HCI 2006: New Forums for Arts HCI Research born

HCI 2006 saw two launch events among its workshop days this year. Since both were interesting developments in terms of direction, but neither dealt exclusively with usability or user-centred design, they will form part of the general introduction to this week's news, below, which specialises in reports from the workshops at HCI2006.

The rest of the week will feature a workshop a day and report on the conclusions that delegates at each came to. The diverse range included two separate days devoted to designing for older people; a day on usability for science interfaces; emotion in design; career paths for female academics in HCI; and meeting the challenge of recording and analysing data.

However, by far the most glorious and elaborate event preceding the main conference, was a conference in its own right. (re)Actor: the First International Conference on Digital Live Art, led by Jenn Sheridan of Lancaster University and Alice Bayliss of the University of Leeds, focussed on HCI, computing and club art: 'mobile, avant garde art, the kind not typically put in a theatre'. 22 papers, 12 installations and 10 performances (some impromptu) took over the staid but elegant Octagon at Queen Mary, University of London. It brought in several people from the States, including the designers of a giant ray-like suspended robot that swooped over the hall and was later customised to dance just over the heads of attendees for the evening session. As well as hosting stunning displays, like the jugglers with light, ReActor addressed the serious issue of evaluation of art, and determining value from an HCI perspective. The full line-up can be seen at http://www.digitalliveart.co.uk/.

Some eight hours after one set of artists had left, another group were coming in to putt up the interactive exhibition that accompanied the First Symposium on Culture, Creativity and Interaction Design. The multiple screens of the club setting gave way to more retiring works like the 16 quiet pictures on easels that murmured about their production, breathed softly and echoed with the sounds of the sea. Led by Leonardo Network member Chris Newell of the University of Hull and supported by an artist who had never worked with digital media and a poet, the piece was a truly interdisciplinary collaboration featuring a coastal landscape as it progresses from dawn to night.

The symposium itself brought together six presenters on aspects of interaction, topped and tailed by keynote talks from the new media theorist Jay David Bolter of the at the Georgia Institute of Technology, speaking on "Aura and Interaction Design", and philosopher of technology Andrew Feenberg of Simon Fraser University in Canada addressing "Culture and design: The view from Technology Studies". The event was the culmination of two years of the Leonardo Network, funded by the UK's EPSRC under its culture and creativity call to look at how arts and humanities theory and practice can be used in interaction design. Peter Wright, newly of Sheffield Hallam University, led the symposium's organisation, while UN editor Ann Light took responsibility for marshalling the artworks, the development of which had been supported by the network as a way of encouraging interdisciplinary working, reflection, and discussion around practice. For more details of all the exhibits and the history of their creation, visit the network's blog at http://www.leonardonet.org/wordpress.

Associated Link: HCI2006

Online poker company uses Science to assess Player Preferences
Source: Recentpoker.com, 8 January 2009
 
Working with customer experience consultancy Foviance, PKR is exploiting the benefits of electroencephalography (EEG) technology to gather information on poker players' emotional relationship with a brand or service.

Do Users really love Laptops?
Source: channelinsider, 7 January 2009
 
More than one-fifth of all laptop computers will break down over the course of their life, and other limitations frustrate their users. From this list of user complaints come laptop opportunities.

User Interviews - Analysis Simplified
Source: Webcredible, 6 January 2009
 
You’ve conducted your user interviews, but now you need to make sense of all that information you’ve gathered.

Why Products Fail
Source: ComputerWorld, 5 January 2009
 
Most gadget and software makers don't understand what users want most: control.

How to Design Websites for Mobile Phones
Source: stemkoski.com, 3 January 2009
 
Tips from Ryan Stemkoski's web design blog.

Pioneer of Cyberspace honoured
Source: BBC, 2 January 2009
 
A professor who invented a forerunner of the world wide web has been made a dame in the New Year Honours.

2008 in Review: Developments that rocked the world of User Experience
Source: Catalyst Resources, 1 January 2009
 
A look back at 2008 highlights some of the key developments that rocked the world of user experience.

2008: The Year Online
Source: MIT Technology Review, 31 December 2008
 
The business of social networking, cloud computing, and a flaw in the fabric of the Internet top the most notable stories of 2008.

Shoveling through the Spamalanche
Source: UN, 30 December 2008
 
A ‘Spamalanche’ of 3,000 emails will be waiting in your inbox by the time you get back to work. What can you do besides 'delete all'?

New guidelines boost Web Access
Source: BBC, 29 December 2008
 
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a new standard to make sites more accessible to older and disabled people.