The TC13 Open Symposium on HCI is part of a series of events organized by the Technical Committee TC13 on Human-Computer Interaction of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).

Hosted by the University of West London in United Kingdom, this Open Symposium occurs before the Programme Committee meetings for the INTERACT 2023 Conference, organised by TC13.
It is a great opportunity for researchers, students and industrialists to meet and discuss hot topics on HCI with the IFIP TC13 representatives.

This is a scientific event free of charges, however, for logistic purposes, we kindly ask participants to register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ifip-tc-13-symposium-and-ifp-interact-23-pc-meeting-tickets-556563124287

For all your questions, feel free to contact the IFIP TC13 Secretary (Janet Wesson) or TC13 Chair (Paula Kotzé).

(09:45 – 10:15) – Coffee

(10:15 – 10:30) – Welcome

by José Abdelnour-Nocera (UWL) and Marco Winckler (Université Côte d’Azur, France)

(10h30 – 12h00) – Technical session 1

Exploring everyday physicalizations by Torkil Clemmensen (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark):
Abstract: This talk explores a few examples of everyday physicalizations encountered by a PhD student in a university setting. The talk builds on current theorizing in the large body of work on data physicalizations, some design, tangible interaction design, etc., which appears to say that having more interactive media than screens could be good. We report on a few auto-ethnographic examples of physicalizations that a PhD student encounters during hybrid work in a university setting. The findings are discussed in relation to other user studies of physicalizations. It was found that: 1. Everyday physicalizations in organizations do not look like HCI physicalizations design, and 2. How to go from user studies towards design of physicalizations is not clear. We end with proposing a research agenda for generating more user studies of everyday physicalizations.

Virtual, Mixed and Augmented Reality affordable and useful experiences in education and health by Paloma Díaz (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain)

Abstract: Immersive technologies, including virtual, augmented and mixed reality, offer many possibilities to improve our interactions in different domains. They are currently experiencing a hype boosted by the popularity of the metaverse, however not all the experiences that are being deployed are useful what can derive on underestimating the real value of these technologies. Novelty is not enough to guarantee technology acceptance, as it fades when then honey-moon effect declines. What is required is to support a sustained interest in their use by providing affordable and useful experiences. There is a plethora of scenarios in which immersive technologies provide unique affordances to learn, train or understand better, but this requires a careful design to take profit from the interaction affordances underlying such technologies. In this talk, I will focus first on the unique affordances of immersive technologies (physical, functional, emotional and cognitive) that can be exploited in areas such as education and health. In the second part of the talk, I will focus on strategies to turn immersive experiences from something sophisticated or only used for gaming to environments that improve quotidian activities. First, I will show some examples of affordable immersive technologies and then I will explore to the concept of democratization of innovation that involves engaging end users in creating useful scenarios of use. Codesign practices and end-user development tools can integrate end users and stakeholders into the ideation and design of meaningful use cases in which the full potential of the technologies is adapted to the needs and constraints of the real context of use. All the examples are based on the work done at the Interactive Systems Research Group that has been doing research in these areas for more than two decades.

Navigating through data-related questions and facts to build task-related annotated charts by Simone D. J. Barbosa (PUC-Rio, Brazil):

Abstract: Although visualizations are increasingly used in mass media outlets, creating adequate charts is still a challenge for many researchers, data journalists and even data scientists. In this talk, I’ll present a model and tool created to help in the creation of charts. The tool recommends visualizations based on data attributes and data-related tasks expressed in the form of questions, to help end users understand the underlying data, navigate through the recommended visualizations based on the questions they answer adequately, and create a visualization that is suitable for the task at hand. The tool also supports the annotation of the visualization based on some basic statistics calculated from the visualized data attributes.

(12h00 – 13h00) – Lunch break

(13h00 – 14h30) – Technical session 2

UCD Sprint: Fast Forwarding into the Future by Marta Kristín Lárusdóttir (Reykjavik University, Iceland).

Abstract: Integrating User-Centred Design (UCD) methods into the first phases of software development projects has its challenges. A new process called the User-Centred Design Sprint process, UCD Sprint for short, has been suggested by leading HCI researchers to support software developers and higher education students during concept design. The process consists three phases: Discovery, Design and Reality Check including 18 steps in total. The aim with suggesting the process is to help software developers at the early stages of software development to understand how the users could experience the software in the future. The process has been studied in several research studies and got positive feedback. In her presentation, Marta will introduce the process, and show examples of how it could be used. Furthermore, she will explain the current results on the usage of the UCD Sprint.

Biography-based Personalisation of Robot Games for Cognitive Training with the SERENI Approach by Fabio Paternò (C.N.R.-ISTI, Pisa, Italy)

Abstract: One of the goals of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions is to be able to stimulate the cognitive resources of older adults. A way to address such stimulation is the use of serious games delivered through humanoid robots, as they can provide an engaging way to perform exercises useful for training human memory, attention, processing, and planning activities. This talk presents an approach to supporting cognitive stimulation through exercises able to exploit information taken from personal memories under development in the SERENI project. The memories are collected through a multimodal app and are classified depending on their type. The humanoid robot can exhibit different behaviours using various modalities and propose the games in a way personalised to specific individuals’ interests, preferences, experiences, and motivations, which usually vary among older adults. Using information contained in the personal memories associated with facts and events that occurred in older adults’ life, the robot serious games can increase their interest and engagement in the exercises, and thus potentially reduce the cognitive training drop-out.

The representation of human-computer interaction and user experience in Wikipedia by Helen Petrie (University of York, United Kingdom)

Abstract: Whether we approve or not, our students (and colleagues) are probably consulting Wikipedia when they need new information, knowledge and resources about human-computer interaction (HCI) and user experience (UX). So, what is Wikipedia like for our area of expertise. In this talk I will review Wikipedia entries for a number of key concepts in HCI and UX from the very broad to the specific, for example user-centered design, usability, affordance, and gulf of execution. I will highlight the good and the less good aspects of the entries. I will also look at the coverage of key people in HCI and UX. Helpfully Wikipedia provides a category “human-computer Interaction researchers” with 146 entries. It is a strange list, with quite a few people I would not consider HCI researchers (not to say they are not excellent researchers in other areas), and a lot of well-known HCI researchers not represented. The representation of women (about 35%) is better than I expected, but the representation of researchers outside North America (less than 20%) is poor. This presentation will be a preamble to encouraging people in our community to become involved in editing Wikipedia. This is not a straightforward enterprise – Wikipedia is created and maintained by a very complex ecosystem (well worthy of study in itself) and takes a certain effort to understand and master. To support greater involvement of our community in Wikipedia, we will be running a Wikipedia edit-a-thon at the INTERACT 2023 Conference later this year. I will encourage people to start thinking about how HCI/UX entries in Wikipedia can be improved (even if they do not do the editing themselves, people could provide quality content to editors), to become Wikipedia editors, and to encourage their PhD students and young researchers to become involved as editors.

(14h30 – 15h00) – Coffee break

(15:00 – 16:30) – Technical Session 3

The gender gap in Computer Science – promoting the introduction of foundational concepts of HCI in high school programs by Giuliana Vitiello (Università of Salerno, Italy)

Abstract: Despite several initiatives being held to attract young girls towards STEM disciplines, the number of women who enroll in scientific or technological higher education programs is still low. In Italy, the average percentage of women enrolled in computer science first-cycle university programs in the last 5 years is around 10%, as in most other countries. In this presentation, I will report on a local study conducted at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Salerno, from which it appears that most high school girls believe that studying computer science only means learning to program and that programming is a man’s business. We have realized that the gender issue is not fully addressed by simply encouraging high school girls to take part in coding challenges, where academic mentors gently introduce them to programming. They should come to understand that Computer Science skills go much further and competencies in areas like HCI, where IT technology is made subservient to the good of the human being. I am therefore proposing that specific initiatives meant to introduce the foundational concepts of HCI in high school programs, may greatly help us attract more women toward computer science or information technology degree programs.

Usability of the graphical interface design for adrenal tumor communication between the endocrinologists and the patients by Jolanta Mizera-Pietraszko (Opole University, Poland)

Abstract: Interface system offers variety of functionalities decisive for the end user on its usability in terms of is the system for the user or otherwise, more training than advantages. Specifically, when designing a domain oriented interface, in addition to the conventional information layout, particular system components need to provide the knowledge adequately to the group of users such as endocrinologist, pharmacist, patient etc. In this presentation the focus is shifted towards isolation of certain aspects of the GUI design to the peculiar, maybe even to some extent distinguishing needs of the users’ group needs. Usability is evaluated on the popularity within the users’ groups measured by the number of their clicks, which indicate the blocks that require extension or improvements in the way suggested by the user. The fundamental assumption is that each group varies as to its specific needs such as the patients need to learn about their disease and the procedures, also those in progress, while the pharmacists expectation refer to the information on the medications, reimbursement by the Ministry of Health and how to order them, the endocrinologists prefer to be in contact with the system about the regulations, recommendations and the worldwide research in their field of the adrenal gland tumor management.

Towards a Research Agenda for Geopolitical Tensions in HCI by José Abdelnour Nocera (University of West London) (co-authored with Torkil Clemmensen, Judy van Biljon, Jan H. Kroeze, Xiangang Qin, Leonardo Parra-Agudelo)

Abstract: In this article we explore and discuss geopolitical tensions in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as a field of knowledge and practice. The tensions mainly emerge at two levels: (1) at discourses surrounding motivations for and the value of HCI as a sociotechnical field, and (2) at discourses surrounding concepts of HCI diffusion, maturity and diversity as articulated by global and local knowledge networks. These tensions are framed within different forms of democracy HCI has been associated with. The key notion of usability aims to support the citizens of a democratic society. Exactly how HCI should do this remains open for discussion and is subject to the geopolitical position of all actors involved. HCI is both shaped by and may contribute to the design of Marxist, deliberate, and cosmopolitan systems of governance, or other forms. Thus, geopolitical tensions in HCI are underpinned by contrasting models of democracy and governance; and by global, regional and national knowledge flows. In this article we develop and apply a framework combining Activity Theory with a Knowledge Mobilisation Framework to help identify, assess, and address geopolitical tensions in HCI: the geopolitical HCI knowledge mobilisation framework (GP-HCI-KMbF). We use this framework to analyse four case studies. We unearth geopolitical HCI tensions in the activity systems aimed at the Africanisation of HCI tuition and practice; Chinese interface design practice; narrative and methods for design inclusion in Colombia; and designing Africa-centric machine learning systems. In doing this we discuss patterns in HCI tensions and how to mobilise the knowledge to address them. Finally, this analysis exercise lead us to propose components of a research agenda for geopolitical tensions, which provides considerations for the democratic context, motivations, value and knowledge flows in HCI.

(16h30 – 17h00) – Discussion and wrap-up session