Taking Human-Centred Design Seriously
This tutorial is cancelled. We apologise for the inconvenience.
Aim and Content
For the past 25 years, Liam Bannon has been developing an approach
to understanding and developing technology for human needs that takes
a “human-centred” approach. In this tutorial, he will present various
aspects of this approach in a highly personalized and engaging way, presenting
various examples of work that fits this approach. We need to consider
the relation between technology and the individual, the community, and
the environment.
As we enter a new century, issues of sustainability, aesthetics and quality of life all need to be integrated into our research on technological developments. It is this emphasis on human concerns and activity in relation to technology development and use that characterizes this perspective as “human-centred”. We should help in creating a future that, while exploiting the innovative nature of the new technologies, is also rooted in a background and understanding that is sensitive to, and builds on, our unique cultural traditions.
I attempt to link these concerns in our work on emerging computing paradigms through our focus on human activities, and on the way they may be enhanced, supported and transcended with, by, and through, novel interactive artefacts and platforms. I will discuss the themes of “ecologies of artefacts”, appropriation, tinkering/bricolage, and the emergence of design anthropology, among other topics. Examples from our own lab as well as others will be discussed. The purpose of the tutorial is not to engage in a form of Futurism concerning the HCI field, but to examine some of the technical and social trends that can be observed, and to highlight some areas of particular significance that warrant further attention.
From a personal perspective, issues such as means and ends, our underlying values, and concern for our fellow human beings in an increasingly fragile world, are issues that, while perhaps seen as outside the remit of a narrow HCI brief, impact on the field in significant ways. The tutorial is different in style to many others, aiming to engage and provoke the audience to question many of the taken-for-granted assumptions of the HCI and computing field.
A short biography of the tutor
Liam Bannon is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science
and Information Systems and Director of the Interaction Design Centre
at the University of Limerick. His research interests range over the
gamut of human-technology relations, including cognitive ergonomics,
human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative
work, computer-supported collaborative learning, new media and interaction
design, information systems development, and social dimensions of new
technologies.. He was a founding editor of CSCW: The Journal of Collaborative
Computing and is serving, or has served, on the editorial boards of;
Journal of Cognition, Technology,
and Work; Requirements Engineering Journal, Universal Access in the Information
Society Journal; International Journal of Cognitive Technology, International
Journal of Web-Based Communities, CoDesign Journal; Behaviour and Information
Technology Journal, and Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. He has
served on numerous International Programme Committees in these areas,
and also served as a member of the International Panel of Reviewers for
many scientific research organizations - in the UK, Italy, Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, Switzerland, and
South Africa. The Interaction Design Centre which he heads is a multidisciplinary
group of over 20 researchers involved in research on a variety of national
and EU projects in the general HCI, CSCW and Interaction Design areas.
Liam is a Fellow of the Irish Ergonomics Society, a Member of the Irish
Computer Society, Chair of the Irish ACM SigCHI, and Irish representative
on IFIP TC13 (Human-Computer Interaction). Liam has extensive international
experience. He has been involved in a number of EU-Asia Usability programmes
and has traveled extensively in India and China, as well as Brazil.
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