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CHI 2002 – A Newcomer's Report

By Christine Wiegand, SAP User Experience, SAP AG – July 9, 2002

CHI 2002 logo

Figure 1: The CHI 2002 logo

This was my first visit to the famous CHI (www.acm.org/sigchi/chi2002), the world's largest and most important HCI conference, about which my colleagues had told me already so many great things. Therefore, I was really looking forward to this event because I was so eager to experience the CHI feeling, to be part of the worldwide UI community, and to see the gurus in the flesh. This year's CHI took place in Minneapolis, the former milling center located on the Mississippi, where you can go shopping without ever touching ground.

Minneapolis skyline

Figure 2: Minneapolis skyline as seen from the Mississippi

 

Getting Started...

I started my visit the day before the main conference with the "GUI Bloopers" tutorial with Jeff Johnson. He is president and principal consultant at UI Wizards, Inc., a product usability consulting agency (www.uiwizards.com), active in the human-computer interaction field since 1978.

The tutorial was based on the instructor's book GUI Bloopers: Don'ts and Do's for Software Developers and Web Designers, which describes the most common GUI design errors, is illustrated with examples from commercial software and Websites, and explains how to avoid them (Website).

Jeff Johnson        Cover of GUI Bloopers

Figure 3-4: Jeff Johnson and his book "GUI Bloopers" on which the tutorial was based on (from the author's Website)

The tutorial presented a sample of the more concrete bloopers in the book: GUI component bloopers, layout and appearance bloopers, textual bloopers, interaction bloopers, and Web bloopers. Our goal in the tutorial was to learn to recognize and avoid common GUI design mistakes.

All in all, this tutorial provided valuable knowledge on how to avoid common design errors. I thought, however, that positive examples were missing from this one-day tutorial: It was just a collection of negative examples and did not offer a better solution. Of course, it is good to know what should be avoided, but that does not suffice. You do not always automatically know what would be a better solution.

On Tuesday, the main conference started with an opening plenary by David Brin, U.S. scientist and author of A World Filled With Cameras: Security at the Cost of Freedom. Or Can We Have Both? (www.davidbrin.com/index.html)

Expecting the official opening of CHI 2002

Figure 5: Expecting the official opening of CHI 2002

This first CHI impression was quite spectacular for me, but mainly because of the number of UI people in one place! I really enjoyed the good feeling of being together with so many people from all over the world and sharing the same interest.

 

Different Types of Sessions

I really appreciated the presence of my colleague Gerd Waloszek, who had attended CHI several times and who was a great help in assigning faces to famous names and in finding my way around the conference program.

In the Commons

Figure 6: In the commons – here UI people meet for a break, visit exhibitors and poster sessions or hook up to the Web

At CHI, you have a choice between panels, workshops, demonstrations, papers, special interest groups (SIGs), practitioners special tracks, poster sessions, and more.

The first day, I attended mostly panels but it was really hard for me to follow the discussions as a "newie" in this community. I was only able to enjoy the panels when Gerd was around, who tried to give me some background information.

I liked the SIGs best. There, you can discuss a specific topic in a relatively small group and you get a lot of useful feedback from other UI people who deal with the same issues.

I also enjoyed several demo sessions on future interfaces. This was a great way of having a look into the future!

The closing plenary "Interfaces for Alternate, Automated and Involuntary Experiences - Prosthetics, Robotics and Remote Control Operation Systems" by the Australian artist Stelarc was a weird but also memorable experience. His work explores and extends the concept of the body and its relationship with technology through human-machine interfaces, incorporating medical imaging, prosthetics, robotics, VR systems, and the Internet.

Stelarc's suspension performance appeared on video only

Figure 7: Stelarc's suspension performance appeared on video only

Stelarc presented photos and videos of his past performances, for example "Suspension" where his body was suspended vertically upright by inserting hooks into his skin. He also explored a stomach sculpture that was inserted into his stomach and documented using video endoscopy equipment. If you're not feeling out of sorts, you can see photos or read more about these performances on his Website: www.stelarc.va.com.au.

 

Conclusion

The overall atmosphere of the conference was – according to colleagues who were attending CHI for the second or third time – not as pleasant as the year before. From what my colleagues had reported, I was expecting many more people and a much more open climate during this conference. But this was obviously the first time that the CHI had shrunk and money was scarce. Many UI people seem to have skipped this year's CHI.

The main positive experiences that I collected there were:

 

Final Word

All in all, CHI 2002 was my successful start to becoming a member of the worldwide UI community. My appetite has been whetted and I am eager to look beyond the new horizons that have been promised for CHI 2003, which will take place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

CHI 2003 logo

Figure 8: The "New Horizons" are still somewhat fuzzy – I hope they will become clearer in 2003

 

All photos, unless otherwise noted, by Gerd Waloszek (taken with Minolta Dimage 7).

 

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