Abstract: Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) research has significantly contributed to the field of Management Information Systems (MIS or IS) through the study and exchange of knowledge on the interaction between humans and technology (Zhang & Li, 2005). As a sub-field of IS with a rich, cross-disciplinary foundation in areas such as computer science, communication, psychology, sociology, management and human factors engineering, HCI research has contributed to theory development, methodological refinement and empirical investigation. HCI researchers have produced some of the most constructive and actionable research pieces in the IS field to date as summarized by Zhang et al. (2009). An understanding of HCI principles is also a highly valued competency in technology personnel (Brandel, 2007). The Special Interest Group on Human–Computer Interaction (SIGHCI) was one of the six original special interest groups affiliated with the Association for Information Systems (AIS) in 2001. As one of the largest and more active special interest groups, SIGHCI provides a forum for AIS members to share, discuss and advance topics related to the interaction of humans, technology and tasks in a wide range of organizational and social contexts. SIGHCI pursues the stated goals of supporting the exchange of information on HCI topics and the advancement of HCI research among AIS members and the larger HCI community by organizing numerous tracks and minitracks at the major IS conferences, sponsoring journal special issues, and disseminating information about the SIGHCI activities through a comprehensive web site (http://sigs.aisnet.org/SIGHCI/), two annual newsletters and the SIGHCI listserv. AIS SIGHCI also collaborates with similar organizations in other disciplines, such as the Association for Computing Machinery's Computer-Human Interaction group (ACM SIGCHI), that are actively engaged in the exchange of knowledge related to the interaction between humans and technology. This special issue is the eighth in a series of special sections and issues resulting from meetings organized and sponsored by AIS SIGHCI, including HCI tracks, minitracks and sessions at the America's Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Hawaii International Conference System Sciences (HICSS), the International Conference on Human–Computer Interaction (HCII), the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), and the Pacific-Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), and the Pre-ICIS workshops on ‘HCI research in MIS’. Special issues and sections sponsored by AIS SIGHCI have been published or are underway in the International Journal of Human–Computer Studies, Journal of Association for Information Systems, Behaviour and Information Technology, Journal of Management Information Systems, International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction and DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems. These special sections and issues feature the most current research on HCI topics and provide a collection of papers covering diverse research methodologies and contexts. The papers for this Information Systems Journal (ISJ) Special Issue represent the expanded and revised versions of the best papers from the HCI Tracks at AMCIS '06, ECIS '06 and PACIS '06. A total of 129 papers was submitted to these conferences, of which 62 were accepted for presentations. Eight of these accepted papers were selected to participate in the fast-tracking process with the authors submitting extended versions of their conference papers based on feedback from the conference reviewers and participants. After two rounds of rigorous peer review and editorial feedback from the special issue guest editors, five papers were accepted for this special issue of ISJ. Together, AIS SIGHCI and ISJ present the papers in this special issue as representative state-of-the-art thinking in HCI, building on our field's long and rich past. A brief summary of these papers follows. In the paper ‘From generative fit to generative capacity: exploring an emerging dimension of information systems design and task performance’, Michel Avital and Dov Te'eni introduce and develop ‘generative fit’ and ‘generative capacity’ as two related design objectives in an information systems context. The authors explain the role and impact of generative fit on performance and provide key design considerations to enhance generative fit. Generative capacity is discussed from various theoretical perspectives and is positioned as a form of task-related performance. An illustrative vignette is presented to explicate these related concepts and the positive outcomes that may be achieved when good generative fit is obtained. An earlier, abridged version of this paper received the Best Paper Award at ECIS '06. The paper ‘Antecedents of flow in online shopping: a test of alternative models’ was coauthored by Yi Maggie Guo and Marshall Scott Poole. In this experimental study, the original formulation of the flow model including the preconditions of user skill, goal clarity and feedback is tested in an online shopping context with different levels of web site complexity. The results support the second-order structure of flow with six dimensions (concentration, perceived control, mergence of action and awareness, transformation of time, transcendence of self and autotelic experience) and suggest that web site complexity affects flow through the mediating effects of the three preconditions of flow. In the paper ‘User behaviour towards protective information technologies: the role of national cultural differences’, the authors, Tamara Dinev, Jayhun Goo, Qing Hu and Kichan Nam, examine the cross-cultural differences between South Korea and the United States in user behaviour towards protective information technologies. Using anti-spyware technology as a form of protective information technology, they found that cultural factors did moderate the relationships in a model of behavioral intention to use this technology. Korean computer users exhibited a stronger relationship between subjective norm and behavioral intentions and the role of awareness was much stronger in the U.S. computer users. The findings suggest that cultural factors should be considered in the design of information security policies, practices and technologies when multiple cultures coexist. The paper titled ‘Applying relationship theories to web site design: development and validation of a site-communality scale’ was coauthored by Daniel Tomiuk and Alain Pinsonneault. The study examines the use of relationship theories in the design of web sites to encourage loyalty. Through the examination of over 300 participants, they developed a measure called Site-Communality that describes a close relationship between a web site and the user of that site, beyond a functional, commercial exchange. The findings impact design research along the dimensions of trust and loyalty and suggests ways to design sites with high communality. In the paper ‘Online ads in familiar and unfamiliar sites: effects on perceived website quality and intention to reuse’, authors Scott McCoy, Andrea Everard, and Eleanor Loiacono report on an experimental study of online ads. This e-commerce study investigates the effect of pop-up ads and web site familiarity on user perceptions of web site quality and intentions to revisit the sites. Two ‘real’ web sites, one familiar and one unfamiliar, are examined in the experiment with the presence (absence) of online ads. The findings suggest that online ads have a detrimental effect on the perceived quality of unfamiliar sites, but that the perceived quality of familiar sites may not be affected by such ads. We thank the Editors-in-Chief of ISJ, Dr Guy Fitzgerald and Dr David Avison, for their support with this special issue. We greatly appreciate the timely and insightful feedback provided by the following reviewers: Peter Bak, Richard Burkhard, Damon Campbell, Suranjan Chakraborty, Dianne Cyr, Rick Downing, Michael Gallivan, Andrew Gemino, Shirley Gregor, Milena Head, Bernard Jansen, Chuck Kacmar, Dongmin Kim, David Paradise, Renee Reitsma, Heshan Sun, Horst Treiblmaier, Ozgur Turetken, Anne Washington and John Wells.