HCI International News, Number 8, February 2005

In this Issue

Special Announcements

• Registration for HCII 2005 is open
• To ensure your accommodation at the conference special rate, please reserve your room now
• Posters / Demonstrations proposal submission is open till April 1, 2005
• When you register for HCII 2005, you can also
  subscribe to major professional journals or order books at a discounted price
• The Advance Program of HCII 2005 is now available (http://www.hci-international.org/)

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Invitation to attend HCII 2005

You are cordially invited to participate in all seven conferences for only one registration fee. In these premier international conferences, the latest advances and late-breaking news in all phases of HCI research, development, and practice will be presented by leading authorities from 48 countries.

A total of 4,763 individuals submitted their work for presentation at the Conference. Each submission was peer reviewed by three independent reviewers. Only those submissions which were judged to be of high scientific quality are included in the Conference program. A total of 1,764 papers were accepted for 252 parallel sessions (21 per time period) and 216 posters have been accepted to date for interactive sessions. In addition, 26 state-of-the-art tutorials will be presented in the three days of pre-conference sessions. These tutorials are presented by some of the most eminent individuals in the field, each with in-depth and broad, practical, diversified knowledge of their subject area.

Parallel paper presentations as well as abstracts of posters and demonstrations will be included in the Conference Proceedings, to be published in CD-ROM by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc (LEA). In addition, the Conference Proceedings will also be published on demand by LEA in a multi-volume book edition. Each Conference registrant will receive a copy of the CD-ROM, which is part of the conference registration cost. In addition, individual hard-copy volumes will be available for participants to buy at $99.

The HCI International 2005 will also feature relevant technology, products, and services. Attendees will be able to examine the latest in HCI products and technology, and will also be able to interact with manufacturing representatives, vendors, publishers, researchers, and potential employers. To date, 48 organizations are scheduled to showcase state-of-the-art products and services for users, professionals, and researchers in the context of HCII 2005 Exhibition. Finally, a variety of exciting sightseeing trips and social activities are also planned for the participants and accompanying persons.

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Book Review: Understanding Your Users: A Practical Guide to User Requirements, Methods, Tools and Techniques

This book, which is in essence a handbook, is one of the most comprehensive books of its type on the critical issue of understanding users for product and service design and usability testing; it is destined to become a classic.

The 14 chapters and the 10 appendices of this book cover the critical areas of understanding users. The chapters deal with the following areas:

• Introduction to User Requirements
• Before you Choose an Activity: Learning About Your Product and Users
• Ethical and Legal Considerations
• Setting Up Facilities for Your User Requirements Activity
• Preparing for Your User Requirements Activity
• During Your User Requirements Activity
• Interviews
• Surveys
• Wants and Needs Analysis
• Card Sorting
• Group Task Analysis
• Focus Groups
• Field Studies
• Concluding Your Activity

The appendices provide additional valuable and practical information including:

• Learn About Usability
• Vendors that Consult on Usability Lab Design, Sell or Rent Lab Equipment, or Build Labs
• Vendors that Recruit Participants, Conduct Usability Activities for You, and/or Rent Facilities to You
• Requirements for Creating a Participant Recruitment Database
• Affinity Diagram
• Computerized Qualitative Analysis Tools
• Report Template
• Glossary
• References

The content of this book should result in significant improvement in product and service design and usability evaluation.

The authors will present the content of their book during a one-day tutorial on “Understanding Your Users” during HCII 2005, which you are cordially invited to register for.

Gavriel Salvendy, Purdue University and Tshingua University
“Understanding Your Users: A Practical Guide to User Requirements, Methods, Tools and Techniques”
By: Catherine Courage and Kathy Baxter
Morgan Kauffman, Elsevier, 2005, $59.95. 809 pages – ISBN: 1–55860–9350

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Book Review: Ecological Interface Design

If you are a practitioner, student, or want to recommend reading material to your students about ecological theories in user interface design you might want to start with “Ecological Interface Design”. Burns and Hajdukiewicz provide a comprehensive description of theories, examples and case studies since the adoption of ecological interface design approach. Ecological interface design evolved from different theories that were not always easy to understand and sometimes difficult to implement in a rapidly changing, time-sensitive technological environment. This book is a successful attempt to provide a better understanding of theory and practice in this field. The examples and case studies are simplified (sometimes too much and without sufficient description), making the concepts very accessible to a border audience in addition to human factors professionals.

After providing a general overview of ecological interface design (chapter 1) the authors offer a very useful, applicable definition of many concepts, techniques, and tools in ecological interface design theory in chapters 2, 3 and 4. Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 provide presentations of several case studies from a variety of domains (chapter 5: Transportation, chapter 6: process control system, chapter 7: telecommunication, chapter 8: medical system, and chapter 9: social system). In chapter 10 authors tend to provide a comparative view of ecological interface design with other techniques including Task Analysis, Situation Awareness Analysis, GOMS (Goal, Operators, Methods and Selections), and Use Case Scenario Design.

A.M.
“Ecological Interface Design”
By: Catherine M. Burns and Hohn R. Hajdukiewicz
CRC Press, 2004. 307 pages. ISBN 0-415-28374-4

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Few Exhibition Booths still available at HCII 2005

A variety of related product and technology companies will exhibit at HCII2005 (see the list of Exhibitors).
Of the 55 Exhibition booths, 49 are already committed to a variety of state-of-the-art HCI technologies.
For more information, please contact Dr. Abbas Moallem, Communication and Exhibition Chair

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Sponsorship of HCI International 2005

Sponsorship is now open. Organizations wishing to sponsor a special event or to be a general sponsor of the Conference are welcome to contact the Conference Chair. For questions about the sponsorship program at HCII 2005, please contact Dr. Abbas Moallem, Communication and Exhibition Chair.

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Interesting Recent Articles

"Observer Effects in Usability Testing...or, how to collect data without messing it up" UI Design Update, November, 2004
"User Interface Design Compromise: Taking the Good with the Bad" Ease of Use Newsletter, December 2004
"Online bank fraud concerns consumers", MSNBC, Dec. 14, 2004
"People Aged 55 and Up Drive U.S. Web Growth", CliclZ Network, December 10, 2004
"All watched over by machines of loving grace: Some ethical guidelines for user experience in ubiquitous-computing settings", Boxes and Arrows, November 23, 2004
"Users Decide First; Move Second," User Interface Engineering.
"Yeah, but can you give me a reference?" UI Design Update Newsletter, December, 2004.
"Situate Follow-Ups in Context" Alertbox, December 20, 2004.
"Kodak Updates Its Brownie to Compete in a Digital Age", NY Times, December 27, 2004

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Upcoming Conferences and Events in the HCI Area

9-11 February: Designing, evaluating and using ubiquitous computing systems, 3rd UK-Ubinet Workshop, Bath, UK. 4-7 March: IA Summit 2005, The 6th Information Architecture Summit, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 10-12 March: Complexity in Design and Engineering, Workshop, Glasgow, UK. 18-20 March: VR 2005, IEEE VR 2005 conference, Pisa, Italy. 29 March-1 April: Web3D 2005 Symposium, 10th international conference on 3D web technology, Bangor, UK.

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Guidelines for the preparation of camera-ready papers

Camera-ready papers should be a maximum of ten (10) pages long. Papers over 10 pages will not be included in the Conference Proceedings, which will be published in CD-ROM by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc (LEA). In addition, the Conference Proceedings will also be published on demand by LEA in a multi-volume book edition.

All authors are kindly requested to follow the formatting guidelines for the preparation of their manuscripts. A template is also provided that can be used by the authors to prepare their paper. Authors are also responsible for obtaining permission from copyright owners for the use of lengthy quoted material as well as for all tables and illustrations (even if these have been adapted). For more information, please see Section 1.7 of the formatting guidelines. A Permission Request Form is also available that provides an example of a letter that may be adapted and reproduced as necessary. All authors are also kindly requested to complete and sign the Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Copyright Release Form and send it by 1st March 2005 to the Program Administrator by fax or scanned original signed form as an e-mail attachment. This could also be sent by airmail or courier to the address below:

Myrna R. Kasdorf
kasdorf@engr.wisc.edu
Department of IndustrialEngineering
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1513 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706 USA
Tel: +1-608-263-4025
Fax: +1-608-262-8454

The above information is also available at:
http://www.hci-international.org/submission/guidelines.asp.

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Reserve Caesars Palace accommodation by April 15, 2005 & Win

Book your Caesars Palace accommodation by April 15, 2005 and you will be eligible to win one of these fantastic Las Vegas Awards, compliments of HCI International and Caesars Palace!

• 1st Prize – Complimentary Double Bay Suite Upgrade (1100 square feet total)
• 2nd Prize – Grand Canyon Scenic Flight and Jubilee! Backstage Tour
• 3rd Prize – Chauffeured Limousine Service from the airport to the hotel and back.

A random drawing will be held on April 16, 2005 and the winners will be promptly notified. If you have already made your bookings and you win, then your total payment will be fully refunded.

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Previous Issues of HCI International NEWS

• December 2004: A Glance at the 48th Annual Conference of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
• October 2004: HCII 2005 Final Call for Papers
• August 2004: HCII 2005, the largest HCI International Conference ever
• June 2004: "HCI in the People's Republic of China"
• April 2004: "Invitation to participate in the inaugural International Conference...."
• January 2004: "Breadth, Depth, and the Future of HCI"
• November 2003: "Usability and Internationalization" – HCII 2005 Program

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Contribute to HCI International NEWS

We welcome your contribution to the HCI International News. Please send us interesting news, short articles, interesting websites, etc. We will consider your comments and contributions for upcoming issues. Please send your contribution to the Editor, Dr. Abbas Moallem.

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About HCI International NEWS

The HCI International NEWS is a newsletter about Human - Computer Interaction topics, the HCII 2005 Conference deadlines and activities, the HCII 2005 Exhibition, news in the area of Human - Computer Interaction, tips and techniques in preparing effective presentation for publication and more. If you have any questions or comments, or if you would like to contribute, please contact the Editor, Dr. Abbas Moallem.

The opinions that are expressed in this Newsletter are the sole responsibility of its authors and do not represent any institution or company

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