Paper Calls

Submissions have now
closed for all categories

Original call for papers (pdf)

Original Call for participation - overview

You are invited to participate in HCI 2003: Designing for Society, the 17th annual HCI conference from the British HCI Group. As advances in computing and communications technologies extend the human-computer interface beyond the desktop and into our clothes, streets and buildings, mobile and pervasive applications provide exciting challenges and opportunities for all of us.

How do we design for usability when human-computer interaction is dispersed and interwoven throughout our environment? How do we interact successfully with and through devices and networks with many form factors? How do we design these applications, devices and networks? How do we manage the intellectual, commercial and social benefits and impacts of pervasive technologies? How can we understand and account for the web of influences amongst society,environment and technology?

Under the theme of Designing for Society, the HCI 2003 conference provides a forum for you to tackle these and many related issues. The conference includes an exciting range of presentations, panels, workshops, tutorials, interactive demonstrations and opportunities to interact with fellow researchers, practitioners, educators and users.

Conference Themes

The conference theme of Designing for Society is reflected in a range of issues. Mobile and pervasive computing and communications technologies are driving the expansion of human-computer interaction from the office desktop environment to our homes, our pockets and our streets. But are these developments reaching throughout society? Relevant issues include designing for accessibility by different social groups, by users with disabilities, and by different age groups, including the very young and very old. E-government will play a crucial symbiotic role in many of these developments. Similarly, industry has a critical role. Pervasive computing and communications systems will continue to be developed and rolled out largely by commercial companies. It is crucial both to their commercial success and to society’s wider use of these systems that business models identify the ‘killer apps’, the interactive applications that will provide clear benefits to many kinds of user. In turn, sound HCI design will underpin the usability and success of the applications, technologies and business models. HCI 2003: Designing for Society will help us to consolidate and to advance the state of the art in HCI design.

Conference Topics

Submissions on all areas of HCI are invited, but we strongly encourage submissions addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by our theme “Designing for Society”. Relevant topic areas include
but are not limited to:

• Mobile usability;
• Pervasive computing;
• Interaction techniques on the street;
• E-government;
• Widening access to technologies;
• Users with special needs;
• Designing for different age groups;
• Business models for mobile systems;
• Designing across cultures and societies;
• HCI and other professional communities.

In addition, contributions which advance the theory or practice of any aspect of HCI are welcomed.

Accessibility

It is an important objective of HCI 2003, to integrate research contributions about Assistive Technology, and the participation of Assistive Technology users, into the mainstream of the conference as a whole. The range of issues that might be addressed through research papers, or discussed in panel sessions or tutorials, is limitless. The list of topics below is provided simply to give an idea of the range and type of contribution that might be made, the conference welcomes contributions in any relevant area of current Assistive Technology research:

• What are the additional issues to be taken into account in the design and evaluation of technology to be used by disabled and non-disabled users in public places?
• How to design multi-modal systems to maximise their potential for promoting inclusion, and enhanced information understanding and navigation?
• What are the requirements and priorities for technology designed to enable older people to remain living independently at home?
• How to transform the single-user focus of the design of much Assistive Technology in such a way that it promotes inclusion and collaboration in work and social settings?
• What are the characteristics of successful accessible games design, and how can these be formulated into a coherent set of design principles, both for entertainment systems for users with special needs and for systems which promote inclusion?
• How to develop computer-based learning systems which are accessible, and remain engaging and stimulating to use?

The British HCI Conference Series

HCI 2003 is the 17th Annual Conference of the British HCI Group, a specialist group of the British Computer Society. Established in 1985, the conference has become the premier annual conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Europe. Attracting hundreds of researchers and practitioners from over twenty countries, its published proceedings (The People & Computers series) form an important part of the archive of HCI research. The HCI conference has always addressed the needs of practitioners and researchers through a balance of conference activities. Each annual conference has a theme, but submissions on any HCI topic are always welcome.