Keynotes
Mary Czerwinski: The Bigger Picture for HCI (opening keynote)
Research shows that if you view information on a very large display, holding all other things constant, you will process that information differently, and with a deeper sense of immersion and anticipation for action. In this talk we will examine a select section of the past and present research in HCI under a microscope, hopefully gleaning a deeper understanding of what we’ve accomplished together as a field, and where we need to strive further as a scientific discipline. In addition to discussing mature as well as promising new research areas, I will highlight the various theories and methods that were used to drive successful user-centered design in those cases. Finally, I will conclude with a call to arms around the growing need for adaptive designs (for which we have few guidelines), more privacy research (due to the increasingly common sensing devices in our environment), and for in depth examination of how we could leverage digital memories to enhance and enrich our daily lives.
Mary Czerwinski is a Senior Researcher and Manager of the Visualization and Interaction Research group at Microsoft Research. The group is responsible for studying and designing advanced technology and interaction techniques that leverage human capabilities across a wide variety of input and output channels. Mary's primary research areas include spatial cognition, information visualization and task switching. Mary has been an affiliate professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Washington since 1996. She has also held positions at Compaq Computer Corporation, Rice University, Lockheed Engineering and Sciences Corporation, and Bell Communications Research. She received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Indiana University in Bloomington. Mary is active in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, publishing and participating in a wide number of conferences, professional venues and journals. More information about Dr. Czerwinski can be found at http://research.microsoft.com/users/marycz.
Ted Nelson, Oxford Internet Institute
Ted Nelson will present the afternoon keynote on the opening day. Ted has been confronting conventional notions of how humans interact with information through technology for over forty years, introducing words and concepts such as hypertext and hypermedia. He has been a thorn in the side of almost every other area of Computing, and we look forward to his engaging with the HCI community. His presentation may be, by turns, informative, provocative and infuriating - but certainly memorable. Ted is now a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. Ted's vision predates the Web considerably, and was a far richer concept, based on respect for the rights of the author, including version management and rights management. His 1974 book Computer Lib/Dream Machines became the handbook of a generation of computer pioneers.
Alistair Sutcliffe: Grand Challenges for HCI
In this presentation I will take up the conference theme in two ways. First by examining how HCI needs to develop intellectually to respond to the computer science grand challenges; and secondly by analysing how the impact of the considerable success we have already achieved can be leveraged for greater impact in the wider world. My perspective on the bigger picture will range from design challenges for socio technical, mobile and collaborative systems to examining HCI’s role the interactive system design process and software engineering. I will start by returning to previous conference plenaries, in particular Phil Barnard's call for theory motivated design in 1998, and elaborate this theme as the first grand challenge for HCI. I will review the history of theoretical endeavour and offer some reflections on the reasons why this tradition has failed to make a significant impact so far, and offer by views on how it could and should succeed in the future. To address the second theme, impact of HCI in the wider world, I will practice what I preach and take a theoretically motivated, but light hearted view on the state of the HCI community in 2005. In this theme a social psychological approach will be adopted to reflect on our community, its successes, failures, and impacts on the wider world. I will conclude with suggestions for future intellectual directions we might wish to take, and policies that the community might adopt to enhance its competitive advantage in the academic environment and the more demanding, competitive world of industrial design.
Alistair Sutcliffe is Professor of Systems Engineering in the School of Informatics, University of Manchester. He has been principle investigator on numerous EPSRC and European Union projects. He researches in Human Computer Interaction and software engineering with particular interests in interaction theory, design methods for multimedia, virtual reality, and web interfaces, usability evaluation methods, and design of complex socio-technical systems. He is on the editorial board of ACM TOCHI, REJ and JASE. Alistair Sutcliffe is editor of the ISO standard 14915 part 3, on Multimedia user interface design and has over 200 publications including five books and several edited volumes of papers. More information about Alistair Sutcliffe can be found at http://www.co.umist.ac.uk/hci_design/alistair-stdpage.htm.
Ashley Friedlein: Usability – Who Cares?
Just how important does the commercial online marketing and e-commerce sector think usability is? Sure, they’re aware of some legal accessibility requirements and some usability best practices, but how much do they really care? How important is it to them now and going forwards? How much are they prepared to invest in usability? And where will it fit into their development processes? And will they want to do it themselves or call on specialist help? E-consultancy.com has over 30,000 subscribers, all of whom are professionals working with e-commerce and online marketing, so Ashley Friedlein is in the ideal position to tell you the truth about how digital agencies and in-house e-commerce teams across all industry sectors really regard usability. It’s important to realise that usability is just one of the many things on the minds of these professionals, so you need to understand how and where usability fits into the bigger picture if you’re to succeed in providing specialist services to this sector.
Ashley is CEO and co-founder of E-consultancy.com which publishes research and guides on best practice online marketing and e-commerce. E-consultancy also runs events and training for leading e-commerce and online marketing professionals in the UK. E-consultancy has over 30,000 subscribers. Ashley began his internet career working on the FT.com web site and was then involved in launching the Marks & Spencer, Argos, Abbey National and Channel Five sites whilst Project Director at leading UK agency Wheel. As well as regular articles for the trade press, Ashley has also written two best selling books on web site management. Between them the books have sold over 40,000 copies worldwide and have been translated into French, German, Korean and Chinese. Ashley has also spoken at numerous international conferences, from the USA to Croatia, as well as trade events in the UK, on a range of internet and e-commerce topics.
Jackie Lee-Joe: The challenges of developing and implementing brand experiences
Jackie Lee-Joe, Head of Brand Experience for Orange (Global Brand), will deliver the second Industry Day keynote on Thursday afternoon. Jackie has worked across airline, retail, internet and telecoms industries. This has included the design and development of the inflight service experience with Ansett Australia, sponsorship and events for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, development of web strategy for marchFIRST and brand strategy and management for Orange.
