Spotlight/Invited Sessions

Spotlight Session: Safety in a Complex World

Session Chair: Gerrit van der Veer, Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands

Applying the Lessons of the Attack on the World Trade Center, 11th September, 2001, to the Design and Use of Interactive Evacuation Simulations
Christopher W. Johnson, University of Glasgow, UK

Acclairism: Questioning biometric technology through an airport security clearance system
Luther Thie, Eyal Fried, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy
Biometric technologies are becoming socially acceptable in the wake of recent terrorist events. Bio-data is developing into a legitimate source for identity detection and assessment. Acclairism is an attempt to bring to light some of the conflicts and questions these technologies give rise to: What defines us as unique individuals? What defines us as trusted members of society? How much personal information will we willingly give away and under which circumstances? Through Acclairism we explore a situation wherein people freely accept a highly invasive, highly authoritative manipulation in return for tangible rewards and an upgraded social status. We perform this investigation through Acclair, a company providing brain-testing services as part of an exclusive security clearance for air-travelers.

Invited Sessions

Design and Evaluation Challenges of Serious Games (Invited)
Organizers: Elaine M. Raybourn, Nathan D. Bos
Thursday, 9:00-10:30, B115-B116

Meeting the Needs of the "User Experience" Professional
Organizer: Richard Anderson, Riander, USA
Barbara Helfer, Capital University, ACM SIGGRAPH, Keith Instone, IBM, UXnet, John Zaploski, AIGA, Jonathan Grudin, Microsoft Research, Whitney Quesenbery, UXnet, UPA, Whitney Interactive Design
Tuesday, 11:30-13:00, Hall B

In the business of "User Experience" (UX), collaboration across multiple disciplines is considered to be critical to achieving success. But the increasing number of professional associations and events of relevance to UX practitioners rely much less on collaboration with others in their pursuit of success. This panel reports on obstacles to and opportunities for increasing collaboration among professional organizations, and the effects increased collaboration can have on the service and support provided to the rapidly growing, multidisciplinary UX profession.

The Great Debate: Can Usability Scale Up?
Moderator: Aaron Marcus
Jared Spool, UIE, USA, Eric M. Schaffer, Human Factors International, Inc, USA
Thursday, 11:30-13:00, Hall B

The usability field is growing and changing. But where is the field now and where is it growing toward? The answer will be critical to practitioners who want to plan their careers and business people who want to ensure usable offerings. Eric thinks we will have usability factories with lots of the work done offshore. Jarred sees no clear case beyond usability awareness and usability done by experts on a small scale.

This session will address four fundamental and controversial questions:

• Do we really know how to do usability work?
  
• Is there a solid ROI to large scale usability operations?
  
• Can you really scale up usability?
  
• What does will the usability work of the future be like?