SIGCHI Public Policy
Public policy increasingly plays a role in influencing the work that we do as HCI researchers, interaction designers, and practitioners. Public policy is a broad term that includes both government policy but also policy coming from non-governmental organizations such as standards bodies. Government policies are sometimes limited to a single country, and sometimes concern more complex governing structures (e.g. the European Union), but the community of HCI researchers and designers is worldwide. It is important that members of SIGCHI, who are knowledgeable about interfaces and interaction design, inform policy makers about the existing research, and create standards and guidelines that can be adopted by governments around the world. Two examples of well-known CHI policy topics are (1) how to facilitate fair and accurate voting (what types of interfaces, what types of voting machines), and (2) what types of web-based information should be legally required to be accessible for people with disabilities. The two examples provide a stark contrast: HCI experts were involved in accessibility policies from the beginning, driving the development of international standards which were then adopted (in modified form) by most governments around the world. HCI experts were not greatly involved in voting machine usability until after the topic came to the forefront of public policy discussion, and the HCI community has still not gotten the attention of policymakers, or made a significant impact in this area. Other potential topics related to public policy and interaction design include the use of interfaces that cause distracted driving, government requirements for multi-lingual web sites, end-user licensing agreements, privacy controls in interfaces, interfaces (and guidelines and processes) for usable e-government information, and interfaces on e-books used in education.
Good design and good research should be the driving force behind these decisions, not just commercial values and local politics. Members of the SIGCHI community are perfectly positioned to offer grounded advice to public policymakers about how people interact with technology, and thus directly affect how people interact with devices, applications and services in the future. The goals of SIGCHI related to public policy are to increase awareness, disseminate information, and involve community members in policy-related activities
SIGCHI recently appointed a chair of public policy, Jonathan Lazar, who will be working to bring the topic of public policy to the attention of SIGCHI members, and will be building an international committee of representatives to address public policy issues. SIGCHI already has an existing US Public Policy Committee that focuses on CHI policy issues specific to the United States. There is also a chi-Policy listserver. Since January 2010, Interactions magazine has had a forum on "interacting with public policy" and articles from that forum are suggested reading on that topic:
Jan/Feb 2010: Interacting with Public Policy
Mar/Apr 2010: From bowling alone to tweeting together: technology-mediated social participation
May/June 2010: Accessibility and public policy in Sweden
July/Aug 2010: Driving transportation policy through technological innovation
Sept/Oct 2010: Interacting with Policy in a Political World: Reflections from the Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal Project (to appear)
Nov/Dec 2010: L’Administration Électronique: the French approach to e-Government (to appear)
The following links on topics related to public policy are highly suggested:
UPA Usability in Civic Life Project
European Union "Information Society" Policy
AAAS Information on Science and Policy
Last updated August 19, 2010
