According to Icon Medialab, What Happens When Websites Fail the 'Usability' Test? Customers Don't Buy What You're Trying to Sell Them.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 2000

(...maybe they're sending you a message)

Up to 80% of all websites fail to pass basic measures of `usability,' including ease of use, effectiveness and efficiency, according to HCI (human computer interaction) experts at Icon Medialab - and most web marketers don't seem to know what to do about it.

Stefana Broadbent, Chief HCI Officer of Icon Medialab, and Tom Nicholson, Chief Creative Officer of Icon Medialab, a leading global e-business and Internet professional services firm, can address:

-- Why most websites, including both B2C and B2B, perform poorly on usability
tests - and how HCI experts are addressing the issue.

-- How usability problems affect the economic viability of individual websites
and the electronic economy in general - and how consumer and business users are
trying to communicate their needs to web marketers.

-- Why the complexity of usability is increased as soon as e-businesses target
customers across national and cultural borders - and how US companies aren't
moving quickly enough to leverage their technology and funding advantages.

Icon Medialab experts can also talk about:

-- Global challenges to e-business.

-- Integration of back-end strategies in local markets.

-- The role of branding in the development of effective

e-strategies.

Icon Medialab (www.iconmedialab.com) is the world leader in providing integrated e-business and professional services to companies doing business globally. Recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of the world's pioneering new technology companies, Icon Medialab helps clients attain competitive advantage and generate long term value by utilizing the power of emerging technologies to build stronger, more profitable relationships with customers, business partners, employees, suppliers and shareholders. Icon Medialab delivers on the promise of the New Economy with more than 2,000 employees deployed in 19 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. As a recognized leader in HCI and wireless applications, the company has developed and executed award-winning programs for such clients as Fujitsu, L'Oreal, Motorola, Nestle, Opel, Siemens, Sony, Tetra Pak, Telia, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Volkswagen. Founded in Sweden in 1996, Icon Medialab's stock is traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (ICON).