Here’s an update of the remaining things I noted at CHI Boston 2009 conference. I think it was a truly enriching experience.
I attended a few sessions on Mobile applications, on User Experience and on Application of Design in the Developing World.
There was a consensus on the call for HCI and User Experience to expand itself and reach out to communities where it had not been so successful. From what I felt, people are ready and willing to (budget permitting) to collaborate with researchers and local people who have a strong understanding of the locality and at the same time be an expert in HCI / UI / UXd/r. As I previously mentioned India did feature a lot during the presentations along with Africa. In fact in one session all the presentations were done in India. In Karnataka to be precise! Groups from universities in UK, Microsoft Research, and Nokia presented their works done in India on user research. There was a call for the expansion of the applications made for the mobiles for varying purposes. The UK group called for the role of Participatory Media in Community Development and its approach.
There were again some studies on voice based UIs, Text based UIs, and Rich Multimedia UIs. However one interesting thing was the focus on Semi-literate users. This was interesting as it allowed for the expansion of the UIs from the text only to graphics included. Rich multimedia UI was tried out, and there was a few projects done by people on iPhones (which I was not too impressed by). A person from UNICEF’s Innovation Division, in a panel discussion asked the HCI community for a 5$ mobile phone with easy interface to reach out to the millions in developing nations. I think that’s an interesting challenge.
There was quite a few studies and presentations on focusing on Children as potential users for the next generation of Interfaces. Perhaps this is an area that needs to be tapped, but I clearly saw this as being US/and the West focused as there are so many other issues to focus on in other parts of the world.
As mentioned earlier, Collaboration again was a common theme across the projects. Collaborating with local agencies (NGOs, Government bodies, Individuals)
On the User Experience point of view, one of the 7 Best Papers at CHI was a paper on “Trajectories (and the focus on Transitions) as a key to understanding User Experience”. This is unlike looking at discreet experience, which we mostly do presently. Interesting stuff.
Jeffery Bardzell (he is also one of my profs whose class I attended last semester) , whose talk must have gathered the most audience on the last day, stressed on the need for Interaction Design to embrace Aesthetics and Criticism and as a result better definition of the field.
Some other buzzwords were Co-Creation, Sustainability (yet again!!!), Transforming people’s lives, Media based learning etc. Health care and how HCI can play a role there was a messy discussion with varied opinions. Some for and some against.
The next year conference is in Atlanta. Unfortunately I will be in India and might not be attend it the next year. But this year’s conference was a great experience! I do look forward to see the HCI field growing beyond its present boundaries and applications. I think HCI as a discipline would grow much more rapidly then.
