The 28th British HCI Conference will be held in the Victorian Seaside town of Southport, in the North West of the UK less than an hour away from the International Airports of Manchester and Liverpool.
The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Sand, Sea and Sky - Holiday HCI’ and the aim is to provide a venue for both regular and diverse HCI as well as to promote work that highlights HCI for the family, for recreation and for relaxation. The conference will combine regular paper submissions, works in progress, panels and late breaking tracks to allow wide participation and will also specifically design into the event a unique experience for participants and, as appropriate, their families.

Important Dates

14th March 2014 (11.59pm) Deadline for full and short papers
23rd May 2014 (11.59pm) Deadline for WIPS, Demoes, Student Posters, DC, ALT
1st August (11.59pm) Deadline for Late Breaking Posters
DEADLINE FOR: 1st July 2014 - Camera-ready submission of full papers and short papers
DEADLINE FOR: 8th August 2014 - Camera-ready submission of WIPS, Demoes, Posters, DC, ALT

Submissions

HCI2014 invites submissions in all areas of Human Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Usability, Interaction Design and related areas. Specifically for HCI2014 'Holiday HCI' we encourage submissions inspired by the following themes:

Sand – Macro HCI - Studies that expand the horizons of HCI, reaching out into new areas
Sand - Micro HCI that helps us understand small things in clear and distinct ways
Sea – Ever changing HCI – designing for an unstable yet cyclic world
Sea – HCI that goes beyond the local shores, that considers the cultures of other places
Sky – Blue sky HCI that dreams and imagines
Sky – HCI with infinite possibilities – large systems
Holiday HCI – Designs that fit into holidays and leisure time
Holiday HCI – HCI innovating to create new holiday and leisure experiences
Submission Types

We encourage the following research submission types:

Full and Short Papers
Papers are invited in two categories; full and short. Both of these categories are intended to report stable completed research; the distinction is about the ‘size’ rather than the quality of the work. Full papers will probably be between 8 and 10 pages long and short papers are limited to 6 pages. Both sizes of papers will undergo a peer review process and a meta review process and, based on previous conference data, acceptance rates will be expected to be around 30%. Papers will be published in the BCS EWIC and the ACM digital libraries.

NOTE that papers follow the BCS, not the ACM, template. As papers will be orally presented in parallel sessions all accepted paper authors will be expected to additionally create a ‘postcard’ of their research so it can be made accessible to all delegates – details will be sent out after acceptance.
Please ensure that all submissions to this track are anonymous and note that at least one author of each accepted paper needs to register for the conference.

Works in Progress
Works-in-progress are expected to describe work that is in progress. This venue is therefore well suited to work that is only part completed. As a fully peer reviewed category it is NOT suitable for work that does not represent original or scientific work. Papers submitted to this category will normally be around 6 pages long. On submitting a WIP, authors may indicate a desire for the work to be presented as a demo or as an oral presentation and where possible the Programme Committee will try to fulfil such requests.
Please ensure that all submissions to this track are anonymous and note that at least one author of each accepted paper needs to register for the conference.

Late Breaking Posters and Student Posters
This is a juried submission track that allows attendees to showcase very early, relatively speculative or not yet completed work so that others can know what they are doing. It also suits submission of posters describing funded research projects and HCI research labs. Students are particularly encouraged to submit to this track to enable feedback on their work outside of the DC. Submission to this category for students is 23rd May and for other tracks is the 1st August. Poster submissions should be a maximum of 2 pages long.

There is no requirement to anonymise poster submissions.
Note: The student posters will be marked up as student posters and a letter needs to be submitted for evidence of student status.
Workshops
We are looking for a small number of high quality imaginative workshops and especially those aligned to the themes of the conference. Submissions should be made via the workshop chairs and potential organisers are encouraged to email the workshop chairs to firm their ideas and register their interests. A dialogue will then ensue and the workshop ideas will be developed.

Doctoral Consortium
Children on BeachThe Doctoral Consortium provides doctoral students with a setting where they can informally discuss their work, collecting valuable expert opinions and sharing new ideas, methods and applications with other students and senior HCI researchers. It is an excellent opportunity for PhD students to present and discuss their work, and get independent feedback to shape their research planning or to polish their analysis. The event has a strong social/networking side, and can be a very helpful and supportive process for students to meet and discuss common concerns. These sessions have a long history of vibrant discussion and are always well attended. See the website for submission criteria for this category.

Panels
We are looking for a small number of high quality panels and especially those aligned to the theme of the conference. Submissions should be via the panels’ chairs and potential organisers are encouraged to email the chairs to discuss their ideas.

Demos
The HCI 2014 'Hands-on' Showcase gives opportunities for researchers, practitioners, designers, artists and industry professionals to demonstrate innovative interaction and interface technologies. This venue will allow conference attendees to experience new developments in HCI research and exhibitors to engage with attendees through the actual use of their systems and discuss their work with their peers.
You are encouraged to submit to the 'hands-on' showcase proposing new concepts and systems that are best communicated through interactive engagement. The showcase proposal will be reviewed by a panel of experts based on its relevance to the conference audience, its ability to engage the participants, and the novelty of the experience.

We are looking for excellent demonstrations from across all areas of HCI including, but not limited to:

Pervasive Computing
Natural and Gesture-based UIs
Mobile Interaction
Surface Computing
Augmented and Mixed Reality
Interactive Artworks
Information Visualisation
Crowd-sourced Systems
Social Technologies/Interfaces
Robotics
Persuasive technologies

ALT-HCI
Does your work push the bounds of HCI? Do you find mentioning it amongst your colleagues sparks endless debate? Are you working with a group of users that are in some way extreme or exploring conceptions of technology that do not fit or standard models? Do you have a weird finding or observation you would like to share, but that does not seem to fit into traditional ways of talking about HCI? Are you simply revisiting and area that was once mainstream and is now out of fashion, or dismissed? Or reproducing an old result and finding it not quite as expected?
Perhaps you are investigating methods for inducing negative user experience, or for not getting things done (or is that Facebook?). Maybe you would like to argue for the importance of Taylorism within HCI, or explore user interfaces for the neonate. We are looking for papers and topics that make us think again about HCI, that spark discussion, that would get highly divergent grades in standard review process.
Human-Computer Interaction is a broad discipline, and the British HCI conference has always been more accepting of the range of this than some venues. However, we still need to be challenged, to see new things, or see the old in new ways.
This is the place to do it!

Awards
To recognise outstanding contributions to the conference and to nurture the HCI researchers of tomorrow we will have best paper and best student paper awards, which will be judged by the reviewers and announced at the conference dinner.

If you have any questions about the conference you can also email us at: hci2014@uclan.ac.uk .

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Southport.

Janet C Read, Gavin Sim, Matthew Horton and Dan Fitton (conference chairs)