Feature: The Shape of Conferences to Come?

What makes a new conference series valuable? Topic? One would hope so. Format? Ideally, form should follow content, though conference design is not known for its radical chic. However, 2AD, the Appliance Design conference that has run for two years now at HP Labs in Bristol, did something fairly radical this year – it launched an "Appliance Bazaar". I went down there to test the new design.

I have great credentials as a conference tester – my job as a journalist has taken me to more conferences than even hardened exhibitors like academic publishers, while my research work has remained interdisciplinary so I often find myself in new research communities with their own take on the podium show-and-tell routine. In this case, I was a jaded conference attendee indeed by the time I got to 2AD, having burnt out at the multi-track CHI only a fortnight earlier. Flung over a wide area, with as many as eight presenters at a time in different rooms all discussing topics of high relevance to an HCI audience, CHI was full of interesting features I missed. I glanced at posters, zipped past demos, failed to take in student competition finalists and regretfully chose sessions with good arguments about process – mostly panels – over people showing off their latest design. Know the feeling?

Most conferences stage some kind of competition for your attention. Usually even single track conferences have posters and demos to rush to at tea break as a token acknowledgement of work that - for a range of reasons - isn't suitable for the big stage.

2AD's Appliance Bazaar started with more respect for these non-papers. It acknowledged the value of small group interaction; of experiencing process, rather than hearing it described; and of engaging the senses rather than only the intellect. 'Presenters' were challenged to go beyond showing, to involving. Some really did – devising micro-courses in 3D prototyping (see below), teaching people how to draw, discussing manifestos. The bazaar ended in an unscheduled and stunning performance by an exhibitor demonstrating her wearable computing installation about intimacy (more of this later) that had fellow participants gathering spontaneously, sitting open-mouthed and leaving with an unusual sense of completion.

Centre stage? The bazaar ran for a whole day in the middle of the conference. Sandwiched by talks on the two other days and competing only with the workshops, it was protected as far as possible from people not bothering to attend. Nonetheless, presenters were initially doubtful that they would be able to spend a whole day profitably in this way. Mostly, though, they agreed they had, even if new audiences trailed off towards the end of the day.

I spent the afternoon looking round and still missed some of the things I had intended to see: I could have spent longer. It was good thinking time, ideal networking time and I learnt something.

Was it particularly good for showing off appliances? Yes. It's very good for showing off products; but not just products. One of the process exhibits stole the show. Jennifer Rode, Eleanor Toye, Mark Stringer and Alan Blackwell of the University of Cambridge had brought plasticine, felt, pipecleaners and other easily available art supplies to demonstrate how low-fi 3D prototyping workshops can work. 'Only by holding an object in your hand can you get a sense of what it feels like to manipulate and operate the device. Understanding the physical affordances of an object is vital to understanding interactions between graphical and tangible components.'

Small groups of visitors sat down together to build devices, controllers, and so on and then explain them to others. In the fast, 20 minute, version on offer at 2AD, participants explained the intended functionality of the design on a card to be left with the prototype. They were then encouraged to make helpful critiques of others' designs, to be placed on further cards by the displayed creations. People could check back for feedback and modify their designs. By the end of the day there were some intriguing ideas and some constructive responses. (A fuller analysis of the work coming out of this department will appear on UN soon.)

Two other process-related displays were notable, though less interactive. Steve Gill from University of Wales Institute Cardiff had brought an innovation that makes it possible to connect a PC display to a simple foam-based prototype so that buttons pressed on the gadget were able to change the display state on screen - simulating physical interaction. Gill pointed out that most current ways of simulating interaction with digital appliances use the 2D displays of MS Powerpoint. Alternatively, the devices must require elaborate wiring, committing the designer to complex decisions before testing. The "IE Unit" being shown is still under development, but the newly launched Centre for Advanced Interactive Product Research at the institute is exploring combinations of hardware, software and design methodology that should provide a meaningful middle way between early 2D prototyping and late product mock-ups. Samsung, one of four industry collaborators, has already used the IE system to design a cooker and printer.

The third intriguing process-based display was provided by Froukje Sleeswijk Visser and her supervisor Pieter Jan Stappers of Delft University of Technology, who were showing the "Personal Cardset". Dealing with the gap between user researchers and designers, the cards are intended to communicate more effectively than written reports. Detailed analysis of the significance of the user's comments is avoided. Each laminated card gives a transcript of an individual user interview on one side and, on the other, highlights interesting details in such a way that a designer can annotate them. In tests, designers annotated them very little, but did find them a good spur to discussions.

Elsewhere, Mike Kuniavsky, formerly of Adaptive Path, was offering a Smart Furniture Sideshow, where furniture enhanced with information could be envisaged and discussed. Kuniavsky sees furniture as an underused platform, offering, as it does, familiarity, existing limited functionality and ubiquity. At worst if a smart chair stops working, at least it is still useful as a chair, he pointed out.

SkyBluePink were there with a delightful interface for young language learners they have been developing with Nesta Futurelab in Bristol using UCD techniques particularly geared to children. And Natalia Allen of Nternos Technologia de Moda was showing how a surfboard could incorporate WiFi to enable surfers to exchange information or alert lifeguards. Her work, collaborating with a distinct subculture to develop the system, finely balanced ease of use with offering enough control to make the codes acceptable to the community for customisation. For instance, the interface is visual; sound being too disruptive of mood.

It is impossible to do justice to "Ange" by Danielle Wilde here. By all means have a look at: http://www.interaction.rca.ac.uk/alumni/01-03/danielle/docs/ange.html and follow the link below to a blog with a good picture of Wilde, but don't expect to understand it without first hearing the creator discussing the concept, and then seeing it in action. It was for this reason that Wilde finally put on her costume and demonstrated... but only after we had all considered the social implications of a bodily mounted series of 'ribs' that play different breathy, clangy and more or less tuneful notes responding differently to different pressures. The translucent bodice, bare shoulders and full skirts in shades of dark pink meant that for the performance, Wilde was challenging most people's conception of a normal conference day. When she invited her audience to come up and play her, it was only women who accepted. And that was the point of it all: she was asking questions about personal space and intimacy, in a bold and potentially confrontational way, in an intimate way, in public space. Yes, she was talking at the conference the next day, but that wasn't going to be the same. At the bazaar, there was room for something more than analysis; experiences had their place too.

What did I take away? As well as thoughts and feelings about the exhibits, the sense of camaraderie was new to me. Spending a day together made bonds between presenters; the fun was palpable. Yes, some were hidden in corners and got less attention than they had hoped, and some had only something to show or a story to tell: nothing to distinguish them from regular poster/demo session presenters. But the ambience was different and the opportunity was there to collect groups of visitors and do something with them.

The next morning, we were all back in usual conference mode. There was the familiar mix of talks followed by short bursts of audience questioning. The keynote talks were high quality, as, reportedly, were the workshops, and Christopher Ireland's opening to the third day struck me as of particular interest to UN readers and will get its own write-up in the next couple of weeks. All well and good then.. but what has struck this conference tester is that as HCI moves from its cognitive roots to concerning itself with 'experience design', a shape like 2AD's bazaar becomes not just novel, but necessary.

Associated Link: See Christopher Ireland's blog of the bazaar

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