HCI International News, Number 4, June 2004

In this Issue

HCI in the People's Republic of China

China is evolving not only as a country of cheap labor, but also a country where revolutionary progress and innovations are taking place in the information technology area in general and in HCI specifically. China is "hungry" for knowledge and expertise in the HCI area. The information technology industry is using heavily HCI professionals in general and usability evaluation and testing specifically.

Industries, such as IBM and Microsoft, have major research facilities in Beijing. A lot of the HCI work for industries is carried out in universities. One of the more active ones is the usability laboratory at Tsinghua University.

The first original book publication in Chinese on HCI was published in 2003 (Doung J., Fu P. and Salvendy G, entitled "Human-Computer Interaction: User Centered Design and Evaluation", published by Tsinghua Press) and the first printing is promptly sold out. Over three million viewers paid to watch a one-hour national televised lecture on Ergonomics and HCI, presented by Gavriel Salvendy. High level discussions with government agencies have been initiated to establish a national IT usability evaluation and testing laboratory in which IT products and services imported to China, exported from China or produced in China for the home market would have to go through testing and evaluation before they could enter the marketplace. Each IT product and service would be assigned an index of usability, thus empowering the consumer to make informed decisions. Perhaps this would pressure corporations to increase their emphasis on HCI related R&D, where currently IT companies spend less than one percent of their revenue. If we are to produce truly outstanding products and services that are not only easy but also joyful to use by all segments of society, then this needs to be increased to three percent.

Gavriel Salvendy, Ph.D
Chair, Professor and Head of the Department of Industrial Engineering,
Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China, and
Professor of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University

Book Review: Handbook of Cognitive Task Design

Everything you always wanted to know about cognitive task analysis or "cognitive systems engineering" is collected and selected by Erik Hollnagel in "Handbook of Cognitive Task Design". The 31 sections of this book are written by leading researchers from all over the world. As a comprehensive source of techniques, models, and methods for cognitive task design, it provides extensive reviews of theory, tools, techniques, and discussion that are indispensable to researchers and practitioners in this discipline.

The importance of cognitive task design has grown parallel to the changes in the nature of human work from manual to more cognitive. Professor Hollnagel notes in the introductory Chapter that "many manual tasks have disappeared, while new cognitive tasks have emerged. For those manual tasks that remain, technology has often changed them considerably." Design methodology must take in consideration these fundamental changes. Handbook of Cognitive Task Design proposes,"a new perspective on system design as a necessary first step".

The content finely groups contributions into three parts: Theories, Methods, and Field Studies with a variety of topics in each part. The diversity of the papers, the adequate depth, and the extensive bibliography make the book useful to anyone involved in the field of work and product design.

Handbook of Cognitive Task Design
edited by Erik Hollnagel,
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publisher, 2003, 808 pages

A.M.

Abstract submission for HCI International 2005 is now open

Abstract submission for paper contributions for HCI International 2005 and the affiliated Conferences is now open through the Conference Management System (CMS).

Prospective authors will need to create their individual account by filling-in an Account Signup Form with the CMS in order to proceed with abstract submission. Once they have created their account, they can login into the CMS and submit an abstract, view their submission(s), and update their account and contact information. Registration to the Conference will also be available through the CMS at a later stage.

Plan Your Participation in the HCI International 2005 Exhibition Early

HCI International, one of the most important and major international scientific conferences in the area of Human - Computer Interaction, will be held in Las Vegas, the "Entertainment Capital of the World" in USA, 22-27 July 2005.

HCI International Conference gathers over a thousand scientists, academics and professionals, representing research institutions, universities, and companies from all over the world. HCII 2005 will be held in one of the most famous hotel facilities, "Caesars Palace" of Las Vegas, which is one of the most exciting and best executive exposition location in the USA.

HCII 2005 intends to attract a variety of related product and technology companies in its Exhibition.
We have created a very attractive package for early registration at the Exhibition.

Exhibitors who have committed to exhibit early will have a better opportunity in booth location selection and very attractive pricing, plus the opportunity to be listed in the Advance Program that the will be distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact Dr. Abbas Moallem, Communication and Exhibit Chair.

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.

Contribute to HCI International Newsletter

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 contribution for upcoming issues. Please send your contribution to the Editor Dr. Abbas Moallem.

Interesting Recent Articles

• "Welcome to the Global Village: Some Considerations for Doing Usability in the Global Markets", UI Design Update Newsletter, March 2004.
• "Productivity in the Service Economy", Alertbox, March 29, 2004.
• "Top 10 Reasons to Not Shop On Line", AskTog, January 2004.
• "Build a Web site for Macromedia Contribute users", Builder.com, April 29, 2004.
• "Why Mobile Phones are Annoying", Alertbox, April 12, 2004.
• "How India is saving capitalism", salon.com, April 1, 2004.
• "The New Face of the Silicon Age: How India became the capital of the computing revolution", Wired Magazine, Issue 12.02 - February 2004
• "B2B: Help Your Fans Convince Their Bosses", Alertbox, April 26, 2004.
• "Remote Contextual Inquiry: A Technique to Improve Enterprise Software", Boxes and Arrows, April 19, 2004.
• "Change the Color of Visited Links", Alertbox, May 3, 2004.
• "Terminology Made Simple", Ease of Use Newsletter, May 3, 2004.
• "Ethnographic methods: What anthropology teaches us about effective usability research", Ease of Use Newsletter, May 3, 2004.
• "Tell me the story... The unifying role of scenarios in conceptual design", UI Design Update Newsletter, April, 2004.
• "Guidelines for Visualizing Links", Alertbox, May 10, 2004.
• "On Increasing the Reliability and Effectiveness of Heuristic Evaluation", May 2004, Volume Three, Issue Four.
• "Design Eye for the Usability Guy", DESIGNBYfire May 18, 2004.
• "Thirty Years With Computers", Alertbox, May 24, 2004.

Upcoming Conferences and Events in HCI Area

• June 1-3: IDC 2004, 3rd International Conference on Interaction Design & Children, Maryland, USA.
• June 3-5: NIME 2004, International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Hamamatsu, Japan.
• June 3-5: ACE 2004, International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, Singapore.
• June 7-11: UPA 2004, 13th Annual Conference of the Usability Professionals' Association, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
• June 8-10: TP CG 04, Theory and Practice of Computer Graphics 2004, Bournemouth, UK.
• June 24-26: TIDSE 2004, 2nd International Conference on Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment, Darmstadt, Germany.
• June 27 - July 1: Catac '04, Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology And Communication, Karlstad, Sweden.
• June 28-29: 8th ERCIM Workshop "USER INTERFACES FOR ALL", Eschenbach, Vienna, Austria.
• June 29 - July 2: WWCS 2004, 7th International Conference on Work With Computing Systems, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• June 29 - July 2: APCHI 2004, The sixth Asian Pacific Conference on Computer Human Interaction, Rotorua, New Zealand.
• July 8-10: Sixth Annual International Workshop on Internationalisation of Products and Systems (IWIPS 2004), Vancouver, Canada.

Previous Issues of the HCI International NEWS

• April 04: "Invitation to participate in the inaugural International Conference on Augmented Cognition in conjunction with HCI International 2005"
• January 04: "Breadth, Depth, and the Future of HCI"
• November 03: "Usability and Internationalization" - HCII 2005 Program

About HCI International NEWS

The HCI International NEWS is a newsletter about Human - Computer Interaction topics, the HCI International 2005 Conference deadlines and activities, the HCI International 2005 Exhibition, news in the area of HCI, tips and techniques in preparing effective presentation for publication and more. If you have any questions or comments, or if you want to contribute, please contact the Editor, Dr. Abbas Moallem. The opinions that are expressed in this newsletter are sole responsibility of their authors and do not represent any institution or company.