Designing Interactive Systems: news of the 2004 Conference. http://www.sigchi.org/DIS2004/rssfeed.xml.css DIS 2006 launches the second decade of the ACM conference series which has become an internationally-recognized forum for design researchers and reflective practitioners. DIS welcomes papers on all varieties of interactive systems - hand-held shopping appliances, immersive toys, head-mounted directional maps, e-commerce Websites, digital books, home entertainment systems, virtual communities. DIS welcomes papers on design analysis, design representations, design methods, design rationale capture, presentation and use, and tools and environments for designing interactive systems. DIS welcomes empirical studies of design practices, including comparative studies, experience-based studies and lessons learned from design projects, investigations and development of formal notations and models, and new theoretical perspectives. DIS welcomes papers exploring, defining, and developing the science of design. Researchers, designers, educators, and students from all relevant disciplines are invited to participate, including anthropology, art and architecture, cognitive science, communication studies, computer science, design studies, education, graphic design, information systems, industrial engineering, interaction design, linguistics and semiotics, requirements engineering, sociology, software engineering, and user experience design. Make a note of these dates: 15 December 2005: Papers due 15 February 2006: Doctoral Consortium, Workshop proposals due 15 March 2005: Notification to Authors and Event Organizers 15 April 2005: Final versions of accepted papers due 26-28 June 2006: Conference in State College, Pennsylvania The Interactive Design Award ceremony took place on the evening on Monday 2 August. In the professional category Small Design Firm gained top honors for their Poetry Harp piece for L’Oreal, created for the anniversary of the company’s phrase ‘because you’re worth it’ centered around multi-story harp strings that when plucked project parts of a poem. Lemur’s robotic guitar robot, the GuitarBot, and YeTi received honorable mentions. The academic category was won by AudioPad, which was created by James Patten and Ben Recht of MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group. Topobo, created by Hayes Solos Raffle and Amanda J. Parkes, also from the Tangible Media Group, received an honorable mention. For each of the five characteristics by which the entries were judged awards were also given. The award for best aesthetics went to Poetry Harp. Best Utility to YeTi. Best Interactivity to Audiopad. Best Concept to Electronic Furniture for the Curious Home by the Equator group from the Interaction Design Research Studio at the RCA. Best Technical implementation was tied between Lemur’s GuitarBot and the MSN Smart Watch. In the DIS2004 Exhibits the Best-in-show category (voted for by the conference participants) went to The Dialog Table, a collaboration by Marek Walczak, Michael McAllister, Jakub Segen and Peter Kennard. The runner up was Rabbit Field by Ben Dalton. DIS2004 is now over, bar the reviewing and de-briefing. The Post-conference section of the site has been updated with links to a number of event reports and presentations. Links and references to reviews (including those posted as Weblog entries) will follow. Pictures from the conference are posted in a DIS2004 Flickr Group Photo Pool. If you have pictures you would like to post you are welcome to add them. You will need to create a (free) Flickr account if you don’t have one already. If you are interested in typography and public lettering, or industrial archaeology, see Dan Hill’s charming Boston Utilities Series photographs. Google has kindly offered to sponsor the reception for the Interactive Design Award, which takes place from 7:00-9:00 pm on the evening of Monday 02. Advance registration closed on 26 July and onsite registration begins on the evening of Sunday 01 August 2004. There are still place available for DIS2004. Anyone still planning to attend the conference should complete the offline registration form, which is available from the Registration information page, fax it to Registration Systems Lab (our registration partner), and bring it with them to the registration desk at the Boston Marriott Cambridge, which is open 3:00-9:00 pm on Sunday 01, and from 8:00 am on Monday 02 and Tuesday 03. The program for the DIS2004 Design Open House tour has been finalised. Participating centers are: Ambient Devices, IBM Research, Orange, Small Design Firm, the Center for Design Informatics at the Harvard Design School, and Invivia Designs. The Design Open House continues the initiative which began at DIS2000 in New York and was continued at DIS2002 in London (and at DUX2003 in San Francisco). It is a unique opportunity to visit a diverse group of local design firms while exploring the Cambridge area. Each participating organization will provide tours of their work environment and demos of recent projects. The Design Open House takes place on Tuesday 03 August, 3:30-7:30 pm, and begins from the conference location. More information on the Design Open House... An updated list of the names, affiliations, and locations (and many home pages) of those registered attendees who have indicated they can be published online can be found on the Attendees page. Broken down by countries we have participants from Australia (5), Austria (1), Canada (4), Denmark (5), Finland (4), France (2), Germany (1), Ireland (4), Italy (2), South Africa (1), South Korea (1), Sweden (7), UK (15), and USA (46). The DIS2004 news feed (RSS) is now live, syndicating all stories posted to this page. During and after the conference, as well as posting news stories and conference updates we will also link to online write-ups of sessions (from the many the conference participants who have active Weblogs) as well as conference outcomes and reviews. The address for the news feed is http://www.sigchi.org/DIS2004/rssfeed.xml.php If you would like a copy of the DIS2004 proceedings (# 608042) but are not participating in the conference you can order them by contacting acmhelp@acm.org or calling 1-800-342-6626 (US and Canada) or 1-212-626-0500 (Global). The finalists and winners of the DIS2004 Interactive Design Award have been selected. The sixteen finalists come from a dozen firms and institutions, and will, we believe, provide insights and inspiration for DIS2004 conference participants. The winners – seven in all – will be announced at a conference ceremony and reception on Monday 02 August. There are awards for best in category for professionals and academics, as well as for entries that excel in five of the qualities of good interaction design: Best Conceptual, Best Aesthetics, Best Interactivity, Best Technical Innovation and Best Utility. In addition to these winners, the DIS2004 participants at will vote for Best In Show, and the result will be announced on Wednesday 04 August. Come see award winning designs and meet their creators at DIS2004. The names, affiliations, and locations (and many home pages) of those registered attendees who have indicated they can be published online can be found on the Attendees page. Papers information has been been posted on the Paper sessions page. This information is also linked from the Advance program page. Sunday July 25 (was July 18) is the final day to advance register for DIS2004, though you will be able to register at the conference site from the evening of Sunday 1 August [mistakenly published as 31 July]. Meanwhile, read the updated Overview from the conference chairs. Any conference attendees planning to stay at the conference hotel, the Boston Marriott Cambridge, must book by 20 July (was 10 July) to get the discounted rate of $159/night. Accommodation information. The early booking rate has been extended to 11 July. This is to compensate for the delay in making online registration available. (All registrations made between 27 June and 11 July will be charged at the early registration rate.)