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Coherence, Community and Strategy in HCI

Coherence, Community and Strategy in HCI. Ann Blandford, David Benyon, Paul Cairns, Alistair Sutcliffe, Harold Thimbleby. HCI: a healthy discipline?. “It’s years since I saw many of the people in this room. Great to see you again!” “Yes, we are a community.”

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Coherence, Community and Strategy in HCI

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  1. Coherence, Community and Strategy in HCI Ann Blandford, David Benyon, Paul Cairns, Alistair Sutcliffe, Harold Thimbleby

  2. HCI: a healthy discipline? • “It’s years since I saw many of the people in this room. Great to see you again!” • “Yes, we are a community.” • Health: having soundness and vigour

  3. The origins of this panel • Workshop in April of ~20 senior members of the community • Workshop in June of ~30 ECRs & LCRs • Outcomes: • A website: http://www.future-uk-hci.org.uk/ • Some good ideas, and points for further discussion • This panel • …but no clear direction

  4. Topics for today • How does HCI relate to its neighbouring disciplines (or SIGs or whatever they are)? • What matters: developing theory or informing practice? • How do we make multidisciplinarity work? • What is the role of science in HCI? • What are appropriate reviewing practices? • In other words: If we are a community, how do we live that out in practice?

  5. But first… • A view on quality in HCI • Do you think you / your group / UK HCI researchers are conducting and delivering high quality research? • If not, why not? • If yes, what’s the evidence? • Shouldn’t we be demonstrating to this man that we are conducting high quality work?

  6. What does that mean in practice? • You  your research group  UK HCI community  UK CS/Psychology/Design community  Science & Technology research community • Need to be critical, but also positive. • The Chancellor needs evidence of value.

  7. Seven Habits of HCI people • Being distinctive, carving out territory. • Not valuing or exploring common ground. • “Seeing the light”. • Emotional design, Experience, Ubicomp, Tangibles, branding, etc. • Focusing on the trendy, undervaluing the cumulative. • Method fixation. • “What’s the hypothesis?” • Maintaining that there are limited valid methods and methodologies in HCI.

  8. Habits (cont.) • Valuing impact over rigour • Face validity trumps construct validity • Seeking quick returns • Valuing applied research over theoretical • Constructively highlighting areas for improvement in proposals • Undervaluing the strengths • Claiming expertise in everything • Each of us actually has experience in certain domains, methods, technologies, user groups…

  9. What are the alternatives? • Indulge in a mass intellectual love-in? • Go our separate ways? • Develop clearer boundaries of what is and is not HCI? • Embrace everything as HCI? • Exploit and value multidisciplinarity?

  10. Over to you… http://www.future-uk-hci.org.uk/

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