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Navigating Coherence, Community, and Strategy: Reflections on HCI

Engage in discussions regarding the role of HCI in the broader community and neighboring disciplines, theory vs. practice, multidisciplinarity, and reviewing practices. Reflect on quality research and habits within the HCI field.

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Navigating Coherence, Community, and Strategy: Reflections on 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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