Informal SIG:

**  The HCI of Internet Commerce **

ORGANIZERS
Markus Stolze, IBM Zurich Research Lab, [log in to unmask]
Patrick Steiger, IBM Zurich Research Lab, [log in to unmask]

PURPOSE
This informal SIG intends to bring together people interested in the 'human
side' of Internet Commerce.
That is, people who design systems for tasks like Internet shopping,
bargaining, buying, and
service consumption.
We assume that using the Internet for shopping and related tasks is
sufficiently different from
the information seeking tasks that currently dominate Internet use. An
indicator in favor of this
thesis is the appearance of tools like FOCUS [1]. Developed at GMD, FOCUS
is an interactive
table that merges retrieval and browsing mechanisms to optimally support
the task of choosing
an appropriate product from a large selection. During the introduction we
will give a short
demonstration of a product selection application based on FOCUS that
supports interactive
selection of travel insurance [2].
We assume that with the emergence of Internet Commerce more specialized
systems will be
needed to meet the specific requirements of shoppers on the Internet.

As part of the SIG we will:
- discuss the differences and similarities of information seeking and
shopping related tasks
  and how findings and systems related to information seeking tasks can be
applied to shopping
  related tasks,
- compile an agenda of HCI research issues related to Internet Commerce,
- compile a list of systems, interfaces, and interaction technologies that
address specific
  shopping related tasks,
- identify useful information and interaction patterns for shopping related
tasks.

References:
[1] Spenke M., Beilken C., Berlange T.: FOCUS: The Interactive Table for
Product Comparison
and Selection. In Proceeding UIST '96, Seatle, 1996, ACM Press, 41-50.
[2] Steiger, P., Stolze, M.: Effective Product Selection in Electronic
Catalogs. In Proceedings
CHI 97, (forthcomming)

TIME AND LOCATION
- TBA

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED
Please e-mail Markus Stolze, [log in to unmask]

_______________________________________________________________

  Dr. Markus Stolze                 email:     [log in to unmask]
  IBM Zurich Research Laboratory           [log in to unmask]
  Saumerstr. 4                      phone:     +41-1-724 8263
  CH-8803 Rueschlikon               fax  :     +41-1-709 0887
  Switzerland                  http://www.zurich.ibm.com/~mrs
______________________________________________________________