ACM Conference Universal Usability Call For Participation

November 10th - 11th 2003 Vancouver BC Canada

CALL FOR PAPERS CUU 2003

Call for Participation – Abstracts on Universal Usability

The Second Conference on Universal Usability is seeking extended abstracts on late breaking research in Universal Usability. The conference will be held in downtown Vancouver, Canada from November 10 –11, 2003. See http://sigchi.org/cuu2003/ for conference details. We are particularly looking for papers from the social science, economics, communications and sociology community in order to build bridges between researchers in these disciplines and interface designers.

The CUU conference is focused on understanding and guiding those elements of human-computer interface design that affect the ability of a universal collection of people to effectively use and gain benefit from computer applications. Thus, the conference accepts papers in universal accessibility such as interface designs that support screen readers for the blind, but it is also keenly interested in the social nature of accessibility. For example, CUU would like to attract research from those individuals working on the digital divide, in particular, details on the ways in which different socio-economic groups find it difficult to have access to computers and to the Internet. Computers are currently designed for the western knowledge worker with an assumption of infrastructures that support complex exchanges and a robust power supply. A cultural and cost-based redesign has the potential of bridging the digital divide. Thus, research on the nature, extent and characteristics of this gap are solicited. The conference is also interested in research on how different groups respond affectively to various interfaces and how specific applications leave users disturbed about potential invasions of privacy or control – enough so that usage is avoided or limited. A key belief in hosting this conference is that software and computers are cultural objects that have embodied in their design a set of features that clearly state “who” the software and computers are designed for. The focus of the conference is thus, to develop an understanding of how to create these cultural objects so that they speak to a universal audience.

Suggested topics for universal usability abstracts include the following:

Digital divide issues in Africa, Indonesia, Poor America, etc.
Affective or Emotional Computing
Designing interfaces for multiple languages and cultures
Trust issues in networked applications
Computer training for the computer illiterate
Gender differences in responses to computerization, e.g., the automobile

Prepare a two-page extended abstract of your research in the ACM Conference Publications Format ( http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html ), including: title, author information, abstract, keywords, research summary, and references. E-mail this abstract in PDF format to cuu2003-lbr@universalusability.org by the deadline of Monday, September 22, 2003, 5:00 pm (1700) Pacific Standard Time (PST).

Accepted abstracts will be available as part of the Proceedings on the conference website. They will not be published in the print Proceedings.

At least one author from each accepted abstracts will be required to present the paper at the conference in November. Presenting authors must register for the conference.

What follows is the original text for the Call For Papers whose deadline has passed.

We invite submissions (due May 12, 2003) for the second ACM Conference on Universal Usability, to be held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, November 10 - 11, 2003. We seek work in any area whose aim is to enable the widest range of users to successfully use technology for information, communications, entertainment, education, e-commerce, civic systems and government services.

Challenges include the diversity of users (experts and novices, old and young, educated and illiterate, disabled, forgotten, those in ill health, etc.); the wide range of technology (e.g.; 100 to 1 ratios in processor and network speeds), and the gap between what users know and what they need to know. We are interested in research, new systems and technologies, empirical evaluations of systems, policy suggestions, and systems that support community activities. A diverse set of participants is expected including technologists, policy makers, advocates, users, and researchers.

TOPICS

Specific topics include (but are not limited to) the following.

Solutions to address the politics, policies, and economics of universal usability and evaluations of those solutions:

New pricing schemes and new services
Methods of measuring intellectual capital and the value of diverse access
Ethical considerations and design trade-offs involved with universal usability
Methods for helping communities with special needs articulate and share those needs and/or create their own solutions
Economic benefits of universal usability
Social benefits of universal usability

Solutions to accommodate variations in hardware, software and network access as well as empirical evaluations of these systems:

Middleware translation systems to support various display and input devices among versions and formats
Designs for modular software and hardware components that interconnect reliably
Standards and protocols that address these variations

Proposed solutions to accommodate users who differ in attributes such as skill, knowledge, age, gender, disability, literacy, language, culture and income together with the evaluation of such solutions:

Methods for users to adapt and personalize systems according to their expertise, reading level, learning style, etc
Methods to accommodate environmental and social variations
Software management tools to support multiple versions in multiple languages
Improved customer service, on-line help, and on-line training

Solution processes for better understanding users, contexts and tasks:

Design for Dynamic Diversity
User Sensitive Inclusive Design
Ethnographic observations to capture diversity
Participatory design
Social impact statements
Usability tests with stratified user groups
Ensuring diversity in heuristic evaluations
Globalization and localization processes
Lifecycle design issues or methods for addressing universal usability

Contributions which present applied and tested developments will be given preference over more speculative ideas and plans for future work.

Presentation Formats

Just as there is a broad range of possible approaches to universal usability, we also seek contributions in a variety of presentation formats including formal papers, panels, and poster sessions.

Papers. We solicit original, concise, and insightful papers of work based on providing real solutions, partial solutions or lessons learned from failures, which can be of benefit to the field. Papers should include a description of the context of use, the user(s) involved in the solution, a description of the attempted solution, a description of the impact, and lessons learned. Papers should be at most eight ACM conference pages (about 4000 words). The conference format specifications and templates can be found at: http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html.
Panels. Proposals for panels that synthesize and orient work in the area, especially across disciplinary boundaries, are encouraged. Panel proposals should define an issue; list proposed panel members, their backgrounds, and their basic positions. Panel proposals should be two pages long. Panels should provide for interaction among members and with the audience and should not consist of a series of independent mini-papers.
Posters. In some cases, a more appropriate means of describing your work may be in an informal, interactive setting. Proposals for Interactive Posters should include a two-page description of the work and one page that shows the general outline of the poster.

Submissions

All accepted submissions will be included in a (paper) proceedings as well as presented at the conference. In addition, selected papers will be considered for special issues of The Information Society (social aspects) and Interacting with Computers (design oriented). Papers will be accepted in electronic format only.

Closing date for submissions was May 12th 2003. You can view the papers accepted on the program page: http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigchi/cuu2003/program.htm.

Program Chairs

Dr Alistair Edwards, The University of York (alistair@cs.york.ac.uk)

Dr Mary Zajicek, Oxford Brookes University (mzajicek@brookes.ac.uk)

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