HCI and the Web

Keith Instone, Bowling Green State University
Steven Pemberton, CWI

Sunday, April 14

Much of the success of the World Wide Web can be attributed to HCI issues: at last you can access the net without arcane command languages, and browsers use many techniques developed within the HCI community. However in the rush to provide information on the Web there has been much emphasis on "What's Cool", and little on "What's Good".

Similarly, on the technical side, there is a lot of emphasis on efficiency, security, internationalism, but little emphasis on the needs of the user: are there aspects of HTTP or HTML that could make things better for the user?

The goals of this workshop are to:

Identify areas within HTTP and HTML where the HCI community can usefully contribute to the development of the Web from the user's viewpoint.
Initiate a plan of action to get the HCI community involved with the technical issues of the Web.
Initiate an analysis of good practice on the Web, with the aim of providing an information source to users.
Continue discussion on the structure and content of information pertaining to HCI that we should be making available on the Web.

If you are interested in participating, please send a two-page position paper to the contact address below, detailing your interest, expertise, and research in the area. The position papers of selected participants will be used to draw up a more detailed program for the workshop, which will be distributed beforehand to participants.

This one-day workshop is limited to 20 participants.

Contact

Steven Pemberton
CWI
Kruislaan 413
1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands 
E-mail: Steven.Pemberton@cwi.nl
Tel: +31-20-592 4138
Fax: +31-20-592 4119

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