M.B., L.A. and C.A.; Data curation, L.A. and C.A.; Writing—original draft preparation, L.A. and C.A.; Writing—review and editing, M.B., L.A. and C.A.; Visualization, L.A.; Supervision, M.B. and L.A.; Project administration, M.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carlotta Acconito.

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Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy and conducted in conformity with the Declaration of Helsinki. The research followed the tenets of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Balconi, M., Angioletti, L. & Acconito, C. “Choose with your eyes closed” instore shopping experience and spatial maps in visually impaired and sighted persons. Univ Access Inf Soc 24, 853–865 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-024-01115-0

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