Next Generation Experience Design
Monday, December 22nd, 2008 by Keith InstoneCall for Papers on “Next Generation Experience Design” in the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 2009 Special Issue.
Guest Editors: Mark Blythe, University of York; Marc Hassenzahl, Folkwang University, Essen; Effie Law, University of Leicester.
“In the old days and by the old days I mean two years ago…” - Eddie Izzard
Youtube, Facebook, Second Life, Wikipedia, Google Earth and even Google itself are all less than a decade old and yet for many they are as taken for granted and indispensable as books or pens and paper. It is not only the pace of technological change which is unprecedented but also the speed of distribution and acceptance. These technologies affect every aspect of our lives: work, play, sex, politics and religion. Small wonder then that studies of human computer interaction (HCI) have adopted a term as wide as “user experience” to address their impact. HCI has begun to consider such areas as: fun, enjoyment, beauty, aesthetics and affect. As users become more concerned with the social and environmental impact of their technologies “user experience” is being conceived in still wider terms to include such topics as ethics, politics and sustainability.
“User experience” has become the default label for almost every study in HCI. It appears to have replaced usability as a focus for interaction design in both academia and industry. Courses in User Experience Design are offered at many universities and job titles such as “User Experience
Engineer” are commonplace. Yet there are a very wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches to user experience some of which are radically opposed to one another.
A variety of methods and techniques have been developed from social science disciplines such as psychology, which tend to break user experience into component elements in search for general models and rules. Others employ more holistic and situated approaches, taking contextual factors into consideration. These two types of approaches have their advantages and disadvantages - together they provide new opportunities to transform HCI into the practice and science of experience with technology.
This special issue will reflect the diversity of approaches to user experience and explore the limits of current methods. We encourage submissions of both empirical and theoretical work.
Possible topics include but are not limited to
- Fun, enjoyment and affect
- Beauty and Aesthetics
- Ethics and Religion
- Human Computer Sexual Interaction
- Green HCI and sustainability
- Approaches from Cultural and Critical Theory
The deadline for submissions is the 20th of February. Submissions may take the form of research papers or shorter technical notes and should be submitted electronically at the Journal’s Manuscript Central site.
Important Dates:
Paper submission 20th February 2009
Notification of Acceptance 3rd April 2009
Final papers due 28th April 2009.
Informal enquiries may be sent to: mblythe@cs.york.ac.uk
Also, see the instructions for authors.