Table of Contents
VOLUME XIX.5 September + October 2012
-
Demo Hour
-
Demo hour
Meg Grant, Anja Hertenberger, Ricardo O'Nascimento, Leonie Urff, Minhye Lee, Romy Achituv, Mouna Andraos, Melissa Mongiat, Shahar Zaks
TK 730 The TK 730 is a hybrid typewriter/knitting machine that converts words into a knitted code. It does this by decoding the typed word and re-encoding it into the pattern of the knitwork. The idea comes from the common root of the words text and textile: the Latin…
-
-
Blogpost
-
How I learned to stop worrying and love the deliverable
Elizabeth Goodman
I don't remember when I first heard the word deliverable, but I do remember ferociously loathing it. Many of interactions' readers undoubtedly live and breathe deliverables, but here's a quick definition for those who are still innocent: A deliverable is a document created by one group of people that…
-
-
Departments
-
SIGCHI in Latin America
Gerrit van der Veer
After years of volunteer investment, SIGCHI is now at the center of the HCI network in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. South of the border, however, is a different story. We meet occasionally with some of our Latin American colleagues at our conferencestypically only about 25 when…
-
Community calendar 2012
CACM Staff
September 2012 SocialCom 2012ASE/IEEE International Conference on Social Computing (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Conference Date: September 36, 2012 http://www.asesite.org/conferences/socialcom/2012/ Fun and Games 20124th International Conference on Fun and Games (Toulouse, France) Conference Date: September 46, 2012 http://fng2012.org/ Ubicomp 201214th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (Pittsburgh, PA) Conference Date: September 58,…
-
-
Columns
-
From data divination to data-aware design
Elizabeth Churchill
In the past few years, I have sifted through more trace data than I care to remember. By trace data I mean logs of actions taken by users on Internet sitesmostly aggregated data from many users, but sometimes data from single users, such as search query logs. Why all…
-
The digital apprentice
Daniela Rosner
Imagine making fresh pasta in your kitchen. The ingredients get placed on the counter, one by one. Pour a cup of flour onto a board. Knead in the eggs, salt, and water. Roll out the dough; monitor its thickness. Cut, stuff, pinch, and boil. Now imagine what this might…
-
-
Day in the Lab
-
Game innovation lab, NYU-Poly
Katherine Isbister
How do you describe your lab to visitors? The Game Innovation Lab is an interdisciplinary research and teaching space where we take games as an innovation challenge for advancing computer science and engineering as well as design. We designed the space to be highly reconfigurable, with affordances for creativity…
-
-
Forums
-
Sustainability does not begin with the individual
Mike Hazas, A. Bernheim Brush, James Scott
In the past decade, an increasing amount of HCI research has been concerned with making personal and household environmental impacts (such as energy, water, or CO2 equivalents) more visible, with the aim of educating people and affecting their relevant actions. We have two concerns with this. First, when evaluated…
-
Of turf fires, fine linen, and Porter cake
Luigina Ciolfi, Marc McLoughlin
Living history museums are challenging environments to enhance with interactive technology. Their heritage is complex, usually including entire buildings, historical artifacts, and live performances, all within an outdoor site often landscaped to be part of the display. Visitors explore living history museums with an interest in immersive reconstructions of…
-
Will content credibility problems flatline health innovation?
Colleen Jones
Digital contentthe text, images, audio, and video that make up digital experiencesis in demand. And in few areas is it more in demand than health: Eight in 10 American Internet users have looked online for health information [1]. If you think about it, much health innovation explores how to…
-
Understanding HCI policy in Spain in the context of accessibility
Loïc Normand
Spain pioneered policies related to disability and accessibility, especially in the physical environment. The first major piece of legislation was Act 13/1982 on the Social Integration of People with Disabilities [1]. The law was published just a few years after the reinstitution of democracy in Spain in 1977 and…
-
Punctuated equilibrium and technology change
Jonathan Grudin
Several Timelines columns have argued that we fail to notice indirect consequences of successive waves of new hardware. This essay explores the dynamics of technology change, illustrated by an oscillation in the conditions affecting collaboration across continents in the computer-supported cooperative work community. Major technology shifts affect technology producers…
-
Coherence and responsiveness
Jared Harris, A. Henderson
The world we live in is full of systems: phone systems, legal systems, air traffic control systems, educational systems, banking systems, digital communication systems (such as the Internet), computer operating systems, purchasing systems, HR systems, healthcare systems. Systems are designed and evolved; they are built, maintained, modified, and replaced.…
-
The elsewheres of product engagement
Lucy Hughes, Douglas Atkinson, Eli Blevis
Image Contributors: Lucy Hughes, Douglas Atkinson, and Eli Blevis Genre: Documentary street imagery of digital and non-digital product engagement. A man appears so engaged with his iPad, he seems to have forgotten to light his cigarettea scene observed as part of a group documentary image-making activity during a workshop…
-
-
Features
-
Tech break ups
Elizabeth Gerber
I'm sorry to say, skinny Moleskines, but I'm breaking up with you. Have you ever broken up with someone? I'll bet it was painful. Hidden secrets come pouring out; hurtful words are exchanged. And yet, for the first time in a long time, it feels good to be totally,…
-
Understanding unavailability in a world of constant connection
Jeremy Birnholtz, Jeffrey Hancock, Madeline Smith, Lindsay Reynolds
Historically, the problem of coordinating opportunities for real-time communication has been dominated by the problem of co-presence. Before there was any interactive media, people had to be in the same place to talk. Visiting somebody's house ("calling," in the early sense) to see if they were available or scheduling…
-
Disappearing interfaces
Youn-kyung Lim
One day I was watching a TV commercial for Apple's iPad2. The script definitely had an Apple ring to it. The ad began with, "Now we can watch a newspaper," and ended with, "and touch the stars!" This upset me at first, because it seemed to overstate what the…
-
The design case
Elizabeth Boling, Kennon Smith
When designers work, no matter what process they follow or type of thinking they employ, they inevitably face the moment of invention. This is the point at which no theory, guideline, example, or statement of best practice can tell the designer or the design team specifically what to do…
-
Modeling is not the answer!
Susanne Bødker, Niels Mathiasen, Marianne Petersen
In a 2008 CACM Viewpoints column, Susan Landau [1] calls for an understanding of the complexity of human behavior underlying IT security and proposes a multidimensional approach, with contributions from areas such as business, anthropology, and engineering. The reason for including these various fields is that the strong cryptology…
-
-
Cover story
-
HCI for peace
Juan Hourcade, Natasha Bullock-Rest, Lahiru Jayatilaka, Lisa Nathan
Two hundred thirty-seven million. That is a conservative estimate of the number of people killed as a direct consequence of war and doctrinal hatred during the 20th century [1]. It's the equivalent of two 9/11 attacks every day for the entire century. One trillion two hundred eighty-three billion dollars.…
-
