CHI 98 Conference Program April 18-23, 1998, Los Angeles, CA USA

Sunday, April 19, All-at-Once

08:30 - 18:00

Other Activity: CHIkids
CHIkids attendees are taking part in four areas of technology exploration: creating multimedia stories in the Multimedia Storytelling area, trying the latest educational multimedia titles in the CD-ROM Field Trips area, testing emerging software technologies with CHI researchers in the Technology Workouts area or being conference reporters using desktop publishing tools and the WWW in the CHIkids Newsroom.


08:30 - 21:00

Consortium: Doctoral Consortium
The CHI 98 Doctoral Consortium is a closed session that provides an opportunity for Ph.D. students to explore their research interests in an interdisciplinary workshop with established researchers in a group setting. The participants receive feedback on current research and guidance for future research directions. The consortium also aims toward the development of a supportive community of scholars while contributing to the conference goals through interaction with other researchers and participation in conference events. Consortium participants have been invited based on their dissertation proposals, and reflect the wide range of disciplines within HCI research.

Doctoral Consortium Faculty Members

Participants


09:00 - 12:30

Tutorial: 16. What Children Can Tell Us About Technology: The CHIkids Model of Technology Immersion
Angela Boltman, Hawthorne Elementary School, Albuquerque Public Schools; Allison Druin, University of Maryland; Adrian Miura, University of New Mexico

Benefits
You will learn about the CHIkids model of technology immersion for kids, a problem-centered approach to teaching for educators, and examples of contextual inquiry and participatory design methodologies for HCI professionals.

Origins
This is a new tutorial for CHI 98.

Features

Audience
Anyone who is interested in learning more about the design of technology environments for kids, as well as the immersion of kids in the technology experience. No previous background or knowledge in the area of children and technology is assumed.

Presentation
Lecture, group discussion, hands-on participation in CHIkids.

Instructors
Angela Boltman is a CHI 98 CHIkids Co-Chair. She was a 1997 CHIkids leader. Angela is the Technology Specialist at Hawthorne Elementary School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Allison Druin is Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland's College of Education and Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. She is the founder of the CHIkids program. Adrian Miura is a Multimedia Project Developer at the University of New Mexico's Division of Media Technology Services. He is currently developing the University's first Web-based course.

Related Tutorial
Other tutorials offered within the Education Application Domain Area:


09:00 - 17:00

Consortium: Development Consortium
As we look to the future of HCI, one of our goals must be to continue to develop HCI as a field by reaching out to professionals within HCI or related disciplines who are not yet regular participants in the CHI conferences. To extend the reach of the CHI conference, ACM SIGCHI has created the HCI Development Consortium to encourage the interaction between the existing CHI community and focused groups of professionals who have not yet established close links to the CHI conference.

The 1998 Development Consortium will be bringing together teachers who are attempting to utilize computers as an educational tool within their classrooms. These teachers will be from varied grade levels and represent many countries. This event will provide an opportunity for teachers to shape how computers are being used in educational settings and how HCI research and development might improve the use of computers in the classroom.

The Consortium will meet in a workshop-style environment on the Sunday prior to the conference and again at the end of the conference. Participants will also have an opportunity to experience the CHIkids program.

Development Consortium Co-Chairs


09:00 - 17:30

Tutorial: 4. Planning and Implementing User-Centred Design
Nigel Bevan, National Physical Laboratory; Ian Curson, National Physical Laboratory

Benefits
You will learn a structured approach to user-centered design based on the principles of the forthcoming International Standard "Human centred design processes for interactive systems" (ISO DIS 13407) and other associated standards.

Origins
This is a new tutorial for CHI 98.

Features

Audience
Human factors practitioners and researchers interested in the practical application of appropriate methods. Project and business managers who wish to improve the usability of their systems. IT procurers who wish to ensure their suppliers have a human-centred design process in place.

Presentation
Lecture and small-group exercises.

Instructors
Nigel Bevan has first degrees in physics and psychology and a Ph.D. in man-machine interaction. He was technical coordinator of the MUSiC project, and is now manager of the INUSE and RESPECT projects with a network of Usability Support Centres around Europe. He is an active participant in ISO 13407, and is editor of ISO 9241-11, ISO 14598-1 and ISO 9126-1. Ian Curson has been working with NPL Usability Services since obtaining his masters degree in Technical Communication and Human-Machine Interaction in 1993. He is responsible for commercial services provided by NPL Usability Services, including consultant training and evaluations.

Related Tutorials


Tutorial: 5. Product Usability: Survival Techniques
Jared M. Spool, User Interface Engineering; Carolyn Snyder, User Interface Engineering

Benefits
You will learn how to produce a more usable product by prototyping and testing a design in a matter of hours, using readily available materials.

Origins
This is an update of a tutorial presented at several CHI conferences. This year more emphasis is placed on discount usability methods and less on design principles and user interface guidelines.

Features

Audience
All members of the development team, including engineers, designers, technical writers and managers. Experience in developing commercial products is highly recommended. Participants are not assumed to have experience with usability testing.

Presentation
Lecture, hands-on design exercise and competition.

Instructors
Jared M. Spool is Founding Principal of User Interface Engineering. He has over 16 years experience conducting usability evaluation on a variety of products, and is an expert in paper prototyping techniques. Jared is on the faculty of the Tufts University Gordon Institute. He speaks at other conferences around the country such as Web 97, SD 97 and WinHelp. Carolyn Snyder is a Principal at User Interface Engineering. A former software developer, now teaching paper prototyping techniques to development teams, facilitates usability tests, writes articles on topics related to usability and has lectured at Harvard and NIST. She has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois.

Related Tutorials


Tutorial: 6. Java-Based User Interface Design and Development
Manfred Tscheligi, Center for Usability Research and Engineering; Verena Giller, Center for Usability Research and Engineering

Benefits
You will learn about the benefits of Java from a user interface designers' viewpoint.

Origins
This is a new tutorial for CHI 98.

Features

Audience
User interface designers, user interface programmers and researchers. Attendees should have basic knowledge of the Web, some experience with common user interface software concepts and user interface guidelines. Java programming knowledge is not necessary.

Presentation
Interactive presentations and examples

Instructors
Manfred Tscheligi is Professor of Applied Computer Science at the University of Vienna and Director of the Center for Usability Research and Engineering (CURE). Verena Giller is Research Associate at the University of Vienna and Vice Director of the Center for Usability Research and Engineering (CURE). CURE is working on research and industrial projects in various domains. CURE is a member of the European Usability Centre (EUSC) Network, and runs the Austrian Java Competence Center (JCCA) in cooperation with SUN Microsystems. Several Java oriented industrial projects are managed by these instructors.

Related Tutorials


Tutorial: 7. Cognitive Factors in Design: Basic Phenomena in Human Memory and Problem Solving
Thomas T. Hewett, Drexel University

Benefits
You will learn the theoretical underpinnings of how people remember and how they solve problems. You will also learn how to use that knowledge during product design to interpret user interface guidelines and also to go beyond the guidelines.

Origins
This was a top-rated tutorial at CHI 95, CHI 96 and CHI 97.

Features

Audience
Anyone interested in human-computer interaction and interactive system design who has not done course work in cognitive psychology. Not intended for the human factors specialist, for the individual with extensive training in psychology or for the individual seeking a state-of-the-art literature review of the latest research in cognitive psychology.

Presentation
Interactive presentation and hands-on demonstrations.

Instructor
Tom Hewett is Professor of Psychology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, where he teaches courses on Cognitive Psychology, Problem Solving and Creativity, Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction and the Psychology of Interaction Design. Some of his papers have described the structure and implications of a taxonomy for thinking about instructional computing. Dr. Hewett chaired the SIGCHI Curriculum Development Group which developed recommendations for undergraduate curricula and courses for HCI. He served for four years as vice-chair for operations of SIGCHI and was one of the general co-chairs for the CHI 94 conference.

Related Tutorial


Tutorial: 8. CSCW, Groupware and Workflow: Experiences, State of the Art and Future Trends
Steven Poltrock, Boeing Information and Support Services; Jonathan Grudin, University of California at Irvine

Benefits
You will learn what groupware technologies are being used, what problems people have encountered and how successes were obtained.

Origins
Popular at previous CHI conferences, this tutorial has been revised for CHI 98.

Features

Audience
Designers, developers, researchers, marketers and managers who need to know about the current possibilities and future trends of CSCW, groupware or workflow systems. A general background in HCI and experience working collaboratively is assumed. Broad knowledge or experience with collaborative technologies is not expected.

Presentation
Lectures and structured activities.

Instructors
Steven Poltrock and Jonathan Grudin, Co-Chairs of CSCW 98, began collaborating in 1986. Jonathan Grudin, Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, has worked as a developer and researcher, and has published numerous technical and popular articles. Steven Poltrock introduces, evaluates and deploys groupware systems that support information sharing, organizational memory, concurrent engineering, collaborative authoring and workflow management. Together they have authored several overviews of CSCW and groupware.

Related Tutorials


Tutorial: 9. CANCELLED Network Communities, Community Networks
This tutorial has been cancelled due to illness.

John M. Carroll, Virginia Tech; Mary Beth Rosson, Virginia Tech

Benefits
A community network is a special case of a network community in which a physical community coextends with the network community. Some observers have argued that community networks represent a vital contemporary manifestation of strong democracy. This tutorial will survey and analyze network communities and community networks focusing on how they impact human activities and institutions.

Origins
This timely and contemporary topic that has been successfully presented at previous CHI conferences has been updated for CHI 98.

Features

Audience
Intended for HCI professionals who want to attain a basic understanding of network concepts, skills and issues. No prior knowledge is assumed.

Presentation
Lecture and demonstrations.

Instructors
John M. Carroll is Professor of Computer Science and Psychology and head of the Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech. His research is the analysis of learning, problem solving and collaboration in HCI contexts, and the design of appropriate methods, tools, and environments. His most recent work focuses on education and community history applications of the Blacksburg Electronic Village and the WWW. Mary Beth Rosson is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech; previously, a Research Staff Member and Manager at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. Her research interests include developing new paradigms for the study of human-computer interaction, using network technology to support collaboration, and psychological issues in the learning and use of the object-oriented design paradigm.

Related Tutorials


Tutorial: 10. Structured Observation: Practical Methods for Understanding Users and Their Work in Context
Susan M. Dray, Dray & Associates

Benefits
You will learn how to plan for and carry out observations of users. A heavy emphasis is placed on practical steps for the designer to take that will lead to success.

Origins
This is an updated version of a highly-regarded CHI 97 tutorial.

Features

Audience
Anyone who wants to understand how users work in order to do a better job of system design. Developers, designers and managers who are responsible for customer needs analysis and identifying user requirements.

Presentation
Lecture, group discussion and small group exercises to obtain practical experience performing structured observation.

Instructor
Susan M. Dray has a Ph.D. in Psychology from UCLA and has worked as researcher, manager and consultant in the organizational design and use the of technology at Honeywell, Inc., American Express Financial Advisors and most recently, as an independent consultant who has published numerous articles. She is a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES). She has been active with the CHI conferences since CHI 84. She was the North American Editor of the international journal, Behaviour and Information Technology and currently edits the Business Views column of interactions.

Related Tutorials


Tutorial: 11. Practical GUI Screen Design: Making It Usable
Cliff Wilding, The Hiser Group

Benefits
You will learn the principles of good screen design, including a detailed examination of screen layout, templates and metaphors.

Origins
This is a new tutorial for CHI 98.

Features

Audience
Computer professionals involved in user interface design, including systems analysts, business analysts, software developers, multimedia developers and computer-based training authors. It is an advantage if attendees are familiar with GUIs and/or GUI design.

Presentation
Presentation and hands-on exercises.

Instructor
Cliff Wilding is from Melbourne, Australia, and is a senior consultant with The Hiser Group, a user interface design and usability consultancy. He specializes in contextual inquiry, user interface design, participatory design and usability testing for commercial and in-house applications. Platforms range from traditional GUI operating systems to new media and the Web. Most of his time is spent on project work for clients in the Australian government and industry, including Telstra, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia Post, Health Insurance, BHP and the Royal Australian Air Force.

Related Tutorials


Tutorial: 12. The Usability Engineering Life Cycle
Deborah J. Mayhew, Deborah J. Mayhew & Associates

Benefits
Learn what techniques and methods are available for designing good user interfaces to both traditional software applications and to Web pages and applets, when and why to apply them, evaluation techniques, and organizational and managerial strategies.

Origins
This CHI "classic," renamed for CHI 98, consistently receives high ratings. The tutorial has been updated to reflect new ideas, approaches and methods in the field.

Features

Audience
Development managers, developers responsible for usability and usability engineering practitioners. Experience with software development methodologies will provide a useful context. No experience with usability engineering is necessary.

Presentation
This tutorial is organized around a sample development life cycle and presents an overview of human factors methods that can be applied at different points in the development process.

Instructor
Deborah J. Mayhew holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, has worked 19 years in software development organizations, 12 years as a usability consultant and has authored and contributed to three books on usability. Her clients include IBM, AT&T, American Airlines and many others. Often her work involves introducing usability techniques and methods into software development organizations.

Related Tutorial


Tutorial: 13. Metaphor Design for User Interfaces
Aaron Marcus, Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.

Benefits
You will learn how to manage the fundamental concepts, terms, images and sounds for metaphors in productivity tools, multimedia and Web products and services, including data displays.

Origins
This is a popular tutorial from previous CHI conferences.

Features

Audience
Researchers and developers who may have designed user interfaces but have not studied metaphors specifically. Oriented toward practical user interface designers as well as those interested in visual communication, art history and anthropological aspects of computer interfaces.

Presentation
Lecture, case-study analyses, small-group design exercises and demonstrations.

Instructor
Aaron Marcus, president of Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. of Emeryville, CA and New York, NY, has presented tutorials since 1980. He founded his user interface design firm in 1982. He has written or co-authored four books on visual communication and over 100 articles, essays and papers on metaphor design, and visual communication.

Related Tutorials


Tutorial: 14. Designing Speech User Interfaces
Nicole Yankelovich, Sun Microsystems Lab; Jennifer Lai, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center

Benefits
You will explore techniques for designing speech user interfaces by examining existing products and research prototypes.

Origins
This is a new tutorial for CHI 98.

Features

Audience
User interface designers and application developers who are interested in understanding the issues involved in designing effective speech interfaces. Participants are not expected to have prior knowledge of the basic underlying speech input and output concepts.

Presentation
Lecture and small-group exercises.

Instructors
Nicole Yankelovich is a Principal Investigator of the Speech Applications project at Sun Microsystems Laboratories. She specializes in designing speech user interfaces and has published numerous papers on user interface design, speech applications and hypertext. Jennifer Lai has been working with the Speech Recognition effort at IBM Research for 9 years. She has conducted requirements gathering, design, development and usability testing for speech systems, including the IBM product MedSpeak/Radiology. She has published papers on the use of speech in multimedia systems, the development of statistical language models and has the patent for a Method and System for Natural Language Translation.


Tutorial: 15. Web Site Design From the Trenches
Tom Brinck, Diamond Bullet Design; Darren Gergle, Diamond Bullet Design; Scott Wood, Diamond Bullet Design

Benefits
You will learn practical techniques for designing Web sites while meeting tight schedules and working with limited budgets.

Origins
This is a new tutorial for CHI 98.

Features

Audience
Designers and developers who are interested in Web site design. Experience browsing and searching the Web is assumed.

Presentation
Lecture and small-group activities.

Instructors
Tom Brinck is director of design & production at Diamond Bullet Design, doing Web site design and usability consulting for a wide spectrum of clients. Tom has an MA in computer science and cognitive psychology, and has previously done research in educational software, multimedia, and network services at Apple Computer, Toshiba and Bellcore. Darren Gergle is a digital designer at Diamond Bullet Design. He has degrees in fine arts and psychology from the University of Michigan and studied printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art. He previously worked on various digital media projects at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Scott Wood is president of Diamond Bullet Design. His duties include site, database and software design. He has an MA in computer science and experience with software development and usability consulting.

Related Tutorials


Tutorial: 18. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, LLC; Brian Bomeiseler, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, LLC

Benefits
You will learn to draw what you see, rather then what you believe you see. You will learn basic strategies to unlock the visual perceptual mode of thinking.

Origins
This is a top-rated tutorial from CHI 97 and is a one-day version of Betty Edwards' renowned drawing course.

Features

Audience
This tutorial is intended for a wide audience. No previous drawing experience is required; in fact, it's designed for people who believe they can't draw. Enrollment is limited for this tutorial - register early to guarantee yourself a space.

Presentation
Lecture with hands-on drawing exercises.

Instructor
Betty Edwards is a creativity consultant and author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and Drawing on the Artist Within. Her educational background is in art education and psychology. She is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Long Beach. Brian Bomeisler is an exhibiting New York painter and instructor of drawing. He holds a BA in fine art from Pratt Institute of New York. His work appears in the permanent collections of the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, and in corporate and private collections worldwide. He has taught with Betty Edwards for over ten years.

Related Tutorials
This tutorial will also be offered twice on Monday. Betty Edwards will instruct one session on Monday (#19) and Brian Bomeiseler will instruct the other Monday session (#20).


Workshop: 1. Basic Research Symposium
Joseph Konstan, University of Minnesota; Jane Siegel, Carnegie Mellon University

The CHI Basic Research Symposium presents an opportunity for researchers from different disciplines to exchange new developments and insights from their own fields and thereby expand their vision of human-computer interaction. The two-day event is a cross between a mini-conference and a workshop. Participants are selected by a program committee that reviews submitted position papers, bringing together a diverse group of researchers with innovative research underway. The symposium itself includes interactive research presentations, group discussions around common themes and small, group break-out activities.

The mission of the CHI Basic Research Symposium is to provide a venue where researchers conducting ground-breaking, controversial and emerging research can discuss that research with a diverse group of peers. Our vision for this year's Basic Re-search Symposium is for each participant to leave with a better understanding of the re-search methods, goals and frontiers of a wide range of HCI disciplines. Each participant should contribute to the collective under-standing and leave with new ideas for conducting, integrating and applying research.

The Basic Research Symposium welcomes two types of submissions:

(1) Position Papers. Up to ten pages introducing your field and your work. Authors of accepted position papers will be given time to present the work in an interactive discussion format.

(2) Position Statements. Up to two pages introducing you and your interests. Authors of accepted position statements will be invited to participate in the symposium.

Sample submissions and further information is available at http://www.cs.umn.edu/~konstan/BRS98/.

Contact
Joseph Konstan
University of Minnesota
Department of Computer Science
4-192 EE/CS Building, 200 Union St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
Tel: +1 612 625 1831
Email: chi98-brs@cs.umn.edu


Workshop: 2. Innovation and Evaluation in Information Exploration Interfaces
Gene Golovchinsky, FX Palo Alto Laboratory; Nick Belkin, Rutgers University

Traditional Information Retrieval (IR) is concerned with improving effectiveness of indexing and retrieval mechanisms, and with supporting one information seeking behavior: specified searching through query formulation. This supports one kind of user population, with one kind of information need. The networked information environment has resulted in a shift in the user population of IR systems. This has introduced new classes of users, in the sense of levels of expertise, and has also made clear that there are different kinds of information needs and different kinds of information seeking behaviors than those supported by traditional IR systems and techniques. This workshop focuses on developing an understanding of one such information seeking behavior, Information Exploration, on interface design for supporting this behavior and on evaluation methods for assessing such interfaces. Information Exploration addresses the goal of refining a vague concept into a more thorough understanding of the problem that led to the information interaction.

Problems to be addressed include:

Twenty participants will be selected on the basis of a one-page abstract of a position paper on one of the three themes of the workshop. These abstracts must include a specification of the Information Exploration task which is being addressed and an explicit statement of the relationship of the proposal/position to that task.

More information is available at http://anarch.ie.utoronto.ca/people/golovch/CHI98workshop/.

Contact
Gene Golovchinsky
FX PAL, Inc.
3400 Hillview Ave., Bldg 4
Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA
Tel: +1 650 813 7361
Email: gene@pal.xerox.com


Workshop: 3. Incorporating Work, Process and Task Analysis into Industrial Object-Oriented Systems Design
John Artim, OOCL; Mark van Harmelen, Cutting Edge

Discussion at last year's workshop, "Object-Oriented Models in User Interface Design," examined the role of object modeling in user interface design. Workshop participants collaborated on a framework describing user interface design in the software development life cycle. This framework is described in the October 1997 issue of SIGCHI Bulletin. We take as a starting point this framework. The goal of this workshop is to produce a method and notation framework to support the use of task, process and work analysis and modeling as a source of objects for system design and a determinant for suitable end user support by the system.

Potential participants should submit a position paper of approximately 2000 words that describes experience or theory relating to:

Papers should, where appropriate, build upon last year's workshop discussion as expressed in the SIGCHI Bulletin article.

Contact
John Artim
OOCL (USA), Inc.
2841 Junction Ave., Suite 200
San Jose, CA 95134 USA
Tel: +1 408 576 6494
Email: jartim@acm.org


Workshop: 4. Innovative Interface Metaphors for Visual Media
Arnd Steinmetz, GMD-IPSI; Frank Nack, GMD-IPSI; Nahum Gershon, MITRE

The fundamental problem associated with video and images is that they are already visual data. Thus, many interesting classes of visual information have no natural and obvious alternative presentation despite their original appearance. The arising problem is, therefore, to visualize a more metaphorical view onto that information which does not automatically map onto the physical world.

In spite of this need, current visualization research (e.g., Videostreamer (Davenport) or Video Micons and Video Space Icon (Tonomura/Abe)) has not been active enough in discovering new visual metaphors for representing/presenting pictorial information.

The purpose of the workshop is to explore new ideas for representations of visual media and to clarify the nature, scope, limits and dangers of new interface metaphors for visual media.

Applicants should send position papers (3-5 pages in .pdf format), articulating their interests, ideas and experiences in information visualization and visual media. Videos and application demonstrations are strongly encouraged. We welcome papers from people with a variety of insights and perspectives (e.g., HCI, data mining, imaging, graphics, entertainment, education, etc.). Selection, based on the position papers, will seek to balance perspective and interests of the participants.

Participants will be expected to read the position papers of other participants prior to the workshop, and to prepare a brief presentation of their own views. Participants will be asked to assist in the preparation of the workshop report. The workshop is limited to 15 participants.

More information is available at http://www.darmstadt.gmd.de/mobile/chi98/.

Contact
Amd Steinmetz
Mobile Interactive Media, GMD-IPSI
Dolivostr. 15
64293 Darmstadt Germany
Tel: +49 6151 869862
Email: arnd.steinmetz@darmstadt.gmd.de


Workshop: 5. Designing User Interfaces for Safety Critical Systems
Phillipe Palanque, University Toulouse 1; Fabio Paterno, CNUCE-CNR; Peter Wright, University of York

When designing user interfaces for safety critical systems designers must satisfy both usability and safety requirements at both the specification and implementation level. These systems have human operators and increasingly their role is mediated by computer technology. Clearly, in this domain, usability issues can have potentially disastrous consequences, yet CHI conferences have not addressed this type of application. We believe that the design of user interfaces in this area requires the use of innovative technologies for supporting user interactions and the support of many kinds of skills and backgrounds to be addressed effectively.

The challenge of the workshop is to bring together researchers from the disciplines of software engineering and human factors to consider issues in safety critical system design which are at the intersection of usability and safety. Areas of concern are requirements analysis, specification, testing and evaluation.

We will focus on specific issues which we feel are relevant in this application area:

More information is available at http://lis.univ-tlse1.fr/~palanque/wschi98.html.

Contact
Philippe Palanque
University Toulouse 1
Place Anatole France
31042 Toulouse Cedex France
Tel: +33 561 63 35 88
Email: palanque@cict.fr


Workshop: 6. From Task to Dialogue: Task-Based User Interface Design
Birgit Bomsdorf, University of Paderborn; Gerd Szwillus, University of Paderborn

It is generally accepted that the tasks the user has to fulfill with a system should play an important role in its design. Knowing the user's tasks enables the designer to construct user interfaces reflecting the tasks' properties, including efficient usage patterns, easy-to-use interaction sequences and powerful assistance features. As a consequence, task modeling becomes a central part of the user interface design process. To accomplish this, a systematic transition has to exist from task identification to user interface construction. Hence, a task model of how the user performs her or his tasks with the system has to be defined. This model contains the task structure, the division of labor between user and system as well as information about the objects used within tasks. The result of this design phase is a dialogue model: a constructive abstraction of the finally implemented user interface.

The goal of our workshop is to learn more about the transition from task model to dialogue model. We will bring together people with expertise in this domain in order to collect, structure and interrelate work dealing with this non-trivial transition. We will discuss practical design projects where this problem showed up, research on theoretical, systematic approaches to the problem and development of tools and techniques supporting the transition.

The workshop is directed at people from academia, research departments of companies or software development companies dealing with practical user interface design problems. All participants should be actively interested in task and dialogue modeling and in the transition from one model to the other.

More information is available at http://www.uni-paderborn.de/fachbereich/AG/szwillus/chi98ws/index.html.

Contact
Gerd Szwillus
University of Paderborn
Fachbereich Mathematik/Informatik
D-33095 Paderborn Germany
Tel: +49 5251 606624
Email: szwillus@uni-paderborn.de


Workshop: 7. Hyped-Media to Hyper-Media: Toward Theoretical Foundations of Design, Use and Evaluation
N. Hari Narayanan, Auburn University

The rate of creation of hypermedia information has far outpaced developments in the theory of how to design hypermedia to best facilitate users' comprehension of, and navigation within, the information being presented. Despite (or perhaps, because of) the commercial success of these systems, their design had largely been guided by common sense and intuitions rather than theory. In this context, the theme of the workshop is emerging theoretical foundations of design, use and evaluation of interactive visualization, multimedia and hypermedia systems.

Topics Include

Two kinds of electronic submissions (HTML files) are solicited:

Invitations to participate will be issued based on a review of submissions. We will be looking for innovative theories, integrative approaches, promising works in progress and the potential to stimulate discussion. We expect to invite no more than 20 participants.

More information is available at http://www.eng.auburn.edu/department/cse/research/vi3rg/ws.html.

Contact
N. Hari Narayanan
Computer Science & Engineering Department
Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849 USA
Tel: +1 334 844 6312
Email: narayan@eng.auburn.edu


Workshop: 8. The Toughest Web User Interface Challenges
Richard Miller, SoftCom; Keith Rettig, Bellcore

User interfaces on the Web are different from typical software interfaces because, as designers, we are constrained by the rapidly changing technology, Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML), its related tools and a lack of robust widgets. Many of these problems may not be optimally solvable, but currently solutions are clearly less than optimal.

The goal of this workshop is to take the "cocktail napkin" interface discussions that commonly occur at conferences and move them into a structured workshop setting to further our understanding of Web interface issues. Issues such as cross-platform compatibility, navigation complexity, object selection and manipulation, and design considerations are relevant.

This workshop requires and encourages active participation of those involved. It is an exciting and bustling atmosphere with design work going on within each small work group. A user-centered design process for facilitating the workshop's activities and paper prototyping will be used to develop potential interface solutions.

In order to prepare for the workshop, design issues are required to be submitted electronically to the workshop organizers by 1 April 1998. Thus, participants are guaranteed that discussions and the results of the workshop will be current and interesting. It is acceptable to submit a short text-only email if the design issue can be expressed accurately. Solutions are not required or expected in the submission. We are looking, as a group, to solve problems that participants find difficult to translate into a Web solution. Knowledge of HTML is expected from all participants, and exposure to other Web technologies is helpful.

More information is available at http://design.softcom.com/workshops/sigchi98.html.

Contact
Richard Miller
SoftCom, Inc.
200 Middlesex Essex Turnpike, Suite 303
Iselin, NJ 08830 USA
Tel: +1 732 283 590, Ext.612
Email: rmiller@softcom.com


Workshop: 9. Unpacking Strategic Usability: Corporate Strategy and Usability Research
Stephanie Rosenbaum, Tec-Ed; Janice Rohn, Sun Microsystems; Judee Humburg, Independent Consultant

Usability research can be a strategic tool that contributes to an organization's business direction, marketing position and overall strategic planning. Human factors professionals can partner with other groups and build cross-functional teams to define usability research programs that help focus product development to achieve key company goals.

This workshop expands on the organizers' previous CHI workshops and panels on corporate strategy and usability research. Strategic usability reaches beyond best practices in product development and design, striving for a role where customer understanding and usability data influence decision-making throughout the organization. In "unpacking strategic usability" we will explore the meaning of "strategic" in both product and organizational contexts.

The workshop will bring together practitioners who:

We solicit case studies of successful and unsuccessful experiences; we'll learn as much or more from unsuccessful efforts. This workshop is limited to 15 participants. In your 3-10 page position paper, describe your organizational environment, what you have done to achieve strategic usability (the methods you used and how well they worked) and any other new ideas for building strategic usability. A template is available for describing organizational environments.

Contact
Stephanie Rosenbaum
Tec-Ed, Inc.
P.O. Box 1905
Ann Arbor, MI 48106 USA
Tel: +1 313 995 1010
Email: stephanie@teced.com


Workshop: 10. Too Much of A Good Thing? Identifying and Resolving Bloat in the User Interface
Leah Kaufman, Microsoft; Brad Weed, Microsoft

The steady increase in the number of functions in software applications has led to consistent criticism of feature and interface bloat. The sheer number of features challenges interaction designers to make interfaces that communicate the software's potential as well as its visible functions. It charges users with figuring out which of the myriad of features will actually accomplish the tasks they want to do.

This workshop explores three distinct aspects of feature and interface bloat:

Through examples, discussions, formal debate, shared experience with interface design and use, we will try to reach a clear understanding of bloat and finally, a set of recommendations for addressing it. A collaborative paper based on the workshop's discussion and findings will be submitted for publication.

Those interested in this workshop should submit a 1-2 page paper describing their ideas on this problem, specifically, the advantages and disadvantages of expansive software vs. software with a limited set of commonly used features. Please state your position on the issue, based on empirical evidence if possible.

Contact
Leah Kaufman
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA
Microsoft Corporation
Tel: +1 425 703 2245
Email: leahk@microsoft.com


Workshop: 11. Web Navigation: Resolving Conflicts Between the Desktop and the Web
Hal Shubin, Interaction Design; Ron Perkins, Design Perspectives

Navigation on the Web is different from navigation on "traditional" platforms like Macintosh and Windows. Users of the new platform find a model of navigation that conflicts with the conceptual model they developed on the older platforms. Rather than finding ways for users to cope on this new platform, how can we design Web applications so people can work more easily, with fewer transfer-learning problems?

This topic is becoming more important as the Web is becoming ubiquitous. Good navigation is crucial for the success of applications on this platform. Little work has been done on this topic to date; this workshop should stimulate some good discussion. Workshop members will discuss their experiences and ways to overcome the problems. They will walk away with a concrete understanding of the important differences and with new ideas for designing for the Web.

Submit a 2-4 page position paper including a portfolio of Web navigation problems caused by the differences in navigation on the Web and other platforms. The paper should describe your background and the examples. The examples can be problems that you have solved, or problems that you have come across, with suggestions for change. We will look for a variety of participants who have given significant thought to navigation issues on the Web.

Submissions will be via email, and will be posted on the Web for easy access and discussion.

Contact
Hal Shubin
Interaction Design, Inc.
78 Chilton Street
Belmont, MA 02178 USA
Tel: +1 617 489 6595
Email: hshubin@user.com


14:00 - 17:30

Tutorial: 17. Getting Started on a Contextual Project
Karen Holtzblatt, InContext Enterprises; Hugh Beyer, InContext Enterprises

Benefits
You will be able to plan and conduct a project using contextual techniques to gather customer data.

Origins
Update of a highly rated CHI 97 tutorial.

Features

Audience
Anyone interested in putting contextual or customer-centered techniques into practice in their own projects. Will be most valuable to those with some knowledge of contextual techniques since it focuses on procedural aspects of using them and takes knowledge of the techniques for granted.

Presentation
Lecture, demonstration and hands-on exercises.

Instructors
The instructors developed Contextual Design, a customer-centered design process that extends the contextual inquiry data gathering technique. Dr. Holtzblatt originated the Contextual Inquiry approach to field data collection and pioneered its introduction into working engineering teams. She has used customer-centered processes to design and evaluate software, hardware and business processes. Hugh Beyer has worked in the industry as programmer, architect and consultant. He has designed and developed object-oriented repositories and integrated CASE systems, and has developed processes for using customer data to drive object-oriented design. They are co-founders of InContext Enterprises Inc., coaching teams to design products, product strategies and information systems from customer data.

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2026-03-07
chi98-web@acm.org
http://chi1998.acm.org/