Panels

Co-Chairs

Apala Lahiri Chavan, Human Factors International, India
Mark Handel, The Boeing Company, USA

Panels Reviewers

Corporate Re-Orgs: Poison or Catalyst to HCI?
Organizer: Stephanie Rosenbaum, Tec-Ed, USA
Kelly Braun, eBay, Inc., USA, Klaus Kaasgaard, Yahoo!, USA, Anna Wychansky, Oracle Corporation, USA
Wednesday, 14:30-16:00, Hall B

Are you facing a corporate re-org? Re-orgs can create exciting opportunities for HCI groups, or good people’s careers can be set back. This panel of HCI managers will consult on corporate reorganizations described by audience members. First, panelists with different perspectives discuss the roles of HCI resources during re-orgs. Then the panel will address audience questions on how to be proactive about organizational changes. (Send your questions to stephanie@teced.com by March 15th.) This panel will be of special interest to the industry segment of the CHI community­and also to academics who are educating future practitioners.

Outsourcing and Offshoring: Impact on the User Experience
Organizer: Richard Anderson, Riander, USA
Liam Friedland, Snap Design, USA, Jon Innes, SAP Labs LLC, USA, Roman Longoria, Computer Associates, USA, Pradeep Henry, Cognizant, India, Wayne Hom, Augmentum, USA
Tuesday, 14:30-16:00, Hall B

In a June 2003 survey, the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company reported that 51 percent of software executives surveyed have indicated that their offshore development strategy is already underway. Furthermore, another 20 percent of those surveyed indicated that they would move some portion of their product development offshore within the next 12 months.

While offshore development has distinct advantages from the cost of labor perspective, it raises a significant number of challenges as well as opportunities for HCI practitioners and companies that wish to develop well designed, usable products. Offshoring is already changing the practice of HCI in industry, and will continue to impact practitioners more significantly over time.

Is ROI an Effective Approach for Persuading Decisionmakers on the Value of User-Centered Design?
Organizer: Susan Dray, Dray and Associates, USA
Clare-Marie Karat, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA, Daniel Rosenberg, Oracle Corporation, USA, David Siegel, Dray and Associates, USA, Dennis Wixon, Microsoft, USA
Tuesday, 16:30-18:00, Hall B

This panel examines the utility and effectiveness of various ways of making the business case for user-centered design (UCD). Most of the discussion in our field has assumed that measuring and demonstrating ROI for usability is the key to this effort. However, experience shows that the most brilliant ROI analysis may not win the day in the real world of business. Our panelists range from people who claim that ROI is an important persuasive tool as long as the communication about ROI is happening within a healthy business relationship, to people who claim that a focus on ROI can actually be destructive. We also explore the idea that there are important business contexts where ROI simply does not fit. Through the presentations by the panelists and through discussion of a business case scenario, we explore some alternatives to ROI in making the business case for user-centered design.

Connecting with Kids: So What's New?
Organizer: Lori Scarlatos, Brooklyn College, CUNY, USA
Amy Bruckman, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, Allison Druin, University of Maryland, USA, Mike Eisenberg, University of Colorado, USA, Molly Lenoire, American Museum of Natural History, USA, Oren Zuckerman, MIT Media Lab, USA
Wednesday, 09:00-10:30, Hall B

From pre-schools to high schools, at home and in museums, the educational community has embraced the use of computers as a teaching tool. Yet many institutions will simply install “what everyone else is using” without questioning how technology can be best used to enhance education. For this panel, we have assembled a broad range of researchers and practitioners who are on the forefront of using computers to teach kids in novel ways. Each panelist will summarize their approach with examples of projects that they believe will demonstrate “what’s new”. We will then have videotaped children pose their toughest educational challenges to the panelists. Panelists will answer by talking about how they would meet these challenges. Finally, attendees will get to vote for their favorite solution. This will expose the CHI audience to a range of educational challenges, with a taste of the different ways that these problems can be solved.

Invited Panel: Interaction at Lincoln Laboratory in the 1960's: Looking Forward – Looking Back
Organizer: Bill Buxton, Microsoft Research, USA
Discussant: Austin Henderson, Pitney Bowes, USA
Ron Baecker, University of Toronto, Canada, Wesley Clark, Clark, Rockoff and Associates, USA, Fontaine Richardson, Private Investor, USA, Ivan Sutherland, Sun Microsystems, USA, W.R. “Bert” Sutherland, Sun Microsystems Laboratories, USA
Wednesday, 11:30-13:00, Hall B

The activity centered around the TX-2 computer at Lincoln Laboratory in the 1960’s laid the foundation for much of HCI. Through the use of archival film footage, and live presentations by some of the key protagonists, this panel is intended to contribute to a more general awareness of this work, its historical importance to HCI, and its relevance to research today.