First International Workshop on Industrial User Experience [WINDUX 2011] in conjunction with 3rd Interrnational ACM Conference on Human Computer Interaction India HCI 2011 at IIIT-Bangalore, India

Call for Participation

Workshop Theme and Goals

Much of today's research in interactive technologies lacks a tight coupling between technology innovation and end-user needs. Also, products are more and more used by sets of users with different experience, attitudes, expectations and capabilities. This is particularly apparent in the industrial field, concerning e.g. process and power industries that are managed by distributed control systems (DCS), industrial robots, and other automation products. In highly automated industrial environments, such as oil platforms, the end-user’s role is mainly two-fold: When automation works, the job is boring. When automation fails, the user experience is closer to sheer terror. What else is industrial User Experience (UX)?

These kinds of industrial products are often characterized as highly complex and customized systems, which may be commissioned by specialized organizations other than the system provider. These products may demand very different techniques and approaches when compared to e.g. consumer products such as mobile phones. In the industrial setting, usability can be difficult to measure, and the measurements that are made are not easy to translate and communicate to different stakeholders. At the same time, a focus on UX is seen a way to approach new user groups, to spread the sales and use of industrial technology, but there are many problems associated with studying this in the real-world setting, and using the results to improve products.

The challenges of working with usability and UX in an industrial environment are manifold, and the purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners, to discuss experiences and methods for working with these problems in this setting. The goal of the workshop is thus to provide a forum for discussing problems and possibilities when working with usability and UX in an industrial setting, and also to provide suggestions for working in the field, based on the knowledge and practical experience of the workshop participants.

Topics

Examples of topics suitable for the workshop include, but are not limited to:

• What different aspects of industrial UX exist? Which of those have a clear business impact? What are customers in heavy industry willing to pay for?

• As top-level management is the buying customer, how do we know who our end-users are? Can we characterise the end-users in a way that helps us develop better solutions?

• How can we find ways of communicating with end-users in a global marketplace?

• Can we use the “interactive web” to allow communication between users and development organisations?

• How can we measure usability and UX in an industrial setting?

• How can we translate the results of measuring usability and UX to different stakeholders in the development organisation?

• How can we balance the “traditional engineering perspective” that is prevalent when developing industrial applications with the actual needs and desires of end-users?

• How do 3rd party commissioning projects affect end-user experience? What limitations and opportunities does that pose to system developers?

• How can we ensure that usability and UX are taken seriously when deciding which problems to prioritise?



Message from the Organizers

A WIndux workshop is like a mini-conference within the conference. It is a chance for attendees with common interests to meet for a focused discussion and interactive discussion. People who are working in an emerging area in HCI/ User Experience are encouraged to submitt paper in the Workshop. We are expecting that this workshop may give an opportunity to discuss less explored user experience of industrial software system forward and build community. This workshop is expected to address research, practice, methodologies, application areas, innovations, management issues and should generate ideas that will give the community a new way of thinking about the topic or that suggest promising directions for future research or practice. Duration of workshop is expected to be half or a full day long depending upon the participation. A conference-attendee needs to register separately for attending a workshop (and some conference attendees may choose to attend the workshops only and skip the conference). The final outcome of this workshop thought to ba a collated list of ideas generated during the workshop sessions about a new, organized way of thinking about the topic or that suggest promising directions for future research.

This may result into an edited books or special issues of journals.

A printed proceeding of the workshop would be published and also made available on the WIndUx website.

Important Dates

Submission Start: 01 February 2011 using EasyChair submission system
Submission End: 25 February 2011
Notification of acceptance: 2 March2011
Camera-Ready Deadline: 8 March 2011
Workshop: 10 April 2011
Submission Details

Anyone interested in participating is invited to submit a position paper. Authors of accepted papers are expected to present their work at the workshop by giving a short presentation, and be prepared to participate in round table discussions of the issues. Position papers (2 to 4 pages) covering the topics of the workshop should be submitted by 25 February 2011. Papers should be submitted in ACM format. Notification of acceptance will be sent out 2 March 2011. At least one author from each accepted submission is expected to attend the workshop. Abstracts of accepted submission will be compiled in the conference proceedings which will also contain a summary of the workshop activity. Submissions or other queries should be mailed to organizers@windux.in

Paper Selection Process

If a person is interested in being a workshop participant, they must submit a position paper to the organizers of that workshop. Position papers are reviewed by the workshop organizers using their own criteria, and the organizers decide on the final list of participants. Workshops are only open to people who have had their position paper accepted by the workshop organizers. Participants must register for India HCI conference.

Upon Acceptance of your Paper

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by 2 March 2011. Authors of accepted workshops paper will receive instructions on how to submit the final, publication-readyversion of their paper, which is due in 8 March 2011.

Workshop Registration Fees

Workshop itself is free for all authors of accepted papers. However participants are required to register at India HCI conference.

Additional info

Please visit the India HCI 2011 conferenece website for lacation and accomodation details etc. http://www.indiahci2011.in

Organizers

Sanjay Tripathi, ABB Corporate Research, India
Mikko Rissanen, ABB Corporate Research, Sweden
Kari Ronnko, Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Sweden
Jeff Winter, Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Sweden

For specific queries kindly write to us at organizers@windux.in