- To bring together HCI and marketing professionals to share experiences that may lead to models, design guidelines and heuristics that combine the best of both worlds;
- To establish a continuing international dialogue and cooperation in this area.

The objective was to make this SIG as interactive as possible, through the following format:
- Introduction: 5 min.
- Moderated presentations/discussions: 80 minutes 4 speakers, 20 minutes each including a discussion of 10 minutes
- Wrap up and next steps: 5 min.

Speakers

Boyd de Groot, Satama
"Introduction: User or Consumer?"

John Burshek, NetRaker Corporation
"Understanding the Enemy"

Mike Lister, Netusability
"Market Research and Usability"

Aaron Marcus, AM+A
"Nightmares and Daydreams: Close Encounters with Marketing"

The SIG was attended by 100-120 people. The questions and discussions made the SIG very interactive and lively. Many positive remarks and comments were received directly afterwards also later through mail. The topic of HCI and Marketing appears to be of growing interest in our field.

SPEAKER ABSTRACTS AND SLIDES

"Introduction: User or Consumer?"
Boyd de Groot, Satama Amsterdam

Information and communication technology (ICT) is rapidly entering a mass-consumer market where more and more digital services and media are becoming available to anyone, anywhere and anytime. To face these new challenges the traditional focus of both HCI and Marketing needs to be widened to include aspects of each other’s field.

In this introduction we will briefly review the underlying principles of this trend of growing consumer focus. These principles seem to be typical for any emerging industry and, even deeper, its roots can be found in basic human needs and behavior.

Boyd de Groot is concept designer and competence leader UeX design at Satama Amsterdam. His background is in industrial design and software engineering.

Slides (PDF, 591K)

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"Understanding the Enemy"
John Burshek, NetRaker Corporation

While "enemy" may be too strong a word for the tenuous relationship between marketing and usability, make no mistake about it; marketing professionals and usability professionals see the world through VERY different eyes! Without an understanding of the difference in perspectives and how to communicate to the marketing professional within your organization or the organizations you consult with, there will continue to be friction and budgetary resistance to the needs of the usability professional.

We will briefly review the fundamental differences in thought between the two disciplines. Then we will illustrate methods we have used to accomplish marketing’s goals while maintaining the desire for "good" data for the usability professional. In order to walk this tightrope while minimizing the bloodshed, we did have to rethink, and re-engineer, the process.

Slides (PDF, 4349K)

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"HCI, marketing and experience design"
Sim D'Hertefelt, InteractionArchitect.com

HCI reduces people to users of technology. By concentrating on optimizing human-computer interaction it addresses the "how" question but neglects the "what" question: what can you offer that is valuable enough for people to consider using a product. Ease of use is only one argument in the return-on-investment evaluation that users make when they decide to use something. It represents the investment people have to make when they use a product. The other element is the return people get from using a product, or its usefulness. Usefulness can be rational: the objective gain in time, costs or return.

Sim D'Hertefelt is usability architect at IconMedialab in Brussels. He publishes on InteractionArchitect.com

Slides (PDF, 259K)

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"Market Research and Usability"
Mike Lister, Netusability Limited

A website can be more 'usable' for one person than another. A technology experienced customer will behave quite differently on a website compared to a less experienced person. A teenager will not wait nearly as long for a page to download as somebody much older. But they will do so if the motivation is high enough. To any interface design we use, we bring both our experience and motivation. When we combine market research models with usability testing we can optimize commercial websites for their target customers.

Mike Lister has been in the business of designing computer graphic applications for the last eighteen years. In a previous life form he was also an advertising art director. Combining these two experiences led to the development of Netusability software and the founding of Netusability Limited where he is the CTO.

Slides (PDF, 194K)
Notes (PDF, 19K)

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"Nightmares and Daydreams: Close Encounters with Marketing"
Aaron Marcus, AM+A

Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc., (AM+A) has been in the business of designing user interfaces, including information-visualizations and user experiences, for almost 20 years. The firm has worked equally well with representatives from engineering, marketing, business/product development, and users/customers. In that time, some disasters and successes (mostly the latter!) have emerged as user-interface designers encountered and engaged marketeers as well as engineers. Aaron Marcus will highlight a string of interesting (and exciting!) cases and explain briefly the clients (some remaining nameless), the products, the key players, the misunderstandings, the political struggles, the failures, the successes, and the lessons learned.

Aaron Marcus is president and founder of Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.

  Slides part 1 (PDF, 18K)
  Slides part 2 (PDF, 794K)