Track Chairs:
Dr. Matt Germonprez, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire,
Dr. Chuck Kacmar, University of Alabama,
Dr. Traci Hess, Washington State University,
Dr. Peter Tarasewich, Northeastern University,
Track Description:
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is an interdisciplinary field that has attracted researchers, educators, and practitioners from different disciplines. HCI has gained attention during recent years due to the rapid development and advancement in information and computer technology. To better use advanced technology, we need to better understand users, their tasks within different contexts, and the interplay among users, tasks, and contexts/environments.
In the MIS field, broad HCI issues and research questions have been investigated over a long period of time. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) or Human Factors studies in MIS are concerned with the ways humans interact with information, technologies, and tasks, especially in business, managerial, organizational, and cultural contexts. MIS researchers study these issues in organizational, business, and personal contexts or take these contexts into consideration in their studies.
The potential interest in an HCI track at AMCIS 2008 is demonstrated by:
- The high level of participation in AIS SIGHCI-sponsored conference tracks. SIGHCI currently sponsors/supports HCI tracks/mini-tracks at AMCIS, ECIS, PACIS, ICIS, HCII, and HICSS.
- The high level of participation in the HCI tracks/mini-tracks at AMCIS 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. The last few HCI tracks at AMCIS have each included around 40 papers presented in 13-14 well-attended sessions.
- There are approximately 500 current members in AIS SIGHCI.
This increasing trend of interest and enthusiasm was exhibited by the large number of submissions and the high level of participation during the last few years. A meta/mega track is necessary so that (1) it is possible to attend to specific research areas within HCI in MIS, (2) more HCI researchers can be involved, play important organizing roles, and make an impact in this area, and (3) the overall reviewing process for submissions in this area can be more efficiently and better managed.
The aim of this track is consistent with the HCI in MIS track/mini-track in previous years at AMCIS. We want to provide a forum for AIS members to acknowledge each other’s work, and to discuss, develop, and promote a range of issues related to HCI in MIS, including the history, reference disciplines, theories, practice, methodologies and techniques, new development, and applications of the interaction between humans, information and information technology. In an effort to bridge academic research and industry practice, both research articles and experience reports are welcome. The track is open to all types of research methodologies (e.g., conceptualization, theorization, case study, action research, experimentation, survey, simulation). We also welcome visionary articles and research in progress papers.
Special Issue of the International Journal on Human-Computer Studies
(5/21/2008)
We are pleased to announce that the International Journal on Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS) has agreed to publish expansions of the best, completed papers from participating minitracks at the HCI track at AMCIS 2008. Our special thanks go to the Editors-in-Chief of IJHCS, Dr. Enrico Motta and Dr. Susan Wiedenbeck, for their support of HCI research and AIS SIGHCI. Continuing the AIS SIGHCI tradition, we believe that this fast-tracking opportunity with a high-quality refereed academic journal will promote HCI research in the MIS community. The guest editors for this special issue will be Matt Germonprez, Chuck Kacmar, and Gabe Lee.
HCI researchers wishing to participate in this fast-tracking opportunity through the AMCIS HCI track should submit their papers to the participating HCI mini-tracks listed below. SIGHCI’s policies regarding fast-tracking with SIGHCI sponsored special journal issues and best paper awards at conferences are available at http://sigs.aisnet.org/sighci/sig_policies/.
Mini-Tracks:
Hedonic Information Technologies: Online Games, Interactive Entertainment, and Lifestyle Computing
Some of the most dramatic recent developments in computing have been the explosive growth in interactive digital entertainment (IDE), and social and lifestyle computing – or the non-business use of computing for purposes of entertainment, socialization, and lifestyle augmentation. The market for gaming is currently about $7.3 billion dollars, with $936 million in online gaming. Meanwhile, the market for digital entertainment in homes and home automation has reached an all-time high in 2005. These non-business uses of computing represent large and legitimate markets with social implications that are so profound and global in impact that affected societies will never be the same. Gaming has long been an extension of artificial intelligence research, but its many social, economic, and business implications have long been ignored by academic researchers.
Research in interactive digital entertainment and lifestyle computing is even more sparse. Given the magnitude of impact that interactive digital entertainment and lifestyle computing will have on the world, this mini-track will explore and foster unaddressed social, business, and technical research in these areas. These topics are a natural extension of and complement with related research in the HCI track.
Possible Topics: Example topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following aspects of online interactive digital entertainment (IDE) and lifestyle computing:
- Advertising models with IDE
- AI techniques for IDE
- Auctions for online gaming components
- Automated/smart homes
- Collaborative gaming
- Communication techniques and issues of IDE
- Conflicts between real and virtual worlds
- Diffusion and adoption of IDE
- Digital convergence
- Digital personas
- E-business of entertainment
- Economic impact of IDE
- Gaming communities
- Gaming currencies
- HCI aspects of IDE / edutainment
- IDE agents
- Immersive gaming
- Interactive digital storytelling / techniques for interactive narration
- Interactive theatre
- Learning through IDE
- Lifestyle computing
- Massive social collaboration
- Measures of IDE
- Metaphors of IDE
- Methodologies and development techniques
- Mixed reality and virtual reality
- Mobile gaming
- Models of IDE
- Novel interfaces
- Online addiction and anti-social behavior
- Online environments of IDE
- Pricing of IDE
- Privacy and security issues
- Social blogging
- Social issues and considerations of IDE
- Ubiquitous gaming
- Virtual reality
- Wearable computing
- Wireless social computing
Emerging Computer-Mediated Communication Tools/Technologies for Web-based Services
Shu Z. Schiller
Mauricio Featherman
Applications of innovative Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) tools and technologies have reached a new height in support of communications in business and education on the Internet. For example, web-based live text chat and co-browsing have been used to enhance the user experience during online customer service. Agents, avatars, and automatic payment systems have been used to assist users in online purchasing. In addition, hyper video and e-books are now widely used in e-learning, and highly personalized user interfaces using tools, such as RSS and gadgets, are rapidly gaining popularity on the Internet. Given the novelty of these tools and technologies, the theme of the mini-track is (1) to understand and explore the design, use, and evaluation of innovative CMC tools and technologies in web-based services, and (2) to advance theories and construct theoretical models to improve our ability to understand and explain their impact.
Possible Topics: This mini-track encourages theoretical and empirical (both quantitative and qualitative) studies drawing from various research disciplines. Studies using innovative research methodologies or multi-methods are especially welcome. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Development of frameworks and taxonomies for assessing innovative CMC tools and technologies on the Internet
- Theories and research models concerning the design, use, and evaluation of innovative CMC tools and technologies
- Applications of innovative CMC tools and technologies in web-based business and education
- Applications of innovative CMC tools and technologies in interpersonal and group communication via the Internet
- Impact of innovative CMC tools and technologies on the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations
- Qualitative analysis of the components, process, and context of innovative CMC tools and technologies
Personalization Systems
Advancement in technologies (e.g., Internet, mobile and wireless technology, and ubiquitous technology) has made personalization possible and available. Personalization has been recognized as an important concept in IS research and has received considerable attention from both academia and industry. Many practitioners and researchers are investigating into various issues of personalization. Yet, there is a lot to be known about personalization technologies, personalization applications, and their impacts.
This mini-track addresses all the issues related to designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating personalization systems from the technical, behavioral, economical, or managerial perspectives. Through this mini-track, we aim to examine technologies for personalization, users’ attitude, intention, and perception towards personalization, the impacts of personalization, and better ways for personalizing products and services. We welcome empirical research through quantitative or qualitative methodologies, including novel conceptualizations of information systems, analytical modeling approaches, case studies of implementations, and experimental or prototyping-based studies.
Possible Topics:
- Defining and conceptualizing personalization in e-commerce, m-commerce, and u-commerce
- Understanding the process of personalization
- Personalization technologies, such as recommendation systems and intelligent software
- Theories and models for better understanding of personalization
- Applications of personalization technologies
- Factors influencing users’ adoption, acceptance, and usage of personalized products/services
- Impact of personalization systems on users’ behavior
- Personalization-Privacy Paradox (e.g.., trade-offs between personalization and privacy concerns)
- The impact of personalization systems on business
- Identifying and implementing users’ various personalization needs
- Best practices of personalization
- Cross-cultural issues of personalization
- Metrics for personalization success
Emergency Response Information Systems
(Co-Sponsored by SIGDSS)
Tung Bui
Murray Turoff
Bartel Van de Walle
Any aspect of the design, development, deployment, operation, or evaluation of emergency response systems is appropriate for this mini-track, provided it focuses on the tools, functionality, and/or interface the system provides to human users involved with emergency and crisis response. Also papers that focus on requirements for this environment and/or the impact or relationship of such systems to the behavior of the individuals or organizations involved are equally welcome.
Papers that focus on the underlying technology or hardware of computers, networks, sensors, mobile devices, and their improvements in such areas as throughput, accuracy, and security, should be directed to other appropriate sessions. An exception might be any special purpose input/output device for use by respondents to a crisis situation.
This mini-track is concerned with the functionality that emergency response information system provides for those involved in:
- Preparedness (analysis, planning, and evaluation)
- Analysis of the threats
- Analysis and evaluation of performance (and errors)
- Planning for training
- Planning for mitigation
- Planning for detection and intelligence
- Planning for response
- Planning for recovery and/or normalization
- Training
- Mitigation
- Detection
- Response
- Recovery/normalization
HCI Issues in Healthcare IT
(Co-Sponsored by SIGHealth)
Nina McGarry
Ann Fruhling
Vance Wilson
In order to comply with changing regulations and to improve support for office staff, clinicians, and patients, healthcare organizations worldwide are currently undertaking massive transformations and additions to their IT infrastructure. History suggests that the success of the healthcare applications that emerge from this process will depend to a large degree on the ability of people to use them effectively and efficiently. Human-computer interaction (HCI) research can provide valuable guidance to improve the usability of healthcare IT. Potential exists for HCI researchers to apply existing knowledge to improving healthcare IT as well as to formulate new theories and practices specific to the healthcare context. The goal of this mini-track is to provide a focused outlet at AMCIS for HCI researchers in healthcare domains to share and discuss the results of their work. Research is welcomed on any HCI topic relating to healthcare IT.
Possible Topics:
- Innovative HCI design and/or prototyping methods in healthcare
- Usability engineering for healthcare IT
- UI evaluation methods in healthcare
- Behavioral and cognitive aspects of HCI in healthcare
- Impacts of HCI on success or failure of healthcare IT
- User interface (UI) design practices for reducing errors in healthcare IT
- Application of HCI research to improving telemedicine
- UI development for patient-centered information systems, providing such functions as communication, health records access, and remote monitoring and treatment
- Accessibility and other HCI issues relating to special needs populations, including elderly patients, the chronically ill, and caregivers
- Impacts of regulation (e.g., privacy, security, HIPAA) on usability
- HCI aspects relating electronic medical records (institutional and/or personal)
- HCI and mobile devices used in healthcare
- Standards and guiding principles for UI design in healthcare
- Developing and teaching HCI courses for healthcare IT
Information Visualization and Decision Support
(Co-Sponsored by SIGDSS)
The abundance of information available to today’s managers makes it essential to efficiently represent, filter, and present information for effective decision making. The rapid advances in hardware and software development have made it possible to present data visually from multiple perspectives. However, the challenge is the design of visualizations such that (1) they are useful in presenting non-numeric as well numeric information, and (2) they are integrated with other components of existing decision support systems.
From that perspective, the topic of information visualization spans several disciplines, including decision support and human-computer interaction. Specifically, the graphical presentation of information applies to an array of topics, such as data modeling, interface design, data mining, and data warehousing. This mini-track will focus on the design, development, and use of information visualization, as well as its ability to function as a tool to aid managerial decision-making.
Possible Topics:
- Techniques for the organization of information (e.g., clustering)
- Visual presentation of data mining results
- Design of visual interfaces that facilitate decision support
- Evaluation of visual interfaces especially from a decision effectiveness perspective
- Application of animation techniques to the presentation of information
HCI and Competitive Advantage
Marilyn Tremaine
Jan Marco Leimeister
This mini-track addresses an issue that has been skirted both by the ACM Computer-Human Interaction Community and the AIS-Human-Computer Interaction Community, that is, what value do efforts in human-computer interaction provide to the overall corporation, and what competitive advantage might the skills and activities performed by HCI personnel give to business operations? The mini-track is therefore looking for papers that address this larger issue not just in terms of a return on investment that might be achieved in various focused areas of HCI, e.g., web site development that brings repeat business, but also in areas, such as the redefinition of business processes, the suggestion of new markets, the creation of new products and services, the capture of unique information, the building of brand loyalty, the use of service engineering that ties a product with its service infrastructure, the better management of knowledge throughout the corporation, and the use of HCI in developing successful corporate strategies. Furthermore, information is needed on what are the critical success factors for the management of HCI functions within organizations.
Human-computer interaction, because it has focused on the study of human behavior with the intent of generating appropriate designs that support the smooth integration technology with humans, is a field that is posed to move beyond that of simply running evaluation studies or investigating reasons for individual acceptance or adoption of technology. HCI is a field that has developed a myriad of methods for observing, modeling, and interpreting human behavior in order to obtain technology designs and technology infrastructures that make human activities more productive and products more attractive. These same methods could apply, in the large, to corporate strategy. Similar to work in organizational behavior that has demonstrated that managing human capital appropriately can achieve productivity gains and add significantly to corporate knowledge, there exist demonstrations in human-computer interaction that illustrate that it, too, has these same potentials. A classic example is that of making interfaces usable enough so that data entry work is done by customers rather than hired personnel. Another example exists in the redesign of workflow in collaborative work research which uses computer interfaces to manage complex work re-direction negotiations. A third example exists in software development wherein software update management systems take over monitoring functions enabling a company to pursue the cost advantages of virtual teams.
Possible topics:
- Return on investment for employing usability evaluation
- Cost-benefit tradeoffs in using human-computer interaction techniques
- Case studies of the strategic use of HCI
- Case studies on and success factors for managing the HCI function in organizations
- Empirical studies of business process change introduced and enabled by HCI
- Empirical studies of web-based code that gives better customer service than competitors, e.g., recommender systems
- Empirical studies of “tagging” uses that collect useful and privately owned data
- HCI-related business models
- Recognition of emerging markets in new technologies and services based on HCI investigations
Trust in Information Technology
Sherrie Y. X. Komiak
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah
A user’s trust in information technology is an important component in the relationship between the user and the information technology. A user has to trust a technology before the technology is adopted and fully used. While there is a rich literature on interpersonal trust, trust in information technology has been under researched. First, the conceptualization of trust in information technology needs to be clarified and constructed. The similarities and differences between interpersonal trust and trust in information technology need to be better understood. The extent to which concepts and theoretical frameworks from prior literature on interpersonal trust is applicable to research on trust in information technology is still unclear. Second, designing a more trustworthy technology deserves further research. Trust in information technology is an important HCI (Human-Computer interaction) research area. Third, trust in information technology may also have different impact on adoption of different technologies and could be moderated by organizational and contextual factors.
Submissions addressing all aspects of trust in information technology are welcome. We welcome conceptual, theoretical, or empirical research papers in this area.
Possible Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Conceptualization of trust in information technology
- Processes of trust development in information technology/systems
- Theories or empirical studies on the impact of user, task, technology, and contextual characteristics on trust in information technology
- Theories or empirical studies on the impact of trust in information technology on technology adoption, decision making, website revenue, and customer relationships
- Trust in information technologies in electronic or mobile business/commerce
Interface Design, Evaluation, and Impact
Matt Germonprez
Chuck Kacmar
Younghwa “Gabe” Lee
Denise McManus
HCI papers that do not fall into any of the above mini-tracks should be submitted to the Interface Design, Evaluation, and Impact mini-track. This mini-track is open to all topics and issues dealing with HCI, implemented on any platforms or technologies (e.g., desktop, laptop, or handheld devices, stationary, or mobile systems). Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The behavioral, cognitive, and motivational aspects of human/computer interaction
- User task analysis and modeling
- The analysis, design, development, evaluation, and use of information systems
- Guidelines and standards for interface design
- Novel interaction and interface designs for handheld mobile devices (e.g., phones or PDAs)
- Interface issues in the development of radical interaction technologies
- User studies (including field tests) of interaction with mobile information systems
- Information system usability engineering
- Development of new usability testing methods for interface designs and interaction techniques
- HCI security (HCI-SEC) and privacy for interface design and interaction
- User interface design and evaluation of the Web for:
- B2B, B2C, C2C E-Commerce or M-Commerce
- Group collaboration
- Negotiation and auction
- The impact of interfaces/information technology on attitudes, behavior, performance, perception, and productivity
- Implications and consequences of technological change on individuals, groups, society, and socio-technical units
- HCI issues related to the elderly, the disabled, and other special needs populations
- Issues in teaching and designing HCI courses or programs
- Human factors issues related to HCI
- Case studies looking at interface or interaction design and usability