Wednesday, October 3, 2001
Full-day Seminar, 8:30a.m.-5:30p.m.

Usability isn't just about doing the interface right, it's also about doing the right thing from a business perspective. If you've ever gotten frustrated trying to take a site with a flawed marketing concept and improve its usability, then this seminar is for you.

Although many usability professionals aren't familiar with account planning, it's the marketing side of the usability coin. Account planning is a research-based discipline based on the belief that customers themselves know what they seek and what messages are compelling to them. By conducting both audience and creative research, account planners ensure that a site's content, imagery, and features resonate with the users, even before the site is designed. In other words, account planning is about making sure the marketing messages are "usable" - or else the entire user experience won't be.

"Understand the user" is something that usability professionals advocate, but aren't always involved in. This seminar by imc² will describe many techniques for getting real data from real users such as diaries, interviews, cartoon tests, collages, focus groups, mask exercises, and more. You'll also learn about market segmentation, because part of knowing your users involves understanding how some are different from others. You'll learn what a "User Experience Brief" is - a simple story of truths crafted to inspire smart communication - why it's important, and how to write one.

The 6 experiential elements of a Web site (learning, doing, believing, becoming, entertaining, and belonging) allow you to you evaluate the online brand experience and assess the value of various site features such as games, testimonials, and personalization. Brand maps will help you understand not only your own site's strengths and weaknesses, but also those of your competitors.

You'll see a series of case studies to help you understand the techniques involved in account planning. You'll perform an in-depth comparison of the features, tonality, and visuals of Amazon.com, bn.com, and Borders.com. You'll map the online experience of Jaguar, Jeep, and Acura's web sites. You'll walk away from this session with everything you need to start planning your users' experience.

By the end of the day, you'll understand how to work with your marketing department from a unified perspective - bringing together the goals of customers and the business to create a successful site.

	You Should Attend If
	· you are a usability professional who'd like to become more proactive in the up-front process of understanding users and their needs. Those in Marketing will learn techniques to help in market research. And of course, actual account planners are also welcome! Related Seminars If you are interested in this seminar, on Monday you might enjoy either: Advanced Usablity Testing Methodology, or Driving Real Innovation with Customer Data

Register online or by calling 1-800-588-9855

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