In response to several requests, the deadline for submission has been 
extended.


Call for Papers - Reminder - and deadline extension


In-Use, In-Situ: Extending Field Research Methods
http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/idc/in_use.html
27-28 October 2005.

Submission deadline 1 August 2005

Venue: BCS London, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, Covent 
Garden, London WC2E 7HA.

Organised by the Interaction Design Centre, Middlesex University, and 
the
BCS HCI Education & Practice SubGroup, BCS HCI Group.


The increasing complexity of organisations and systems of 
communication, and the fast pace of technological change and adaptation 
poses a challenge for researching the impacts (cognitive, social, 
cultural) of technology in-situ, in relation to design (purpose, 
intention, practice, and production). Typically, evaluation paradigms 
differ substantially as to whether they employ high fidelity scenarios 
and real users or whether prototypes are instead evaluated 
"analytically" by non-experts. These different evaluations usually 
happen, however, before the artifacts are introduced into the "real" 
world, and that, typically, is where evaluation ceases. This seems to 
be a serious limitation, considering the increasing diversity and 
complexity of computer applications.

For instance, mixed reality multimedia environments, where novel 
technologies meet complex activity in contexts ranging from air traffic 
control to performance art demonstrate the difficulties of anticipating 
how technology will be used in practice. The issues that are thrown up 
call for extending research on frameworks for assessing in-situ the 
social, cultural, cognitive impacts of these technologies once they 
have been in-use for sometime.

This workshop will explore the state of the art in field research, 
experimental work, and other methods and concepts relevant to designing 
and evaluating technology ‘in-use, in-situ’. An aim is to identify gaps 
and problems for the future development of design methodology. 
Researchers from domains spanning the social and computing sciences, 
engineering, design, humanities, sciences, will have the opportunity to 
both share their experiences and reflect on the fundamentals of complex 
socio-technical systems and human-centered technology.

The first day of this 2-day event will consist of a tutorial on 
‘Activity theory in the “fields”: Perspectives for thinking about 
design’ presented by Seth Chaiklin (Department of Educational 
Psychology,The Danish University of Education). The tutorial will 
introduce some of the concepts and principles underlying the Activity 
Theory approach and their application to the design and evaluation of 
systems.

The second day of the workshop will be a forum for discussion and 
presentation. We invite the submission of position papers on the theme 
of ‘in-use, in-situ’ evaluation. Papers should be no more than 4 pages 
in length and should be submitted by 1 August 2005. Position papers 
will be reviewed by a programme committee, and selected authors will be 
invited to present their work on the second day of the event.

Position papers will be distributed to workshop participants. Following 
the workshop it is anticipated that a journal special issue will be 
organised on the same theme, and workshop presenters will be encouraged 
to extend their papers for publication in this issue.

 

Research areas include, but are not limited to the following:

* Ethnographic or similar studies of technology in use
* Evaluation and validation of technology
* Assessing the impact of technological interventions on work and other 
systems
* Contextual and collaborative approaches to design
* Studies of cooperative work
* Tailoring and appropriation of technology
* Novel technologies and contexts of interaction


Submission

Submissions should be sent to: Paola Amaldi ([log in to unmask]) 
by 1 August 2005. Please format your submission by following the 
template provided at http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/idc/in_use.html 
(based on the ACM SIGCHI format).
Authors will be notified of acceptance by 2 September 2005.


Organising Committee

Chair: Paola Amaldi (Interaction Design Center, Middlesex University)
Satinder P. Gill (Interaction Design Center, Middlesex University)
Bob Fields (Interaction Design Center, Middlesex University)
William Wong (Interaction Design Center, Middlesex University)

 

For further information contact
Paola Amaldi ([log in to unmask])
http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/idc/in_use.html