Interview Sessions All-at-Once

Web and Web Design Limits to HCI

A Conversation with Clement Mok and Jakob Nielsen

Why are most web sites so unusable? Why do so many people lack the trust necessary for making a purchase via the web? Are branding and usability incompatible goals? What disciplines play key roles in the creation of meaningful and usable web sites?

CLEMENT MOK is Chief Creative Officer of Sapient and is founder of Studio Archetype and of CMCD and Net Objects. Creating meaningful connections between people, ideas, art, and technology is the focus of Clement's many design and consultative projects. Clement is author of Designing Business: Multiple Media, Multiple Disciplines.

JAKOB NIELSEN is a principal of the Nielsen Norman Group, a user experience consultancy. Until July 1998, he was a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer. Jakob writes the bi-weekly Alertbox column on web usability. Jakob's most recent book is Designing Excellent Websites: Secrets of an Information Architect.

Human Limits to HCI

A Conversation with Bill Buxton and Clifford Nass

What limits do humans impose on HCI? Are humans aware of these limits? What is keeping us from achieving greater benefit from technology?

BILL BUXTON is Chief Scientist at Alias/Wavefront Inc., as well as its parent company, Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.

CLIFFORD NASS is an associate professor of communication at Stanford University, with appointments in Symbolic Systems, Sociology, and Science, Technology, and Society, and is co-director of the Social Responses to Communication Technology Project at Stanford University. He has published extensively, including The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places.

Methodological Limits to HCI (with a special look at HCI and older users)

A Conversation with Wayne Gray and Bill Gaver

What do we really know about the relative benefit of the design and evaluation methods we use? What methods offer new opportunities? What opportunities exist for improving senior HCI? How do we find the methodological guidance we need?

WAYNE GRAY is Associate Professor of Psychology and Fellow of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, at George Mason University. He is currently head of the Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Program. His notable work at NYNEX's Science & Technology Center included the development and application of CPM-GOMS to telephone operator workstations.

BILL GAVER is a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal College of Art in London. He has worked on media spaces, affordances, and virtual physics at Apple Computer, Rank Xerox EuroPARC, and the Delft University of Technology. Now he is focusing on "provocative awareness," the use of technology for aesthetic and cultural interventions.

Organizational Limits to HCI

A Conversation with Don Norman and Janice Rohn

Why do organizations resist employing user-centered design methodologies? What forms does this resistance take? What can be done to avoid or overcome this resistance? Are any of the obstacles justified?

DON NORMAN is an executive consultant in human-centered design in the Nielsen Norman Group. He is former Vice President of Research at Apple Computer and Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego.

JANICE ROHN is Manager of Usability Labs and Services at Sun Microsystems and has been President of the Usability Professionals' Association. At a BayCHI program, Janice advocated the application of a user-centered design process to a company in order to achieve its user-centered design of HCI.