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HCI & Multidisciplinary Research -opportunities & pitfalls

HCI & Multidisciplinary Research -opportunities & pitfalls. Alistair Sutcliffe HCI Research Group Manchester Business School University of Manchester Coherence, Community and Strategy in HCI panel HCI 07 Lancaster. Multidisciplinary- Strengths. HCI is the natural multidisciplinary science

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HCI & Multidisciplinary Research -opportunities & pitfalls

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  1. HCI & Multidisciplinary Research-opportunities & pitfalls Alistair Sutcliffe HCI Research Group Manchester Business School University of Manchester Coherence, Community and Strategy in HCI panel HCI 07 Lancaster

  2. Multidisciplinary- Strengths • HCI is the natural multidisciplinary science analytic, experimental as well as constructive design • HCI community includes people with skills in psychology, sociology, art & design, computer science, engineering • Success in IRCs- Inter Disciplinary Research Centres- notably Equator • Critical mass – this conference in UK, CHI community world wide • Strong industrial base- solving multi-faceted design problems

  3. Weaknesses • Community too diffuse, lacks focus • Breadth but not depth, lack of intellectual rigour • Poor theory, weak on generalisable knowledge, too much techno- invention (i.e. craft- remember Long & Dowell 1989, 1998 ?) • Competing against specialist and entrenched disciplines • No community lobby (BCS HCI group)

  4. Opportunities • Government research agenda oriented to multi-disciplinarity • Many research areas require systems level multidiscipline solutions, e.g. e-science • Academic agenda may become more flexible post RAE • HCI community is reshaping disciplines in the Design/IT/CS area- especially in new Universities • HCI should establish itself as a (mutli) discipline- but- - needs better core science in Interaction, Communication, and Socio Technical Systems

  5. Threats • We divide into competing camps- beware lessons from the Information Systems community • We fail to establish a core science that is our own- Interaction, Socio Technical Systems ?- beware the lure of post modernism • We don’t lobby effectively against entrenched positions- EPSRC, AHRC, ESRC colleges, government committees • We don’t build street credibility with a core science to enable such lobbying

  6. Carry Home Messages • A broad church multi-discipline subject is sustainable, but it needs depth • A mix of scientific enquiry is productive- contextual case studies, experiments, designing solutions, architecture • Multidisciplinarity has competitive advantage but requires active community collaboration • But beware of the tipping point between Science and the Humanities- post modernism is NOT Science

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